Children's Place to Buy Disney Stores? (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5338689) - Reuters, 6/3/04

Retail analysts said Disney and Children's Place would be a good fit, giving a high-value brand to a deft retailer.

"Children's Place has done a great job building their business and this would be a phenomenal fit for them," said Gilbert Harrison, chairman of investment firm Financo Inc.

Secaucus, New Jersey-based Children's Place, with 700 stores and its own branded clothing line, said in a statement it was in talks to acquire and operate the approximately 335-store Disney chain in the United States and Canada under a long-term license, though no formal deal or letter of intent had been reached.

Oh dear. My concern would be what's going to happen to my beloved Children's Place???

These stores just came to California a few years ago. The store at my mall opened 3 years ago. Clothes as cute as Gymboree, nicely made, with Old Navy prices. A large chunk of my children's clothes comes from CP. In fact, for my son's recent birthday, my sister and my sister-in-law both bought him the exact same shirt from CP.

The manager at the store in my mall has been at that store for three years. She worked her way up. I commented to her the other day how unusual that was to see in retail. She said she'd declined an offer to move to a much much much larger store but she didn't want to deal with the pressure there. Otherwise, she said it's as great a place to work as it is to shop!

This could be a great thing for Disney, as long as it doesn't affect the CP stores!

Adrienne

My sadness lies in the fact that it's a children's store that wants to buy it. Seems to be that yet again the huge demographic of ADULTS would be left out.

Implication here, to me, is that for "adult" Disney merchandise of any kind one may have to travel to World of Disney stores in Orlando and Anaheim and the one in New York City when it reopens, or shop Disney Catalog or Disney Catalog Online, or shop in the theme parks. Not as easy as heading down to the local mall, as it used to be.