Seven more closures: Disney Store closing last stores in three states
Disney is exiting Louisiana, Minnesota, and New Mexico, and closing additional stores in Texas, New York, and North Carolina. The notices of closure were posted on The Disney Store website a few days ago.
The stores will close “on or before” May 19, according to the Disney Store locator.
The latest set of closures are:
- Cottonwood Mall, Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina
- Lakeside Shopping Center, Metairie, Louisiana
- Mall of America, Bloomington, Minnesota
- NorthPark Center, Dallas, Texas
- Palisades Centre, West Nyack, Clarkstown, New York
- Tanger Outlets Texas City, Texas City, Texas
Disney announced in March that it would be closing 60 stores in North America, as part of a push towards ecommerce. The first 40 closures were announced that month, and included the last stores in Indiana and Kansas. Five more closures were announced at the end of March, with locations shuttering “on or before April 23.” That set included the final location in Mississippi.
That leaves eight more stores to go. Those closures will likely be announced in mid-May.
The Disney Store closed 30 stores worldwide in 2020, of which 25 were in the United States. Those closures included the last location in Wisconsin.
Cottonwood Mall, Albuquerque, New Mexico
The Disney Store is an original tenant at Cottonwood Mall, opening in 1996. Placed on the lower level, it was between United Artists Theatres/Starport Entertainment Centre and Montgomery Ward department store. Winnie the Pooh and Tigger visited August 1, the day after the grand opening.
The mall has been burdened by a variety of store closures over the last few years.
Cottonwood was the only location remaining in New Mexico.
Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina
Open since the mid-1990s, this Imagination Park-style Disney Store is being closed
This closure leaves North Carolina with two stores: SouthPark in Charlotte, and Concord Mills in Concord.
Lakeside Shopping Center, Metairie, Louisiana
This was the final location of The Disney Store in Louisiana. It’s only had one location for decades, but previously was home to stores in Baton Rouge, Gretna, New Orleans, Kenner, Shreveport, and Monroe.
Mall of America, Bloomington, Minnesota
Mall of America is iconic. How many shopping centres have a full Nickelodeon theme park inside?
Nevertheless, Disney’s last Minnesota location is closing.
The store opened in 1992, with the rest of the shopping centre. MOA was the largest shopping centre in the world, when it opened, and today remains the largest in the USA.
The mall itself was in trouble recently. Its owners, Triple Five Group, had missed months of payments on a $1.4 billion loan, as its new American Dream mall in New Jersey hit innumerable roadblocks. A portion of the mall will be owned by lenders, as a result.
But these troubles aren’t visible to the public. A video created by amusement industry blog In the Loop shows that the mall is adding a three-storey M&Ms store, a Prince store, a new paid attraction based on the Sistine Chapel, and The Fair on 4.
NorthPark Center, Dallas, Texas
Opened in 1965, this mall is famous for featuring art through the building.
Dallas residents will still be able to head north to the suburb of Frisco. Stonebriar Centre is home to a location of the store.
Throughout the years, the chain had stores at Valley View Centre and Dallas Galleria. The closure leaves nine stores in the state.
Palisades Centre, Clarkstown, New York
This is one of the oddest closures in the batch.
Clarkstown, New York is less than an hour’s drive outside of New York City. Palisades Centre is a four-storey mall with 225 stores, 16 full service restaurants, a bowling alley, ice rink, the world’s tallest ropes course, and a comedy club.
The Disney Store had reopened from a pandemic shut down by July 2020. But then in January this year, it closed “temporarily” again. Did the state or county impose retail restrictions? Nope. The rest of the mall stayed open as usual.
Now, its closure is permanent.
Tanger Outlets Texas City, Texas City, Texas
This closure further debunks the “Outlets are safe” rumor. Various Disney Outlets have been closed over the last few months.
The outdoor mall opened in 2012.
Updated, April 24: Estimated time of when further store closures will be announced.
Updated, April 25: Added in information about the Mall of America.