Date: 2nd February 2000

TH-TH-TH-THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!


AOL Time Warner has shut down its lavish Warner Bros. Studio Store on New York's Fifth Avenue and appears set to shutter its other retail outlets as well, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Friday).

The company had previously said that it would close the stores if it could not find a buyer for them. Although, like the Disney stores, the Warner stores had initially proved popular, they were unable to continue to excite customers, the Times observed. It quoted Marty Brochstein, executive editor of the Licensing Letter in New York as saying: "Disney and Warner have acknowledged ... that there is such a thing as too many stores. Once they had them in every major mall, then it became just another store in the mall. It became a pretty expensive billboard."

Source: Studio Briefing