Chicago Ridge Disney Store To Close In August

CHICAGO RIDGE, IL — The happiest store at the Chicago Ridge Mall is closing. The Disney Store inside the mall is planning to close on or before Aug. 18. Meanwhile, all store merchandise is 20 percent off.

An employee confirmed to Patch that the Chicago Ridge Mall store, 95th Street and Ridgeland Avenue, would be closing next month. In March, the Walt Disney Co. announced that it would be closing over 60 stores to focus on its e-commerce business. The 60 closures amount to about one-third of the stores in North America, TalkDisney.com reported. The closings are not expected to affect the smaller Disney stores at Target.

The closure of Disney’s brick-and-mortar stores come as disappointing news to Disney fans, who consider the stores a “home away from home” to bolster their collections of authentic Disney merchandise, or who can’t afford expensive shipping costs when ordering items online.

Stephanie Young, president of consumer products games and publishing for the Walt Disney Co., said in a statement that the shift in consumer behavior to online shopping coupled with the global pandemic has changed consumers’ expectations for the retailer.

“Over the past few years, we’ve been focused on meeting consumers where they are already spending their time, such as the expansion of Disney store shop-in-shops around the world,” Young said. “We now plan to create a more flexible, interconnected e-commerce experience that gives consumers easy access to unique, high-quality products across all our franchises.”