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who to contact re merchandising idea!
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 2:15 pm
by lil.princess
Im putting it on here as you wise CM's may know who i could contact,this morning i was sitting chatting to my Dh and we got on to talking about stuff they sell at WDW,and we said it would be cool if they sold a certain something,we were going into all the things that they could do with it (sorry to be vague) and between us we think it is a great idea.......who could we contact with our idea,not sure if it something that may be copywrited or anything by any other company-there is something similar in existance but not at disney-with the disney twist!thanks
Re: who to contact re merchandising idea!
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 3:02 pm
by darph nader
I know what you mean to point.I'd like to know who is is in charge of dumping unsold stuff. My wife bought me a indy coffe cup at Big Lots for $.99 .The original D-Land price tag underneth was still on for $5.99.D-land t-shirts at a overstock store for $3.00 vs $15.00 at the big D.

Re: who to contact re merchandising idea!
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 11:56 pm
by PirateJohn
Well, to be quite frank, if you aren't a Disney employee, nobody is going to listen to your idea.
Mostly it's a CYA issue. Almost all companies do this. If somebody submits an idea and the company is already working on something similar, then the company is in a quandary, since if they reject the idea then come out with the idea they had already been working on for a long time, they could face a lawsuit for stealing the idea even though they are completely innocent.
Re: who to contact re merchandising idea!
Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 2:55 am
by Main Streeter
PirateJohn wrote:Well, to be quite frank, if you aren't a Disney employee, nobody is going to listen to your ide
Right on target answer! A friend of mine had an idea re] :shrug:
Re: who to contact re merchandising idea!
Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:22 am
by leftcoaster
PirateJohn wrote:Mostly it's a CYA issue. Almost all companies do this. If somebody submits an idea and the company is already working on something similar, then the company is in a quandary, since if they reject the idea then come out with the idea they had already been working on for a long time, they could face a lawsuit for stealing the idea even though they are completely innocent.
Exactly. With the sue happy society we have today, where people are suing companies for anything, submitting any "ideas" to a company will probably elicit zero response. That, or they will return any "idea" you have submitted with their standard form letter stating that '... as a practice, we do not solicit external suggestions... so we are returning your idea in full, unread....' If they do reply (and return your idea), they will probably not even mention your idea by name or reference it at all. They will just use 'your idea.' No acknowledgement, nothing.
Re: who to contact re merchandising idea!
Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:42 pm
by Main_Street_Merch
PirateJohn wrote:Mostly it's a CYA issue. Almost all companies do this. If somebody submits an idea and the company is already working on something similar, then the company is in a quandary, since if they reject the idea then come out with the idea they had already been working on for a long time, they could face a lawsuit for stealing the idea even though they are completely innocent.
Didn't this happen with Fastpass? Some guy claimed he invented it and sent Disney the idea.
Re: who to contact re merchandising idea!
Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:00 pm
by Yeti Chaser
leftcoaster wrote:Exactly. With the sue happy society we have today, where people are suing companies for anything, submitting any "ideas" to a company will probably elicit zero response. That, or they will return any "idea" you have submitted with their standard form letter stating that '... as a practice, we do not solicit external suggestions... so we are returning your idea in full, unread....' If they do reply (and return your idea), they will probably not even mention your idea by name or reference it at all. They will just use 'your idea.' No acknowledgement, nothing.
Read the employment agreement you signed when you became a Cast Member. Part of the agreement states that any idea you come up with while employed at Disney becomes the property of Disney. This type of agreement is across all businesses. I know, because at my "real job" I had to sign one of them when I was hired. Sorry to rain on your parade........
Re: who to contact re merchandising idea!
Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:01 pm
by Yeti Chaser
leftcoaster wrote:Exactly. With the sue happy society we have today, where people are suing companies for anything, submitting any "ideas" to a company will probably elicit zero response. That, or they will return any "idea" you have submitted with their standard form letter stating that '... as a practice, we do not solicit external suggestions... so we are returning your idea in full, unread....' If they do reply (and return your idea), they will probably not even mention your idea by name or reference it at all. They will just use 'your idea.' No acknowledgement, nothing.
Read the employment agreement you signed when you became a Cast Member. Part of the agreement states that any idea you come up with while employed at Disney becomes the property of Disney. This type of agreement is across all businesses. I know, because at my "real job" I had to sign one of them when I was hired. Sorry to rain on your parade.... :(
Re: who to contact re merchandising idea!
Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 6:17 am
by leftcoaster
Yeti Chaser wrote:Read the employment agreement you signed when you became a Cast Member. Part of the agreement states that any idea you come up with while employed at Disney becomes the property of Disney. This type of agreement is across all businesses. I know, because at my "real job" I had to sign one of them when I was hired. Sorry to rain on your parade.... :(
Psssstt... I am not a CM.
If I remember correctly, the OP posted that they had an idea for Disney to sell something. Since the OP was/is from England, and also did not work for Disney, the whole thread is about non-employees submitting ideas to a company.
However, you are correct that nearly every business that employs more than one person will have any new employee(s) sign an agreement that anything that employee designs, discovers, or creates
while on company grounds, becomes company property. This protects you, the employee, so that if you design, discover, or create something in your garage or basement,
on your own time, it is indeed yours.
Slightly OT, but...
Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 2:45 am
by sandravb79
Last edited by Zazu : 02-20-2006 at 06:27 PM. Reason: Corrected annoying top-posting, and was glad there's only one person on the whole board who does it.
Did someone already count how many times zazu corrected top-posting? It always strikes me how many times I see edit comments like this one: