The Disney Stores possibly returning to Disney

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that The Children’s Place is looking to do a return on The Disney Stores back to The Walt Disney Company. I hope they kept the receipt.

Children’s Place Retail Stores Inc. is ready to let the Walt Disney Co. take back control of about two-thirds of the 335 stores in the Disney Store chain.

About 115 remaining stores were expected to close. Disney handed ownership of the chain to Children’s Place in November 2004 with an agreement that Children’s Place would pay royalties after two years.

The signs of this development have been there for quite some time. The Children’s Place never had the ability to capitalize on the true spirit of the Disney brand. In part because they simply weren’t Disney. Add to that some of the conditions of the original licensing contract and the current market and it would have taken near perfect performance to make this work. But performance was anything from perfect and a shakeup in the management of The Children’s Place didn’t help things either.

I hope that the transition goes smooth and I feel sorry for the cast members who stuck with the stores through this whole mess, especially those whose stores have been closed or will now be closed. Now, I wonder if they’ll bring Paul and Cynthia back to revive the Disney Stores. Nahhh. (Read)