From: ostrove@goofy.umd.edu (Steven M. Ostrove)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney
Subject: Re: Character Warehouse - Belz -- another view
Date: 15 Oct 92 14:44:57 GMT

In article <Rich_Koster.0und@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US>  
Rich_Koster@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US (Rich Koster) writes:
> (From my wife Carol:)
>  
> "The Unofficial Guide to WDW" mentions the Character Warehouse at Belz
> Factory Outlet Mall #2 so we decided to take a look.
>  
> Directions to the store deleted...
>  
> Some people we chatted with at the Disneyana Convention said they've
> purchased some clothing there that others envied the look of, and
> said that if you ask the store clerks if the store is owned by Disney
> they'll verbally deny it, but the cash register receipts and the
> Disney cast member name tags worn by the employees make it a Disney
> retailer.

I was not at the Disneyana Convention, but my family did make a trip
to WDW in June, my experience was a bit different...

None of the store clerks wore Disney name tags, although if you asked them
who owned the store they would tell you (in a low voice) that it was indeed
owned by Disney.  The cash register receipts also did not indicate that the
store was owned by Disney as they only indicated the name "Character
Warehouse".  The big clue was once we received our credit card bill.  All
charges that we made at the Character Warehouse were listed under Inventory
Liquidation!

>  In fact, when we got home, we asked the manager of our
> local Disney Store about it, and he replied that Disney is planning
> to locate a second such store in a big factory outlet mall in Tennessee.
> We didn't see anything we wanted to buy there, but we should have asked
> if the Magic Kingdom Club 10% discount extended to items sold in this
> store too.  Oh well.  We had sent our niece and nephew some Disney
> Dollars prior to their trip to Orlando in late May, and I think they were
> able to spend their Disney Dollars in the store for things they wanted.

Since my wife is a cast member at one of the Disney Stores we inquired if
she could use her cast member discount, the answer was no.  I also
asked if I could use my Magic Kingdom Club discount, again the answer was
no.

>  
>The store, as are most factory outlet type stores, is austere.
> Nothing fancy or Disney-characterish on the walls.

When we were there they had displayed on the walls Disney character 
cardboard cutouts etc.

>The labels are the
> same as at WDW stores, but they are marked down a lot for one reason
> or another.  One set of airbrushed Mickey T-shirts looked, to us, to
> be a bit too digital looking, we spotted some minor flaws in other
> articles.  Some of the merchandise is what didn't sell in the parks.
> One cute item was a child's T-shirt reading "Mickey Mouse 32830" as
> per the popular Fox Network TV show.  They had T-shirts, shorts,
> jeans, jackets, socks, I think they had a lot of toddlers' sneakers.
> They had some Christmas ornaments and decorations in the back corner.
> They had some plush toys, mostly of Mickey.  I can't remember
> everything offered for sale, but it was mainly clothing items for all
> ages, adults too.  They don't occupy a large square footage, more like
> a medium, average store size.
>  

One thing about this store is that its merchandise changes daily/weekly.
We not only went once during our two week trip, but we ended up going
three times! 

As an example of what we saw...
There was mostly clothing.  The type of clothing ran the entire range of
theme park clothing to resort shop clothing.  For example, you would be
able to pick up a satin jacket with the Port Orleans logo on it for $35.
There were Typhoon Lagoon Tee's (one size fits all) going for $4.99.  We
were able to pick up Children's Hawaiian shirts that matched the two that
I got last year at the Polynesian.

Some of the merchandise is discontinued, however they also had merchandise
that was just overstocked.  The exact same shirt that I had seen earlier in
the day in the Main Street shop selling for $29.99 was being sold for $9.99.
There were also some items from Disneyland and there was a whole section
of seconds.

One of the "neatest" things that they had for sale was the lucite containers
in the shape of Disney characters (Peter Pan, Mickey Mouse, Tinkerbell, etc)
that were made to hold hard candy.  When filled, these containers were
being sold in the park and at the Disney Village for $6.95 (or was it $5.95).
In any case, they were selling the containers alone for $.73...  that's
seventy-three cents!  If you bought more than 48 then they reduced the price
even further.  We picked up about 30 of these and are filling them ourselves
to give out over the holidays.

Another nice item was a huge neon Mickey-Mouse sign.  This sign was on sale in
the park for $499 and was reduced to $199 in the Warehouse (although even
at that price I found it a bit expensive :-)).

One thing that I did pick up was some of the older Grad Night pins and some
of the Doll Convention Pins from the Disneyworld Doll Convention.  The
latter were marked down from $4.95 to .95.  They had two types, one displaying
Mickey, and the other Minnie.  I picked up up 5 of each.  Last week there
was a Disneyana show in Virginia where I traded one of these pins for one
of the 1St Disneyana Convention pins and another for one of the Disney World
20th anniversary limited edition pins.
 
> Unless it's terribly important to you to buy your Disney T-shirts at
> a discount, or unless you're very curious to see this store, I'd say
> don't make a special trip.

I'd say that if you have the time (remember, my trip was for two weeks)
you should definitely go see this shop.

>  What's for sale in the parks is better
> looking, although more expensive,

Depends on the stock on hand that day.

> and going to this store takes some
> time out of your day or evening (I think it stays open until around
> 8 or 9 at night).

True.

>We spent ten or 15 minutes inside looking at all
> that was there, and then we were ready to go.

During our first trip there we spend over an hour and a half and purchased
over $200 worth of merchandise.

> Not having kids, we really couldn't take advantage of the
> potential cost savings for those type items.  But for some of you this
> store may be something worthwhile to check out.
>  

My feeling is that those that do have children will find it VERY worthwhile.

Your mileage may vary.
--
Steve Ostrove

Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney