After reacquiring its Disney Store chain from Hoop Holdings (a subsidiary of the Children’s Place Retail Stores Inc.), the Mouse House has decided to close 100 of the 220 remaining Disney Stores. 

As recently as 2003, the North American chain of Disney stores included 522 stores (see “Disney Yanks Its Chain”).  By the time Disney sold its stores to Children’s Place in 2004 (see “Children’s Store Finalizing Disney Retail Store Purchase”), there were 313 stores.  For a time the stores flourished under the new management regime (see “Disney Stores Rebound”), but the chain ran into trouble during the past 18 months.  In spite of eliminating unprofitable outlets and reducing the number of Disney stores to 220, Hoop Holdings, the subsidiary that Children’s Place formed to manage the chain, was forced to declare Chapter 11 in March of this year.

Disney’s agreement to repurchase the chain gave the Mouse House the right to close 100 stores (98 in the U.S. and 2 in Canada) without assuming their leases--and Disney has decided to do just that, which means that after the dust settles the number of North American Disney Stores will be reduced to just 120.