The Walt Disney Company, with the help of Steven P. Jobs and his retailing team at Apple, intends to drastically overhaul its approach to the shopping mall.

At a time when many retailers are still cutting back or approaching strategic shifts with extreme caution, Disney is going the other way, getting more aggressive and putting into motion an expensive and ambitious floor-to-ceiling reboot of its 340 stores in the United States and Europe — as well as opening new ones, including a potential flagship in Times Square.

Disney Stores, which the media giant is considering rebranding Imagination Park, will become more akin to cozy entertainment hubs. The chain’s traditional approach of displaying row after row of toys and apparel geared to Disney franchises will be given a high-tech makeover and incorporated into a new array of recreational activities. The goal is to make children clamor to visit the stores and stay longer, perhaps bolstering sales as a result. Over the next five years, analysts estimate that Disney will spend about $1 million a store to redecorate, reorganize and install interactive technology.

“The world does not need another place to sell Disney merchandise — this only works if it’s an experience,” said Jim Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide. The company plans to unveil the new look in May in Southern California, Long Island and Madrid, and is close to signing a lease for that Times Square flagship.

Theaters will allow children to watch film clips of their own selection, participate in karaoke contests or chat live with Disney Channel stars via satellite. Computer chips embedded in packaging will activate hidden features. Walk by a “magic mirror” while holding a Princess tiara, for instance, and Cinderella might appear and say something to you.

It’s your birthday? With the push of a button, eight 13-foot-tall Lucite trees will crackle with video-projected fireworks and sound. There will be a scent component; if a clip from Disney’s coming “A Christmas Carol” is playing in the theater, the whole store might suddenly be made to smell like a Christmas tree.

The makeover happened only after much internal debate at the company. Indeed, some Disney board members fretted that the concept was so lavish that parents would try to use the stores as day care centers. Others worried that people would come for the entertainment but not buy anything.

“It’s time to take risks,” Mr. Fielding said he told them. “When consumers are ready to spend again, we will be ready.”

The involvement of Mr. Jobs, the Apple chief executive who joined the Disney board with the 2006 acquisition of Pixar, is particularly notable. For the first time, Mr. Jobs’s fingerprints can be seen on Disney strategy, in the same way that he influenced the look and feel of Apple’s own immensely popular retail chain. While Mr. Jobs did not personally toil on the Imagination Park concept, he pushed Disney to move far past a refurbishment.

“Dream bigger — that was Steve’s message,” said Andy Mooney, chairman of Disney Consumer Products.

Mr. Jobs provided access to proprietary information about the development and operation of Apple’s highly successful stores, and Disney executives visited Apple’s research operation in Cupertino, Calif. Mr. Jobs, who declined to comment, also insisted that Disney build a prototype store to work out kinks, a costly endeavor that most retailers skip.

The company followed his advice, working for the last year on a full-scale, fully stocked store inside an unmarked warehouse in Glendale, Calif. The prototype was crucial to shaping an overall philosophy, Mr. Fielding said, noting that he discovered the shops needed more “Pixar-esque winks and nods.” To that end, one sales area is now labeled “WWTD: What Would Tinker Bell Do?”

Disney will adopt Apple touches like mobile checkout (employees will carry miniature receipt printers in their aprons) and the emphasis on community (Disney’s theater idea is an extension of Apple’s lecture spaces). The focus on interactivity — parents will be able to book a Disney Cruise on touch-screen kiosks while their children play — reflects an Apple hallmark. Employees can use iPhones to control those high-tech trees.

Disney is a merchandising titan whose licensed consumer products generated $30 billion in global sales last year, up from $12 billion when Mr. Mooney joined the company a decade ago. But Apple is king of the mall. Its fleet of stores generated sales of about $4,700 a square foot in 2008, by far the highest for any retail chain, said Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Company. In comparison, Best Buy’s sales are about $1,000 a square foot.

The Disney board approved the Imagination Park concept on Oct. 1 after touring the prototype and receiving hand-made books from Mr. Fielding that pitched the concept as “the best 30 minutes of a child’s day.” Now Disney is bringing in landlords, trying to pit them against one another to secure top-tier locations and favorable leases.

“We will essentially be the only toy retailer left at the mall because everybody else has evaporated,” Mr. Mooney said. Mr. Fielding added, “Every mall in America is desperate for newness and freshness.”

The Disney Store chain, introduced in 1987, was initially so successful that the company overexpanded to more than 600 locations. Buffalo alone had five. But consumers overdosed on the animated-character merchandise and by 2002 the chain was losing about $100 million a year.

Judging the upkeep too burdensome and focusing on the safer licensing business, Disney sold the chain to Children’s Place Retail Stores in 2004.

But Children’s Place failed to meet contractual renovation obligations and consumers complained of poor service, Mr. Fielding said. The vaunted Disney brand was in peril. “Let’s face facts,” he said, “some of those stores looked like a dog’s breakfast.”

In March 2008, Disney bought back part of the chain on undisclosed terms and the remaining stores, about 100 of them, were closed. A spokeswoman for Children’s Place declined to comment.

Dressing up a toy store with entertainment is hardly new. F.A.O. Schwarz has its famous floor piano, Toys “R” Us operates a Ferris wheel inside its Times Square outpost and American Girl jazzes up its retail outlets with theaters and doll hair salons. But the emphasis on programming — via the theaters, Disney is essentially creating a mall-based television channel — and the degree to which the media giant is pouring on the razzle-dazzle in every store is unusual.

The nation’s largest mall operator, Simon Property Group, however, said Disney might be overly optimistic about how far landlords will bend. “No one comes in here and dictates terms,” said Bruce Tobin, a Simon executive vice president.

That said, however, Mr. Tobin had pinwheels in his eyes after touring the prototype. “It’s truly spectacular — beyond our imagination,” he said. “These are going to be true destinations.”

The Limited’s SoHo pop-up shop, doing brisk business, will stick around through the holidays.

More than just a limited engagement, trendy apparel retailer The Limited is extending its four-day pop-up shop in SoHo through the end of December, the company said Thursday.

Last week, Limited opened a temporary, store at 134 Spring St., between Wooster and Greene streets, after a decade-long absence from the New York market. But executives of the Columbus, Ohio-based firm were “pleasantly surprised, as it performed at the same level as one of their top-tier stores,” according to a spokeswoman. Sales, which were not disclosed, were high enough to persuade the company to extend the 3,400-square-foot shop through Dec. 28. It’s a sign, retail brokers say, that the retailer might be closer to taking a permanent location here.

“With all the availabilities and low rents and obvious short-term opportunities, companies are starting to realize the benefit of locking in low rents for long-term leases,” said Peter Levitan, a broker at Sierra Realty, which handles a lot of business in the downtown area. Asking rents on Spring Street have fallen about 25% since the peak of the market two years ago to near $300 a square foot, but are still not as low as the near $160-per-square-foot rents tenants can find on the less-trafficked West Broadway, brokers say.

These days, landlords are willing to accept short-term tenants like Limited, with the hopes of finding a longer lasting relationship around the corner.

“The structure of some deals now is temporary with the right to make it permanent,” said Jason Pruger of Newmark Knight Frank Retail. “It gives the tenant the opportunity to see if the marketplace works for them, while the landlord can collect rent and potentially have something in the long-term.”

A Limited spokeswoman said that the company loves the energy and fashion relevance of SoHo but “would consider multiple neighborhoods before making a final decision” about a potential Manhattan location. In SoHo, the retailer would join tenants offering a wide variety of price ranges, from John Varvatos’s luxury to American Apparel’s basics.

“The Limited has an ideal price point for today’s price-conscious shopper,” said Mr. Levitan, adding that the trial period will help the company determine if SoHo is the right choice.

After its heyday in the ’80s, when sales volume reportedly totaled more than $1 billion, Limited’s popularity has suffered. The chain now does near $400 million in annual sales. Limited Brands Inc., which owns such chains as Express, Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret, sold a controlling stake of its namesake Limited brand to affiliates of Sun Capital Partners Inc. two years ago.

Under new ownership, Limited is seeking to revamp its image. It hopes to eventually expand its store count, with most new stores coming in at about 4,000 square feet instead of the usual 7,000 square feet. The Spring Street pop-up includes re-launched labels Forenza and Outback Red.

National retail chains can hardly lead a re-imaging of the city, any more than bars and clubs, and especially not hotels with their ever expanding demand for publicly supported convention centers, stadiums and arenas to fill their rooms.  Likewise, chain stores occupying the latest version of an urban mall, once considered to be the panacea of an up and coming city, are now so risk adverse that they have long lost any real interest in downtown locations other than a handful of the most vibrant cities.

Suburban Malls

Suburban malls are all looking more than a little tired and desperate as they reach middle age without a clue on how to turn it around.  This is because the national chain stores, not shops, have lost all meaningful connection with their consumers, let alone their communities.  Most importantly, the consumer suffers from fatigue and overload after decades of consumption to only wake up with a post boom hang over to find home value significantly lower than a year ago and devalued 401K plans.

New Town Centers

New Main Street Themed Centers have done a good job of jettisoning the ubiquitous department store but have ultimately failed with their thinly veiled attempts at re-creation of real community and their almost clinical approach of merchandising with a store selection as original as a mall from twenty years ago, less the department store and the wise addition of restaurants.  But in almost every case the main street projects lack places of discovery, cultural production and any real original content.  But the day of reckoning may have arrived.  Suffering from almost two decades of overbuilding and a retail industry that has truly evolved to a commodity business, retail has become essentially a business of the most efficient means of distribution to the consumer at the lowest possible price.  In this context, the fountains, clock towers, and pubic greens only create a cost disadvantage over other channels.

Barbie turn 50, hits New York Fashion Week and then Paris!

At New York’s Fashion week Barbie invited fashion’s finest and the little ladies in their lives to a chic fashion show in celebration of her 50th Birthday. Though it seems she hasn’t aged at all, 50 designers created unique looks for the timeless icon. Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, Kenneth Cole, Marchesa, Diane von Furstenberg, Alexander Wang, Derek Lam, Badgley Mischka and Catherine Malandrino, many of whom have collaborated with Mattel on outfits in the past, were among those whose looks hit the runway on live bombshells. “I had a Barbie before I had a G.I. Joe,” noted Wang. Malandrino, who sat front row, was elated to see her flag dress hit the pink runway. “The flag is the ultimate dress for the most famous American icon,” she said. “Barbie is a glamour icon with an endless wardrobe, a dream house and lots of cute friends. What’s not to love?,” asked Peter Som.

The finale left the audience overjoyed as adorable little girls, including Kimora Lee Simmons’ daughters Ming and Aoki, escorted the models in big colorful tutus and Barbie tanks as heart shaped confetti fell from the sky. Ken even left guests with a Valentine on their seats. Isn’t he a doll? It seems Barbie is this season’s must have accessory. Now if only a pink corvette were waiting outside to whisk us away! ~Nola Weinstein

Barbie Goes to Fashion Week
By Intern Katy, 9:45 AM on Tue Dec 23 2008, 2,409 views

Designer Jeremy Scott has announced that he plans to send a Barbie-inspired collection down the Paris Fashion Week runways this spring.

Scott’s line is set to debut March 12th at Colette, and will be available to Americans in the middle of February. The iconic plastic doll is also having an entire fashion show dedicated to her in New York, which Jeremy Scott is contributing to. And! Mattel just announced their sponsorship of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York. If the fashion trickle-down theory is correct, it looks like we will all be wearing hot pink dresses with matching heels next year.

Ken Lagerfeld and Barbie at Colette
Mar 04, 2009 @ 9:43am

If you were wondering exactly how Barbie fever would hit Paris Fashion Week (other than the parties), wonder no more:
Starting March 9th through March 28th, the windows of Colette will be an homage to Barbie and Ken, as designed by Karl Lagerfeld.

Ken will be played by model Baptiste Giabiconi, and Barbie wears everything from a poufy wedding gown to a cocktail dress to a Chanel suit.

Obviously.

But Barbie has decided not to roll over and rely on beating Bratz in court. On Barbie’s 50 birthday, Mattel opened up a $30 million, six-story Barbie lifestyle store in Shanghai–complete with a spa where mothers can get their nails done with their daughters, a café and bar and racks of Barbie clothing. Additionally, Barbie has developed her own cosmetics line labeled Plastic Smooth.

Not only is Barbie moving into a new region where girls don’t really know who she is, but Mattel is expanding its core market to include not only little girls but also club-age young women. Rather than rely wholly on children or mothers who grew up playing with the dolls, Mattel is also targeting twenty-somethings by offering a line of clothing by Patricia Fields, the Sex and the City designer.

For younger girls, the store offers a catwalk on which they can model Barbie-esque clothes and assistants to teach them how to sing and dance to the Barbie Girl song.

The man who has spearheaded the project for Mattel, Richard Dickson, says his favourite feature is the Pink Tunnel, a neon-lit escalator that hums with the recorded sound of giggling girls.

The store boasts a cafe and a bar called the Pink Room, complete with karaoke, a DJ and pink martinis. “Barbies want to talk to Kens — you have to have a place for that,” says food manager Hayes Zhou.

For older women, Mattel has commissioned New York-based fashion designer Vera Wang to come up with a $A22,000 wedding dress. This is not the first time we have seen women gravitate towards childhood favorite characters for weddings. Disney launched their Princess wedding dress collection a few years ago with dresses modeled after gowns worn by Disney Princess such as Aurora, Cinderella, Snow White and Ariel.

The idea: Barbie is no longer just a doll. She’s a lifestyle. That may be harder for Americans to accept since our image of her is so firmly ingrained. In China, she is a newcomer unburdened by generations of familiarity, and Mattel has a chance to create a new consumer perception of what she means.

The Barbie Store idea is a combination of American Girl PlaceClub Libby Lu. Instead of tea parties you get facials, and Hannah Montana is replaced by Barbie. Although these two stores tend to appeal more to the pre-teen/tween age groups and Barbie Store is targeting 20 somethings as well with their spa, cocktails and fashion.

It remains to be seen whether Chinese consumers will warm to the idea and whether Barbie can fit in there. What kind of food does Barbie eat in her cafe? What kind of food would she eat in China? But Mattel should be given credit for innovating and taking a calculated risk in a down market.