Magic That Made Us, vol. 1
Why I'm still chasing that dopamine high of a Disney Store from the 1990s-2000s
Magic That Made Us is a series that reminisces on the bits and pieces of yesteryear that molded us — both individually and as a generation — into who we are today. Be sure to check out the archives for previous posts.
Imagine, you’re five years old and your parent or guardian just asked, “Hey, I need to make a quick trip to the mall to get new headphones from Sharper Image. Do you wanna come with me?” You look up from your handheld Aladdin video game and immediately think of the best way to ask if we could — pretty, pretty please — also swing by the Disney Store for a lil’ browse. Tarzan just came out for crying out loud, and you’re desperate to get your paws on that dang CD.
The adult in question pauses, thinks, and sighs. “Okay, yes, fine. But we can’t spend all day in there; I have to pick up Mikey’s cookie cake from the Great American Cookie Company at 11:30 a.m.” Score. You bolt to the shoe rack and buckle your jelly glitter sandals that will likely rip a layer of your dermis off in the short hour that you’ll be wearing them.
The cool, fragrant air of the mall hits you as soon as you swing open the heavy doors. You’ve got one thing on your mind. Okay, two. That big, beautiful store and a warm, sprinkled sugar cookie. Zabwe dap dooby doo zap a da dee dop zwe bop, you scat-sing in your head. “I can’t leave here without that CD.”
You turn the corner and can clearly make out the wrap-around film reel that adorns the entrance displays. You’re almost there. After a short walk across the polished mall floor, you — finally! — walk across the black-and-white tiled threshold and, even if just for a few minutes, nothing else matters anymore.
Until I realized that the Disney parks existed in the flesh, the Disney Store was my magical, storytelling “Mecca” of sorts. I had to be pried out of there. When I spent a short time working at a Disney Store in college, we were instructed to view the guests’ experience as one that was if their store visit was the closest they could get to experiencing a Disney park. We might’ve just been a store in the mall but we made it our goal to give them the Disney treatment because they deserved it, each and every time they walked through the doors.
Whether it’s 1998 or 2014, that experience paired with the familiarity of Disney magic and storytelling are what make the stores so memorable and meaningful. It doesn’t even matter if you buy anything; it’s all about just being there.
So, let’s take a walk down memory lane.
Ah, what a time. There was moment many years ago when I walked out of a Disney Store as it’s preserved in my memory (and the iconic photos above) for the very last time, and that makes me emotional in the way that leads you to crave something that once was and will never be again. But how grateful I am to have had it be such an integral component of my 90s childhood in the quiet suburbs of Houston. The world of Disney, just a short drive away. That’s magic, noted.
See ya real soon,
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LOVED the Disney store at the mall. My husband and I went to a mall in Ottawa in 2017 that still had one... with the plushie mountain! My mom collected the full size snow globes growing up. They're all stored in her china cabinet now and my kids love to listen to them when we visit.