T
Joined: Apr 25, 2002
Posts: 1566
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T
*On 2006-05-22 09:43, bungy wrote:*Island Trade Store was in Disneyland at the very beginning in 1955. The main store was in the Bazaar, and took up 2 sections. One was tropical everything from decorations, to jewelry to shell lamps to tikis! The ohter was right across the way, and Dwight Long managed that one with all kinds of costume jewlry until he got his own Cameo Shop on Main Street.
I can't remember the name of the man who started the Bazaar, but he leased the whole area from Disney, and sub-leased to all of us. It was the only shop like that in Disneyland. We paid 25% of our gross recepts as rent! Thatw as pretty high, but we had the highest volume of people there. There were seven shops in the Bazaar: Us, the Guatamalan Weavers, The Mexican Imports (thye also had shop in Frontierland, The Chinese, an Egyptian shop, a Hawaiian clohting shop with neat aloha shirts, and variuos other shops that went in and out of biz, like one that sold ant farms! When these went out of biz, we took over the spots and tried various other themes . Some successful, and some not.
Oh - wow! This is great info Bungy - from someone who was there! I'd love to interview you sometime about the early years at Disneyland...
*On 2006-05-22 09:43, bungy wrote:*Jack Strenchengost (sp?) was the manager of the Bazaar, and poor Jack never had any friends because of his job! He was the watch dog.. and was always telling someone there what they could and could not do! The biggest problem was to keep us all from stepping on the toes of the guy next door. We all had to do high merchandising and some items could double for other store themes.
I interviewed Jack back in the late 1990s - he has passed away since then, but I do have a good photo of him next to those shops. I'll try & scan it this week!
On 2006-05-22 09:43, bungy wrote:
The outside pix of island Trade Store was probably one of these extra stores we took over and re-decorated. I was there for only 2 years as manager, but frequently came back. I think Daddy had the shops for five years, and then Disney started not re-newing leases, and the Bazaar lost his and we lost ours by default! Today, I don't think their are any tourist areas shops not owned by Disney.. which is too bad, becasue there is no competition, and lots of items are the same now!
Jack told me that after the first 5 years, they (all the concessionaires) went in to see Walt Disney - thinking that they would have to pay a little more to renew the lease.... Most of them hadn't ever really talked to Walt. He said, "Well - it's nice to meet all of you. Too bad it's because none of you are going to keep your leases!" Walt wanted as much control as possible - and the revenue from the shops was pretty good...
I'll try & get some more pictures (from my & Matterhorn1959s collections) of these stores up here soon. In the meantime - here's a link to one he put up today!
http://matterhorn1959.blogspot.com/2006/05/adventureland-bazaar-shopping.html
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