During shopping trips to the Galleria over the years, I’ve tried to avoid The Disney Store. When kids along with me on shopping trips have persuaded me to walk inside, I’ve usually marveled (and despaired) at the goods available for purchase. What can a child actually do with most of these (Made in China) products once they have them, other than wear princess and other costumes over and over (which I see children doing), or use the totes or lunch boxes as such?

Disney does market high-tech interactive toys, such as robotics toys based on last year’s movie Wall-E. The top-line toy in this 2008-released series was Ultimate Wall-E, which retailed at $189.99 and featured 10 motors, remote control, and touch programming. These robotics bloggers considered it a challenge. This LEGO blogger/robotics fan decided to just build his own LEGO Wall-E with electronics (proving my point below).

LEGO also has a brand retail store at the Galleria. This store is easier for a weary consumer to endure. Open building areas with bricks invite children to play in the store. Shelves are filled with construction kits for all ages. Kids can build LEGO sets according to directions, or construct an original scene, building, vehicle, or creature. They can sort, calculate, deconstruct, rebuild and assess the results of their experiments. LEGO is the ultimate low-tech, high-creativity interactive learning toy. This is a great strategic move for Disney Consumer Products.

The Cars and Toy Story franchises will be LEGO Duplo sets geared to younger kids – these sets have larger (and fewer) parts. Prince of Persia will feature standard LEGO system building bricks.

Just two short blocks from the Galleria, Office Depot at the corner of Pacific and Broadway was almost empty. Actually, the store itself is set back from the corner. Its large, single-level parking lot (from a different, less congested era) is adjacent to the intersection. I drove in easily, parked close to the entrance, and walked straight up to the cash register (no line!) to take care of a last-minute exchange.

Grocery store parking lots and driveways were heavily congested, with cars waiting for exiting shoppers to load their trunks and vacate a space. Inside, though, plenty of Christmas merchandise and foodstuffs were still on the shelves.

Christmas day, the LA Times front page report said that in Dongguan, China, 1,800 toy factories have shut down during the past year. Ten million Chinese workers have lost jobs as factories producing toys and other export items have gone out of business. KB Toys won’t be around next year to place any orders at all. This is certainly bad for China, and the many migrant workers who found jobs and better wages during better times in Dongguan.

At Office Depot, all the digital cameras on sale during Black Friday were still available – orders for electronics will likely be much lighter in the months to come. Demand for paper clips and other sundry office products is bound to fall also as the economy contracts. Office Depot announced earlier this month that it would close 112 stores and 6 distribution facilities. Luckily the Glendale store is not on the list: I like its helpful staff, convenient stand-alone location, and the spacious parking lot.

What do people actually need during the holiday season? Parking lots in this area indicate that food and clothing top the list. The LA Times report says that celebrations in China feature practical gifts:

The Chinese government has promised to take measures to spur domestic consumer spending, with the hope that it will help pick up the slack. But Chinese consumers are unlikely to bail out the beleaguered toy industry.

Although many Chinese have come to love Christmas, decorating trees and windows, piping the ubiquitous carols into elevators and stores, one thing they don’t do is shop. The big consumer holiday here is the lunar New Year — and parents buy clothing and shoes for their children, not toys.

“All these toys we make are for the foreign children,” said 40-year-old Long Sunjun, who runs a small shop near the closed Smart Union factory. She says that even the children of the toy factory workers seldom were given toys other than squirt guns or balls.

“Chinese kids can make their own toys. Besides, they should be studying, not playing with toys.”

Readers: add your pithy conclusion below!

Fashion marketing strategy is already changing to accommodate the times. One Wall Street Journal article this week quoted apparel designers who are foregoing pricey New York runway shows and hosting smaller boutique shows instead. Facing a much tougher environment and smaller orders from retailers, they are responding to the downturn by staging their own shows and showing collections directly to consumers.

An earlier WSJ article this week focused on the strategy’s advantages for customers. Christina Binkley writes,

..for consumers, the benefits are as clear as the crisp flavor of locally grown foods: The clothes are exclusive, and the designers often offer alternations and special orders – as well as the pleasure of personal interaction with them.

That’s true luxury – without the layers of markups, showroom overhead and shipping that are built into the prices at upscale retail stores.

Mid-range department stores are struggling (check out the sales coupons for this last weekend before Christmas) and bankruptcies are leaving empty spaces at the Glendale Galleria and other shopping areas in town. Local designers are also struggling, I’m sure, but their smaller size may give them more flexibility. I hope our Glendale business owners can adapt and prosper with new marketing strategies to offer quality apparel, personal service, and a connection to the community.

Readers: Which Glendale apparel designer or boutique do you recommend for quality designs and personal service? Leave a comment and let us know!

The Americana attraction is helping Galleria traffic. Whether the two shopping areas will thrive throughout this recessions remains to be seen. Why Brand Blvd. retailers a few blocks to the north have lost out on this synergy is another question. The City Council recently directed staff to explore creating a central Brand Blvd. business improvement district to assist its struggling retailers.

My own Black Friday observation is that if the Galleria is busy, it is at the expense of other area retail districts, including Burbank’s Media Center and the storefronts of central Brand. While the Council’s concern for central Brand merchants is laudable, their discussion didn’t address the larger questions: How many retail districts can our community support? Why has so much retail space been built here?

Glendale’s Barnes and Noble relocation to the Americana left a large retail space vacant on Glendale Avenue. I just noticed that there will be a new tenant, TJ Maxx, moving in right next to its competitor Ross Dress-for-Less. The long-vacant former Linens N’ Things space at the Glendale Marketplace on Brand has just been occupied by a Marshall’s mega shoe outlet.

When each of those smaller developments were in the planning stages, members of our community objected to the addition of yet more retail space in Glendale, questioning whether it would be a net benefit to our community. And here we are in 2008-2009, as the economy contracts, trying to figure out how to help struggling retailers in Glendale pull business away from other areas.