Disney Store: Paris closure in May, new stores in Korea

As Disney Store closes its final shop in France, it’s setting down deeper roots in South Korea through a licensing deal. Here’s the details on both news stories.

Final Disney Store in Paris to close

In October, DisKingdom was the first English-language outlet to report on Disney Store’s planned closure on Paris’ Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Staff held a strike on Christmas Eve, to protest the closure.

It was recently confirmed that the store would close in May.

All other Disney Stores in France closed in spring 2021. Other than a location near the Channel Tunnel, all were in locations of the Galeries Lafayette department store chain.

South Korea getting three shop-in-shops

Four locations of Hyundai Department Store are getting Disney departments, akin to the arrangement in the US (Target), Mexico (Liverpool), and the Middle East (Debenhams and Mothercare). Hyundai will also start to roll out Disney characters on a variety of their house brand products, including food and furniture.

The Korean Economic Daily reports that the locations will be at the Pangyo (pop-up as of April 18, permanent in July), Seoul, Cheonho, and Gimpo stores (later this year.)

(In case you’re wondering, yes, Hyundai Department Store was once owned by the company that makes cars.)

As of January, another company had been running Disney pop-up shops, featured in the below video. Hyundai’s deal appears to have replaced that firm.