Souvenir prices

[Disney05]

Just got back from a week long vacation at WDW. We all love to buy souvenirs at the World. But I wonder how many people would buy more if the prices were not so high. I'm assuming a lot more. For the first time we saw things on sale. We were amazed. They had little red bordered labels with the sale price. There were many things I would have bought if the prices were not so ridiculously high. I know there are people out there who will buy it anyway, and I guess Disney assumes that too. But don't you think Disney would move a lot more merchandise if they lowered their prices?

[GIOny]

Yes, it's true especially in this economy. I think everyone is watching their pennies, I know I buy less in general. If I do get to go to the parks next year I will not be buying as much, except maybe a couple extra dole whips to bring home with me

[elvistelth]

The more troubling thing to me is that the souvenir quality isn't what it used to be. Prices were always high (I've been going since the 70's) but I think the merchandise is shoddier now. Also, the variety of what they sell is much less. In the 80's when I was old enough to notice they had stores which sold an array of different items, like the Magic Shop on Main Street, the Haunted Mansion store by the old Mike Fink Keel Boats, the "Trading Post" by the Country Bears and the House of Treasure which was next to the POTC.. All of these stores are gone or changed now but they used to sell unique items found nowhere else in the park. Not just t-shirts and clothes like they do now. I still have many of the things I bought in the 80's and when compared with what they sell now the new stuff is just cr**. The area where the magic store was located was absorbed and there is nothing special about that space or what they sell. Shopping there used to be fun but now it's like one homogenous outlet mall with ridiculous prices and boring merchandise.

[mini-V]

My take on this is that merchandising only sells what people will buy. Obviously, the more unique items didn't sell as well as t-shirts and plush toys, so the choice was made at some point to give the majority of shoppers what they wanted. I do think I'm seeing more embroidered shirts instead of lower quality printed shirts, but maybe my eye just goes to the embroidered designs which tend to look better longer. I've seen items on sale at various times, but it's usually been about the time that the season change or obsolete items.

[Spodie]

The more troubling thing to me is that the souvenir quality isn't what it used to be. Prices were always high (I've been going since the 70's) but I think the merchandise is shoddier now.

I agree. Where I haven't been going since the '70s, I have noticed that the things I buy there are really expensive and don't last that long. For example, I bought a photo album that had little stars that lit up in the front if you pushed a button. Yeah. That worked for like a day. I figured out that if you played with the wires on the inside it would sometimes light up. Another time, I bought some cute Mickey hand towels for the house and the first time I washed them, they shrunk to about the size of washcloths .

If I'm going to buy a souvenier, I know to always pull it from the bottom (so that there's less of a chance that it got played with and worn out). It helps, but still doesn't make the overall quality of the merchandise any better.