Disney Parks are known for their theming. Walt Disney created the term theme park when he built Disneyland in 1955. Until then, there were only amusement parks. Theming is what separates Disney Parks from places like Six Flags.
When you enter the Parks, you are immersed in the theme, transported to places like turn-of-the-century main street, Frontierland, and Adventureland. When you walk through New Orleans Square, you are in New Orleans. The theming is what drives these areas. Without it, the Matterhorn Bobsleds, Space Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad are just mildly thrilling roller coasters. With it, they are brought up several notches to become some of my favorite rides.
Walt Disney understood this so much so that when he designed Disneyland, he created in such a way to keep the real world out. He didn't want his theming to be broken by the outside world, so he surrounded the park with a berm, which the train rides on top of, to keep the outside world out.
I found it very disturbing, on a recent trip to Disneyland, to find situations that totally disregarded the theming of the area. For instance, walking through Tomorrowland, one should not expect to find Jack Skellington/Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise in the Star Trader or Cars merchandise in the Little Green Men Store or the It's a Small World Store, along with Phineas and Ferb. Walking though Adventureland, we also saw, front and center, Jack Skellington stuff in the Adventureland Bazaar, which actually had more stuff than Indiana Jones stuff, whose attraction is directly across the street.
The stores themselves are wonderfully themed to their respective areas, on the outside, but by putting these things in other stores, we are taken out of the world that we are supposed to be in the second we walk into the store. Until Carsland opens this Summer, Cars really doesn't have a home in the Resort, so I'll give it a pass in Tomorrowland, being that the closest thing it has is Autopia. But, why can't it be in it's own store it the Autopia entrance, not Little Green Men. And, it certainly does not belong at It's a Small World.
What's slightly more disturbing is that Nightmare Before Christmas has its own store in New Orleans Square. Why does it need to be spread out throughout the park at all? In fact, Disneyland has shown that themed stores can work in the park. The stores in New Orleans Square are the only stores in the park that do not break their own theming. Port Orleans Curios and Curiosities only has NBC stuff. Pieces of Eight only has Pirates collectibles. Cristal d'Orleans has crystal collectibles.
There are a few possible reasons that Disney has disregarded the rules of theming. The first being, and probably more obvious, is they want to sell merchandise. The best way to do that is to have it as available to people as possible. If someone is in Tomorrowland, they shouldn't necessarily have to go all the way over to New Orleans Square to get a Jack Skellington shirt. While, I agree with this, I also believe that this is also the reason to have a place like the Emporium, at the end of Main Street. Everyone has to pass it on the way out of the park, perfect place to stock all the merchandise you could possibly want. Another excuse could be, Disney certainly knows how popular these characters are, and simply wants to get them out for purchase. Third, Disney may have simply overstocked themselves on Jack Skellington/NBC stuff and didn't sell enough at Holiday time, so they need to get rid of it. While I wouldn't doubt that this may be the case, I also have no doubt that this stuff would be in these locations anyway.
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