Wall Street doesn't seem to be happy with Disney's latest earnings call, seeing an almost instant $10 drop in their share price. I think the most worrying things for Theme Park fans like ourselves though is the Chief Financial Officer for Disney came out and said they are looking at ways to cut costs at the parks such as changing suppliers, substituting products and reducing potions sizes (which she said with a body-shaming jab at guests waistlines). It's honestly baffling to see current management be so upfront with how they essentially see guests as a dollar bill and not much else...
To see this working, head to your live site.
4 Comments
I think Disney isn't going to see pre-Covid 19 attendance numbers for quite sometime as not only is there no end in sight for the pandemic but many families across the western world are also faced with stagnant wages and inflating costs for housing and food. This means that many families simply can't afford to also pay for any increases to the already expensive Disney ticket prices.
The body shaming thing is pretty crazy. To even think of saying that in that setting is a worry. Now we all know that is portions in the US are massive compared to everywhere else, but to joke that it’s somehow a good deed they are doing is nuts! Shows a disregard for their public.
I found it interesting to listen to Bob Rogers of BRC Imagination Arts talk on Theme Park Insiders podcast about the risk of continual price increases. Short term gains for long term losses. I don’t think that’s a huge risk for Disney right now but it’s definitely a future consideration. It’s hard to think they’ll price themselves out, but the competition gets a lot more fierce if they start to loose middle America.
Unfortunately I think we need to get comfortable with the idea that large corporations are going to expect people to pay more for less over the next few years. Whilst I know a lot of businesses are hurting, attacking and stipulating your guests is not the way to win back crowds post-COVID.
Checking the stats above it seems that Disney has been set back almost a decade in revenue, but they're also still making close to a billion dollars a quarter. They're expecting the general public to just pick themselves up after COVID and throw themself into a theme park but for many people we just aren't there yet. There will come a tipping point where the majority of guests wont be able to justify the value of the Disney resorts once these reactive changes begin to take effect.