Most European Disney Stores Closing, Italian Cast Set to Strike
The world of Disney is looking anything than wonderful for residents of Europe. At least 34 of the 44 stores in the continent have closed, or are scheduled to close, as the company pushes to focus on e-commerce internationally.
Prime among them are Italy’s 15 stores, all of which will close. Liquidation began May 19, and on Monday, the unions representing 233 cast members voted in favour of two four-hour strikes. Each store will have two 4-hour strikes. One cast member on Facebook invited the public to join staff in the sit-in planned.
Cast at an Italian Disney Store protests its pending closure. (Courtesy of Filcams Cgil Nazionale)
The unions have also asked the federal government to get involved with the process, despite the innumerable odds against them. The union has said that it will try asking Disney to license the shop’s operation, pay severance, or find new positions for staff.
A number of the Italians were located in historic areas, which suffered with a tourist drought. A location of the store in Bari, Italy closed in October 2020. At the time, poor sales were cited by Disney, and the union noted that the property owners had been unwilling to renegotiate the rent.
Disney Store cast strike at the Bari store in September. A member of the public came with a poster in support of the workers. (Courtesy of Filcams Cgil Nazionale)
In France, only two department store locations and the flagship on Champs-Élysées remain. Six stores were closed, and Disney Village was not affected. Disney’s 12 stores in Spain will begin closing June 16.
No announcements have been made yet for the other locations. There are three stores in Ireland, two in Portugal, and one each in Denmark and Sweden.
Disney Store’s presence in Europe has been a roller coaster of openings and closings.
France dropped from 24 stores in 2000 to just six by 2009. After a lull, Disney paired up with book and DVD retailer Fnac in 2012, creating a number of store-in-store areas. The same year, a pop-up location at the upscale Galeries Lafayette department store launched. This led to dedicated departments at seven locations.
Belgium’s first store, in Antwerp, lasted only from May 2011 to December 2013.
On May 20, Disney announced another 11 closures in the United States, bringing the total to 63 closures in North America in 2020. That doesn’t count all 16 remaining stores in Canada, whose closures have been confirmed by an industry publication. One store in England, and another in Scotland closed this year.