Disney’s marketing savvy breeds merch mobs
Disney has found a new way to reduce wait times for its theme park guests. Visitors to the Walt Disney World Resort on its 50th anniversary this month experienced little to no wait on many attractions. Even Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which recently dropped its virtual queue in Florida, was less than an hour’s wait for much of the day.
What happened? It’s not that people were not visiting Walt Disney World for the start of its “The World’s Most Magical Celebration.” It’s just that many opening weekend fans were not coming to Disney for the rides.
While getting into attractions was easy, wait times were crazy for shops and some restaurants. Fans crowded the Magic Kingdom’s entrance plaza by 6 a.m., then spent the day swarming any location selling 50th anniversary merchandise or food.
Disney responded by implementing virtual queues at some stores and encouraging fans to use mobile ordering at quick service restaurants. But that didn’t keep some fans from getting testy over items such as 50th anniversary Starbucks tumblers.
It’s a scene familiar to many Disneyland fans who have grown accustomed to seeing scalpers queuing to buy out any new Disney merchandise, especially limited edition items for special events. Some disgusted Walt Disney World visitors posted video to social media of crowded stores and conflicts between guests fighting over souvenirs.
It’s rare that any theme park souvenirs tempt me to open my wallet, but I have zero desire to reward scalpers by purchasing any items from them online. It sickens me to think that the scalpers will make far more money reselling the items that they rushed to buy than the cast members who had to manage the aggressive crowd will make for working that day. Flipping is the scourge of the American economy at the moment and not even Disney is immune.
With Disney’s park reservation requirement, the fans who visited just to buy anniversary food and merchandise ended up crowding out others who wanted to enjoy the parks’ rides and shows but could not get a reservation. I suspect that Disney could have charged the scalpers $100 or more a head to get into some random warehouse to buy the anniversary gear, and many of them would have paid that. So why not leave the parks for the fans who want to enjoy their attractions?
Disney has spent untold amounts of money to build a market of fans devoted to theme park souvenirs. It takes advantage of people’s appetite for social media content by creating new food and drink items specifically designed to go on your Instagram feed before they hit your mouth and stomach. So I suppose what happened at Walt Disney World on its 50th anniversary was inevitable.
After all, the name of the division of The Walt Disney Co. that runs Walt Disney World and Disneyland is Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. At Disney, and for many of its fans, what’s for sale in the parks has become as big an attraction as their rides and shows.