With the closure of Disney’s flagship store in Barcelona and several stores across Madrid, The Walt Disney Company is leaving Spain.
The most famous film and television mouse in the world says goodbye to Spanish retail. The company behind Mickey Mouse has decided to make a global strategy change and will close at least 20% of its brick-and-mortar stores. None remain in Spain.
According to the Spanish real estate platform Idealista, sources also said the flagship store on the most expensive street in Spain, Portal de l’Angel in Barcelona, will also close. This is in addition to the branches Disney has in several shopping centres in Madrid.
The largest media conglomerate in the world had ten stores in Spain. For example, the shops in Madrid in Centro Oeste closed last month. The store in Centro Comercial Xanadú will close in June and the La Vaguada shopping centre will follow in August. In September, the shutters on the shop in the Gran Plaza 2 shopping centre will be permanently lowered and in Centro Comercial Parquesur this will be done in October.
Flagship store Barcelona
The most striking closure is the one in Barcelona. Here, in 2014, the company opened a huge store on the most expensive street in the country. It became the largest store in Spain with an area of more than 500 square meters. Products for children and adults were sold here, as well as items specially designed for the Catalan market. The shop was located in the old Solterra-Berberà palace from the seventeenth century. It was a similar location to where Disney had its main stores in New York or London.
Global strategy
The Walt Disney Company announced last March it planned to close at least 20% of its brick-and-mortar stores by the end of the year. At the same time, it would boost its online sales activities, which experienced significant growth during the pandemic.
The 60 planned closures are also currently taking place in the United States. In other parts of the world, the company has about 300 physical stores. All Disney stores which are closing have faced business interruptions due to the lockdowns and restrictions in 2020 as a result of the global corona pandemic.
During the pandemic, consumers increasingly turned to online purchasing of Disney products. For example, the physical stores suffered major losses in 2020, while those who were active online often saw their revenues multiply.
