So UK merch is now the England and Scotland pavillion?!

Disney need to sort out there recruiters! They are supposed to represent the United Kingdom in the UK Pavillion yet they don't have any Welsh or Northern Irish people working in UK merch at the moment! Thats terrible!

As a welshman working there i had enough trouble getting them to sell products from Wales as they had pretty much nothing when i arrived! Maybe they think us welsh and northern irish people are too much trouble cos we pester them to represent the UK properly and not just sell stuff from england and scotland!!!

By the time i left because i complained they finally got in a selection of welsh products, it sold really well but i here that it has not been re-stocked! They might as well just call the UK pavillion the england pavillion as they really dont care that much at all for the other 3 nations in the UK Wales, scotland and northern ireland. They should be educating the dum americans who think that the UK is just England not ignoring the far more interesting, historical and mythological countries of wales, scotland and northern ireland!

 

Well said James.

Is it true that there are literally no welsh and northern irish cast members?

That's not on. I remember that whole sage from when I was there and althougth I'm one of those english representatives, I would have preferred equal representation of all 4 home nations (eg 6-7 from each).

Dan

 

That's funny because when I was there it was definitely us Scots in UK Merch that were in the minority!!! At one point I was the only Scot there for around 2 months and then after that there was only 2 of us until I left (around 8 months!) But I definitely do agree with it being an English dominated pavilion both in merchandise and staff. And it does only proceed to confuse the Americans!!! ???

When I was there we had 4 Irish for a while and a good few Welsh too but I have to say I felt most sorry for the Welsh. The Americans definitely knew about the English and us Scots (thanks to Braveheart!!!) and after a little explanation about Northern Ireland too but trying to explain Wales to them was a bit difficult!!!!! And the lack of merchandise didn't help either! We campaigned tirelessly for rugby or football shirts from all 4 countries but we only ever got England!!!! :'(

Oh well, it was all part of the fun of your day explaining where exactly your came from and that the UK was made up of 4 countries!!!!!

Laura. ;D

 

At the moment, there's loads of people from all over the UK working in the pavilion.....lots of NI's especially!!!

Ellen x x x :d

 

hey laura, your post quite surprised me, i was there in 2000 and they sold the rugby shirts of all the nations, and i cant remember fully but i am sure that they had just started to sell football shirts as will, although it was man u and arsenal.

they did have a welsh shop when i was there funded by the welsh tourist board, but unfortunately the welsh tourish board wouldnt provide funding anymore so they had to change it and sell off the remaining stock, thinks like coal sculptures, pottery, love spoons etc

jrdee, i dont think its a case of them not representing wales or northern ireland, or scotland for that matter, i just think its a case of profitabilty. the pavillions have been there for a much longer time than you or i have know about them and they have tried and tested marketing systems in place. the buyers will know what to buy and what not to buy i guess, and all we can do is help them along the way.

many countries are not even represented, so i guess we are lucky to have the chance to do so.

gareth

 

Gareth...

Ok as a proud welshman let me tell you that during my time at disney i did a lot of research (well as much as i was permitted to do without getting told off) about the merchandise buyers disney employ to buy for the UK pavillion. I tried to email a buyer once to give them some ideas as after all we are the ones on the shop floor and the ones from the country we are representing. After trying to contact the buyer i was pulled aside and told by the management that this person does not like being contacted by cast members and was basically not interested! I was appauled!

Shortly after we got in new stock of cuddly bulldogs with the words England written over the union flag which represents the whole of the UK not just england. This was the final straw but thats another story. I am aware that the UK used to have a welsh shop which was withdrawn due to funding but i must disagree with your statement that disney have tried and tested marketing systems in place, the buyers will know what to buy and what not to buy. I know for a fact that a lot of people working in the UK pavillion during 2004-2005 will agree with me that the buyers were pretty much clueless!

We got asked day after day for manchester united shirts but did we ever get any in?... no. We had newcastle united shirts which sold so slowly. We got asked day after day for rugby merchandise, did we get any in? no. We got asked day after day for mary poppins merchandise, any in? no. we got asked daily for cricket merchandise... u guessed it! NO!..... i could continue! The list goes on!

In terms of merchandise selection the pavillion has gone down hill and this is based on stories i here of them previously having many football and rugby shirts along with a wide selection of welsh products. They need to listen to us, the british people working there on the shop floor, getting the countless requests for the same things! But they choose to ignore us and buy completely tacky stuff that is so cheap and nasty, for example bears with london written on their chests that never sold, and ben sherman clothing!! I got asked daily by americans who ben sherman was!! They were so dissapointed when i told them he's just a clothes manufacturer! The ben sherman clothing hardly ever sold yet they took up half of the sports shop and ben sherman isnt even a sports make!

I wrote to the chief executive of epcot complaining about the lack of welsh representation and to cut a long story short, i think our managers and buyers got a kick up the backside from him and we finally got a small corners worth of welsh products which proceeded to pretty much sell out within 2-3 months. The welsh products were pretty poor quality too but there was a market there that the buyers had chosen to ignore. I know the buyers face financial and profitability barriers but it doesnt take much to talk to 1 cast member from each of the 4 UK nations once a month to discuss ideas and what people are asking for in the shops, along with what products would represent their countries. But they choose to completely ignore us...

Nuff said 8)

PS Ellen how many welsh cast members are there in UK merchandise at the moment?

 

Hey ellen

there is only 1 welsh cast member in the whole pavillion i think, nia in food and bev. Thats bad :'( so there are not people from all over the uk working there.

 

Yeah, Gareth the Welsh shop was there when I was there if you could call it that. It sold mainly tacky lovespoons made in Wales!!

As for the rugby tops we had them when I first arrived and to me they sold pretty well even though they were overpriced, but then they phased them out! But the only football shirt we ever had was England and Man U and Celtic (being a massive Rangers fan this really annoyed me!). For some reason they used to have stacks and stacks of Wimbledon merchandise that never sold!!!!

To be honest when I was there we just got fed up of telling the managers what we needed as it didn't seem to make any difference!!! It was the same when I worked on the ship too! We worked 75 hours a week for 6 months straight on that ship (i.e you would think we would know what we needed and what sold best in the shops!) but then the buyers would stroll on from shoreside once in a while and make all the decisions!!!! Used to make me angry!!!!

Oh well, I guess that's Disney merch for you!!! ???

Laura.

 

i thought that i remembered football shirts beng sold, but all i could remember was man u, celtic rings a bell now you have mentioned it and im pretty sure they had arsenal in there too.

Laura, what was ship life like? are the storys you hear about the money all true?


JRDee, i understand where you are coming from, i too had the same sort of talks with the managers when i was there, new product ideas, what we could do to better represent the countries, alot of the things you said were asked for brought memorys back for me, i remember similar things being requested, but alot of the answers come down to sponsorship and again i must go back to the profitability.

Disney sell coca cola products cos they get them for free (only delivery and packaging paid) kodak products for the same reason, im sure the reason they sold man u shirts when i was there was cos of some deal or other running with the club, and now newcastle......prob the same reason, a training camp thing or something like that. its all on a higher level than the cast member level.

im sure that if you go back in 2 years or so, your ideas will probably be being put into place, its just really slow system.

sounds like you got a result on the contacting of the boss of epcot, thats a feather in your cap.

looking at it in another way, what is the population of wales, northern ireland and scotland? are they not represented in a true fair manner?

the stats i could find stated about 50 000 000 english, 5 000 000 scots, 3 000 000 welsh and 2 000 000 irish (rough stats rounded up)

so, using them, there should be 83 english, 9 scots, 5 welsh and 3 Northern Irish (based on 100 cast members)

also remember that the market we are selling to at disney is mostly americans, and the view they have of the uk is probably decided by disney in its films etc, and all they are doing is keeping that fantasy real. we are there in part to educate, but to be honest epcot is more like a zoo, with the cast members being the attractions

maybe im wrong, but it goes to show there are many different ways to look at the whole concept

Gareth

 

Gareth i'm sorry mate but i think ur thoughts that the number of cast members from wales should represent the number of them in the UK is rubbish! Also i think when walt disney built epcot his intentions were to educate and inform guests as to new technologies and the future, as well as to immerse them in a cultural experience which they can learn from. Now, the ignorance of many americans is well documented, but the UK pavillion is doing little or nothing to educate them as to the existence of 4 nations in the UK.

I also think your claims that epcot is there to "keep the fantasy real" are questionable, if you want fantasy go to the magic kingdom! Epcot was built to educate and inform guests not to re-establish stereo-types regarding the countries in the world showcase. While the sale of products in the UK pavillion can be linked to disney themes, that surely should not be their top priority as a buyer or recruiter if they are adhering to the original spirit of epcot that walt dreamed of...

 

I have to agree with James. I felt really sorry for the likes of James, and also the scottish and northern irish cm's, who would do their job and explain their culture to people, and also the diversity within the UK. But it's increasingly tough to do that when you have little evidence in the stores to help back that up. Although to his credit, one of our manager's really fought for the pavilion on this subject and as we were leaving, his efforts were beginning to show. Unfotunately, Enri left the pavilion soon after us.

Even then, the stereotypical image of the UK here in the US is "London", and even myself, being from the north, (nowhere near London) had problems educating the guests about Yorkshire, due to the strong London bias/presense in the shops. I might add I've nothing against the southern folk, but they must have had it a lot easier to explain themselves then anybody.

I totally understand where the likes of James are coming from and it must be frustrating.

Dan

 

Gareth,

Working on the ship was great. A lot harder than at Epcot because of the long hours but a good laugh! What have you heard about the money? To be honest it wasn't that good in merch but because you are on the ship for 6 months and don't do much else than work you can save better than at Epcot and it's tax free too. Then in merch there's a quarterly bonus based on sales and gsm. Plus you also get sign off bonuses if you complete your're contract too. In all I managed to save around $10,000 from two contracts (not got much to show of it now!) but if you work in a tipped position you can make an absolute fortune!!!! ;D

Hope that helps!

Laura.

 

cheers for the info Laura, thats about what i heard for merch on theship, pretty good, considering the time you must have had.

Dan, i hear you it was tough on the W, S, and NI when i was there also, and in some of the things that JRDee is saying i understand, i just think that our views differ slightly on certain things. i will step down on this one tho, cos it wasnt a major issue for me when i was there, prob cos i am english and didnt feel the affects so much

JRDee - all good buddy, didnt mean i thought the uk pav should be represented by those numbers i quoted, just giving you anther way of looking at it

Gareth

 

fair enough gareth but just to re-iterate that epcot is there to inform and educate guests not to create a fantasy land of stereotypes as u claim it should, thats magic kingdoms job... This was my whole point and why i think changes should be made so as not to insult or offend any future non-english UK cast members.

 

Gareth - no worries. I agree with you when you say about us being english and that we maybe didn't realise the effects as much. When I was there though, this situation actually became quite volatile at times, maybe that's why we have slightly differing opinions.It could be that it's gotten worse since you left.

The way I saw it was that whilst we were all from different countries, we were all part of the UK, and we spent countless hours explaining the difference between UK and England (and trying to help our co-workers), even if we weren't directly affected.

Dan

 

Was anyone really happy with the selection of Merch in the pavilions? We used to try to make lists of stuff we needed for the Improvement Rep...don't think we really got anything though. Oh, we got Leafs and Sens hockey jerseys...but they cost a fortune. Way to go, James, actually getting some stuff!!

When did Enri leave? How out of the loop am I? So is Kim the only one left from my time?

Shan

 

Shan - he left a couple of weeks after us in March, I believe. Big loss to that side of WS.

I think Cari may have been there in your time perhaps?

Dan

 

Where did he go??? Yep, Cari and Jill were the newbies then.

Shan

 

I think he went to the Italy/Germany/USA arean

Yep, Jill and Cari are still there.

Dan

 

OOOO!! He went to the darkside!!

Jill and Cari were great. We tried to convince them of all sorts of things to get them to ER us!

Shan