That I loathe the Disney Store…
Welcome to my Friday’s Rants from the Soap Box in my Living Room. A small space in the week where I can have a chunter about things that have made me twitch with annoyance or made me question if the world has gone mad or not….
I also linked up with MummyBarrow for her Ranty Friday. You can find her blog and link up if you’d like to join in. A good rant can be therapeutic. Click on the link at the end to join in!
Yes, that’s right, you read it correctly. I do, loathe the Disney Store!
Yesterday, I had to go to the Disney Store. Big Girl has a birthday party this weekend, and the mother of the birthday girl suggested that a voucher from the Disney store would be a good gift idea, when I asked her, for suggestions.
So, off I trotted. Filled with dread! Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with Mickey Mouse, and his pals, and I love some of the Disney movies. (I know all the words to all the songs of the Lion King, Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Hercules, and Finding Nemo is my all time favourite) but the Disney Store itself, is like a parallel universe and frankly, feels like Hades to me.
All the merchandise (and good grief, it’s expensive stuff!) crammed and jammed everywhere. Harassed parents of small children, wandering around, looking bewildered, whilst dealing with grumpy toddlers who want to buy EVERYTHING in the shop, pre Tween girls, desperate to spend their pocket money, and the occasional die hard Disney Fan adult (there was a woman there trying to get Finding Nemo slippers for her husband for his birthday, yesterday) add the cheesy, and frankly gag inducing voice over sound of a young girl talking about how she is a “beautiful princess” and the LONG queue to get served, and when you finally do get to the front of the line, you are subjected to sales tactics of great force….
“You’ve spent £20, would you like to buy a mug with X character on it? It’s only £12 reduced from £15?” Me: “no, thanks”, sales person: Would you like a gift bag, for £5?” Me: No thanks, it’s a voucher, an envelope is fine” sales person: “Would you like to sign up for our mailing list?” Me: “no, I would rather bath in my own wee!” (OK, I didn’t say that, but I was tempted)
I escaped, feeling a bit grubby, with a headache, after spending nearly twenty minutes in a queue, with the woman in front of me, also looking less than impressed, especially as her toddler was having a huge meltdown, and she was unable to get him to calm down (been there, done that, she and I had a good chat during our wait).
So, if you love the Disney Store and your kids think it’s the best place to go, I am sorry. If you are like me, and think it’s up there are one of the things to add to the already long list of parental tortures to be avoided at all cost, then please shout, I don’t want to feel lonely…
Don’t forget to click on the linky and see the other Rants this week, on Mummy Barrow’s blog!
Ok, I forgot, the only good thing about the Disney Store is they show clips of the movies on the large, far too high volumed screens, which did keep me vaguely amused, while I waited! 😉
I couldn’t agree more. Fortunately the days of High School Musical and Club Penguin are behind me (for the time being). This is the second blog post I’ve read recently about their sales tactics and queues, which makes me think that regardless of what their next latest craze is, I won’t be visiting there again soon.
I have read that their online delivery is awful, but didn’t realise that I wasn’t alone in my loathing of the actual shop! 🙂
And that my dear friend, is exactly why I asked YOU to get me a gift voucher while YOU were in there…. no need for both of us to suffer, now was there?! (evil laugh). Seriously, I owe you one for that, I just couldn’t bear the idea of going in… I think the staff must be drugged in order to stand all the ‘plasticated’ pink-purple-fluffy-cutesy-ness and ‘child noise’ ((((Shudder Shudder))))
I will be coming for a glass of wine at some point…. 😉
Uggh yes. I agree. The one on Regent Street is just hell on earth. Bright, loud, overly cheerful and so damned expensive.
Passing you headache tablets.