New and Improved: MouseGear at Epcot

Friday, July 15, 2011 PixieMichele 1 Comment

One of my favorite stores in all of the parks is MouseGear at Epcot. It’s the first place I go when I enter the park and I have to stop there again before we leave the park…you can never be too sure you didn’t miss something!

I love that everything you love in the Disney merchandise realm is right there for you, although it’s not always easy to locate. It’s easy to end up wandering around the same few sections and not seeing everything you intended to.

Since the store opened in 1999 it’s been a prime shopping spot for the Epcot park, in the last month the store’s two-year remodeling project has been finished.

A team of individuals: “global retail design, operations, planning, product development, facility asset management, sourcing and Disney Imagineering” worked together to improve MouseGear. What do all those fancy titles mean for you, the shopper? Here are some of the ways your shopping experience has been improved:

The merchandise fixtures have been lowered-this makes it feel like the store is more open.

The registers have relocated-Remember the line of registers that were all forced up against one wall and crammed into a tiny space? You would stand there and not know which line you were in, who was next, etc. That problem has been solved. The registers have been relocated to strategic points throughout the store which makes the checkout process a lot less hectic.

Color coded labels-Remember how you could wander aimlessly? Now your wandering can have a destination. The “department” signs are color coded for their merchandise category and the carpeting makes a pathway!

Can’t find help?-Problem solved. The Cast Members are sporting newly designed costumes, (which of course are color coordinated to the new decor!) and easy to spot. Maybe not so easy to spot is the hidden Mickey that has been installed in the costume, do you know where it is?