Imagination Park?

While perusing the Disney Store website, I noticed a large link on the "Find A Store Near You" page that has probably been there for some time, but I never thought to click it. It reads, "Read About Our New Look! Click Here!" Clicking it brings you to a two page article from the New York Times!
I learned many things I didn't know before, including the fact that Steve Jobs (of Apple) is affiliated with Disney and has been since Disney acquired Pixar in 2006.
The reason that's mentioned in this article is because Disney is planning on overhauling all of their Disney Stores and Steve Jobs' knowledge of mall stores is key. Apple's retail stores are interactive and modern which is what Disney is aspiring to recreate their stores into. To get an idea of what Disney wants, they are considering renaming all Disney Stores to "Imagination Parks".
One chilling thing about this whole idea was a quote from Andy Mooney, chairman of Disney Consumer Products, “We will essentially be the only toy retailer left at the mall because everybody else has evaporated.” I found that to be somewhat scary.
In my opinion, recreating 340 Disney Stores, in the United States alone, into fantastical mini-parks seems like a bit of a stretch, even for Disney. I'm not saying they don't have the money or the resources to make these Imagination Parks, that's not it at all! I'm more concerned about the owners and landlords of the malls and whether or not these buildings can handle such a dramatic and expensive change. I know the Disney Store closest to me is small and old. I'm not sure they could fit a sectioned off interactive theater and all of their other little sections into such a small room.
Best of luck to them anyway! It will truly be an experience to go to the new stores if it all goes through!

I highly suggest reading the whole article on the New York Times website. It's going to be quite a huge change for the chain of stores if/when they start their overhaul.
READ THE ARTICLE HERE!