The Santa Monica store is the third re-designed Disney store in the US. The store is uniquely shaped with an elevation in the back. The new design has retained storytelling elements, which have been the mainstay of all Disney store designs. To emphasise this element, the Disney Store Theater, which is the ‘hub’ of the store, has been prominently placed on the elevation.
The new Disney Store will enable visitors to build their own Disney-Pixar RIDEMAKERZ custom car, hold their favorite princess in the Disney Princess Castle’s magic mirror and choose a Disney song or short from the video jukebox to watch on the movie screen in the Disney Store Theatre. The store also offers an expanded assortment of exclusive Disney Store merchandise for kids of all ages, including select Adult Apparel and Disney Parks Authentic Vinylmation.
The Santa Monica store features the same merchandise as that in the other Disney stores. The store is planning to have movie tie-ins from upcoming blockbusters ‘TRON: Legacy,’ ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ and the newly acquired Marvel characters.
The new Disney Store is one of 20 newly designed locations that will open across major markets in the U.S. and Europe in 2010 and is part of a plan to open more than 300 newly designed stores over the next five to seven years. In addition to Santa Monica and Montebello, the next Disney store in California will open at San Diego’s Fashion Valley mall in September 2010.
