Disney Store closings leave one Florida location open. Miami fans, gas up for a long drive
The first wave this year of Disney Store closings in March took out the Aventura Mall and Tampa’s International Plaza locations.
The stores at Shops at Sunset Place in South Miami, Bayside Marketplace in downtown Miami and Pembroke Lakes Mall in Pembroke Pines had already been closed before Disney announced its plans to close about 60 of its standalone stores by Sept. 15.
So now that that date’s arrived it’s time to say goodbye to Disney at Dadeland Mall in Kendall and at Miami International Mall in Doral. Goodbye, also to the Orlando Florida Mall and Tampa Premium Outlets locations, too, according to the Disney Store Locator.
As of Wednesday, fans of the colorful boutique shops who want that standalone Disney experience have but one remaining Florida location option: the Destin Disney Outlet store at Silver Sands Outlet, reports ABC’s WEAR-TV.
So how far will a 305 Disney Store customer have to drive to get from Dadeland Mall to that one Florida standalone store?
According to Google Maps, gas up for a 650-mile drive via Florida’s Turnpike, give or take some miles, and some nine hours to get to this extreme Panhandle spot in northwest Florida not far from Alabama.
Or just cross the street to Dadeland Station’s Target in Kendall. The retail chain has a small pop-up Disney Store inside that location and Target plans to house more small Disney Stores inside several locations across the United States by year’s end.
Disney has made the closures to focus on its online e-commerce business. But the company is not closing its resort-based retail stores at Orlando’s Walt Disney World or California’s Disneyland.
The first Disney Store opened in Glendale, California, in 1987. That one’s gone, too.
