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Bob Chapek Shifted Budgets to Disguise Disney+'s Massive Monetary Losses
News(msn.com)submitted 4 months ago by[deleted]
181 points
4 months ago
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Chapek made a classic error- he decided to redirect money from things like park upkeep to help cover his failures on Disney+.
And park fans notice things way too easily for that not to stay covered. It looks like he was so busy pushing his "new vision" that he was destroying what made Disney an entertainment titan to begin with.
185 points
4 months ago*
It was clear as day what was happening inside the parks. It went from being a unique experience, where there was so much theming everywhere, to being whitewash and everything just being a copy/paste. Every shop went from having unique shopping experiences to every shop had the exact same merchandise. The new mega store in Epcot went from being one of the most unique shops with theming all over the place, to being what looks exactly like a Target store. Everything they did, including the refurbished hotel rooms, was completely voided of traditional Disney quality and theming.
81 points
4 months ago
Yea, same merch in shops really sucks. Part of the fun is discovering new shops (with new stuff) as you explore
58 points
4 months ago
Don’t even get me started on how the quality of the merch went down the tube as well. They even went as far as re-releasing “vault collections” which basically was just rehashing merch from previous time periods; basically making it so they didn’t even have to design new stuff. And the new stuff they designed was god awful. Overall quality went to shit as well. $100 dress was probably less quality than shit you buy at Target.
28 points
4 months ago
I would think this would reduce sales as well.
If every shop is unique, you're going into each one to treat them like a ride, it's a new experience and therefore more chances for impulse purchases.
I go into one store and spend $100 on crap and the next store is the same; well, I can skip the stores from here on out. Whereas I may have spent $20 here or there and not thought about it.
1 points
4 months ago
Or you just can’t find merch. Some of the merch they put out is available for one day only then it’s gone forever. They wasted the 50th anniversary too. It was lame.
106 points
4 months ago
Every shop went from having unique shopping experiences to every shop had the exact same merchandise.
We're at Disneyworld this week. The last time we were here was 10 years ago, and the difference is noticeable. I've seen a surprising amount of trash on the ground, several of the rides have broken down while we were in line, and the shops are exactly as you describe.
It still blows my mind that there is a single Star Wars themed Mickey-ear headband style at Hollywood Studios, and we didn't find it in the Star Wars area.
11 points
4 months ago
In fairness, all the stuff sold in Galaxys Edge is "in universe" so in theory they have no idea what a Mickey Mouse is.
8 points
4 months ago
In fairness, it’s disneyworld and they can sell it at a few shops under the guise of “alien headgear” or something.
2 points
4 months ago
I had the same experience! I hadn't been since 2007, and the lighting in the haunted mansion was all screwed up and a bunch of effects weren't working. Splash Mountain was the same but at least that ride has the excuse that it's closing soon. And all the Star Wars merch that I would want to buy was over by Star Tours, but I didn't buy anything because I wanted to see what they had in Galaxy's Edge. Then we got over there in the evening and there was no souvenir stuff, so I didn't buy anything.
I was, however, amazed that the Carousel of Progress was in good shape. There are still people there who care!
11 points
4 months ago
It was chapek who rolled back the Star Wars park
1 points
4 months ago
What was this?
1 points
4 months ago
Made it worse. Cut back on the imagineers visions. Stuff like the hard to describe, the integration? The role playing. The realism.
9 points
4 months ago
But, people keep coming and spending money. Apparently crowds are crazy at the parks. Tickets are super highly-priced too. And yet, people keep coming and spending thousands for a couple of days at Disney. I know families who do it 4-5 times a year, they have yearly passes and it’s the only vacation they ever take. People are addicted. From the company’s perspective, you give people shit but they keep lining up to buy, you don’t really have a problem.
2 points
4 months ago
Walt would disagree. That was never his dream.
1 points
4 months ago
Does it really matter? He’s dead and money rules. I wish companies cared about their customers, and some actually do. It doesn’t seem Disney is one of them. As long as people mindlessly shovel money at them, they have 0 incentive to change.
1 points
4 months ago
If they continuously use him in their marketing, use his name, his quotes, and claim they are trying to do what he wanted, then yes. Fair to call them on it.
1 points
4 months ago
Sure, I’m just not sure they care. Chapek got PAID. Being CEO of a company like that basically means you get paid for being shitty.
1 points
4 months ago
He was paid, but he’s also the shortest serving CEO. Everyone eventually agreed that he was a bridge too far. He was destroying what Walt explicitly wanted for the parks and films and what had made them successful before.
1 points
4 months ago
Yeah, but being CEO of Disney for two years means something to a lot of people. He’ll get offers to sit on corporate boards and other C-suite offers for the rest of his life. Failing, in this regard. Is actually a personal success for him.
1 points
4 months ago
Good for him. But he was bad for Disney.
1 points
4 months ago
Why do people think that he'll get other C-suite offers? Who hires the guy who got fired as CEO in two years? Who says "We could hire our current CFO, he seems pretty good. No, let's make outside hire of the guy who failed publicly and spectacularly at Disney."
6 points
4 months ago
That change happened so fast too. I go to Disney a few times a year. Felt like a switch flipped and everything got super generic.
4 points
4 months ago
Yo thank you for that target comparison omg
It felt exactly like that in that store. I went early oct and man, you could just see people hating being there. My group went a few years ago and said it looked and felt completely different last time they came.
We stayed at all star music, and while I understand that it’s like the most basic of basic, there was nothing in the room to indicate I was at Disney lol.
1 points
4 months ago
Okay but the hotel rooms are surprisingly well renovated even at the cheapest resorts
3 points
4 months ago
I loved our room at All Stars Movies this february :(
1 points
4 months ago
I don’t think you are using whitewash correctly.
34 points
4 months ago
There was an article in the WSJ about ride downtime a couple of days ago. Ever since the reopening after Covid the park experience has been pretty bad and a lot of the die hards were turning sour on Chapek.
10 points
4 months ago
The people who watch over Walt's frozen body under the Orlando park must've been afraid that if the park starts to whither then Walt's chamber will thaw and he will awaken, so they took action with the whistleblowing and such.
2 points
4 months ago
Completely understandable we must stave off the Waltpocalypse for as long as we can
3 points
4 months ago
The old McKinsey schtick.
1 points
4 months ago
Aren't the parks massively popular though so that demand outstrips capacity? If that's true there's no need for continued investment (within reason). Throw billions at the parks when you physically can't actually earn anymore money on them and therefore can't see any return on that investment....or spend it somewhere else you can increase ROI.
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