15 More Disney Stores to Close: Alberta, Ontario, California, Ohio, Illinois, Manitoba

Another month, another round of Disney Store closures. In what’s become an endless cycle, Disney today quietly announced another round of retail locations to face the axe. Each will close “on or before August 18, 2021.”

In the United States:

• Chicago Ridge Mall, Chicago Ridge, Illinois
• Plaza West Covina, West Covina, California
• Polaris Fashion Place, Columbus, Ohio
• South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, California

Also closing? One of the two Disney Baby stores, located at The Americana at Brand, Glendale, California.

In Canada:

• Kingsway Mall, Edmonton, Alberta
• Lime Ridge Mall, Hamilton, Ontario
• Market Mall, Calgary, Alberta
• Masonville Place, London, Ontario
• Polo Park Shopping Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba
• Rideau Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
• Southcentre Mall, Calgary, Alberta
• Upper Canada Mall, Newmarket, Ontario
• West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton, Alberta
• Yorkdale, Toronto, Ontario

The leaves Canada with (at least temporarily) Scarborough Town Centre, Vaughan Mills, and Toronto Eaton Centre.

Disney still has a job listing for the Ottawa store, looking to hire someone temporarily, from September to January.

In March, Disney announced that they’d be closing “at least 60” locations in the United States and Canada. Since then, they’ve shuttered 79 stores. Today’s announcement brings them to 93.

 

Disney maintains near silence since March

The company’s March press release had claimed “at least 60” locations would shutter, a statement that had mistakenly lulled many employees and customers into thinking it would only be 60 stores total.

Throughout everything, Disney has been steadfast in not responding to media enquiries, only ever providing the initial press release. It has been widely reported by not verified that Disney intends to close all stores, except for a small handful of locations in tourist areas.

At least twelve UK stores have closed in 2021, the most recent being York (July 15), Milton Keynes (July 16), and Chester (July 17).

Elsewhere in Europe, locations in Solna, Sweden (July 31) and Copenhagen, Denmark (summer) will close.

In the March press release, Disney talked of upping its game online. So far, there’s been no indication of the company making substantive changes to their digital operations. Nor has their been indication of them planning a distribution warehouse in Canada, to ease the pain of cross-border shipping.

Disney continues to open licensed sections in department stores

Disney has been busy striking deals to open Disney sections of department stores, similar to those found in a number of American Target stores. Mexico’s Liverpool department store now has 35 locations, and United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have received 12 new locations, growing to 38 by mid-August.

While nicely designed, there is no indication that any of these licensing deals will offer anything more meaningful than stocked shelves.

New flagship store in Japan

Disney Store is opening a new flagship store in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. The standalone three-storey location will sprawl over 1,710 square metres (18406 square feet), making it the largest in the country. It will open this winter.

Many of the chain’s other Japanese stores have received few renovations since their opening in the 1990s. If Disney is focusing only on a few key locations in countries like the US, UK, and France, will they take a similar approach in Japan?

 

Updated, 12 October 2022: The square meterage of the store was incorrectly listed as its square footage. Corrected, and square footage added.