Name one spot at Disney Springs where you can sit down for an hour without buying something.
Take your time.
Some context.
Disney Springs has 150-plus shops and restaurants, live music, a rooftop bar, and genuinely great food. What it does not have is a single indoor square foot designed for a person to just exist for a while. Every inch is selling you something or feeding you something.
Disney fans have figured out the fix, and they are not wrong.
The Post That Started It
“Disney Springs needs a bookstore… there I said it,” wrote Threads user stephintothemagic.
Nobody argued. They just started picking out real estate.
“I honestly would never leave and I think that's why they haven't put one in,” wrote user houseofhall92.
View on Threads
Here Is the Kicker
Disney Springs has already done this. Twice.
“It used to have one back when it was the Disney village,” wrote user ukdisneymagic. “Readin' and Writin'. I used to pretty much live in there as a teenager… as a bookish teen from the UK it was amazing coming to the US to stock up on Judy Blume and LM Montgomery books that weren't available over here.”
Then the big one.
“The Virgin Megastore (where Splitsville is at now) was awesome,” wrote user analogparks. “The second floor was a giant bookstore.”
Virgin Megastore, Richard Branson's chain that started as a 1976 London record shop and ballooned worldwide in the 90s before its North American stores shut down. The Disney Springs location had an entire bookstore on the second floor.
That building is now a bowling alley.
Somebody who worked there confirmed it was doing fine.
“As someone who worked at Virgin, in the books, it was popular enough 15 years ago,” wrote user magduhlin.
And there was a third.
“There used to be one. it was across from the Christmas store,” wrote user andrea.ever.after. “The Art of Disney would get in all the Disney historian books, rare books to find.”
So this is not a pipe dream. Disney had it, three times over, and pulled it.
Disney Literally Owns the Books
No partner needed here.
Disney Publishing Worldwide. Hyperion. Marvel and Star Wars titles. National Geographic. Disney Editions art and history books that collectors hunt down on eBay.
“Disney has their own publishing imprint, I've been saying for years that they should have a bookstore somewhere,” wrote user ophelia_helianthus.
“Disney must have hundreds of thousands of publications from their IP's alone,” wrote user jjmfilm, who also suggested daily character readings for the kids.
And Obviously It Is Belle
Everybody got there independently.
“I love the idea and the idea of Beast's/Belle's library as the theme,” wrote user megansmagicaladventures.
“They need a gigantic library like in beauty and the beast,” wrote user walkintheparktravel.
Of course it is. That library scene is already a picture of a quiet room somebody gets to vanish into.
One commenter nailed exactly how Disney would run it.
“They can call it Belle's, put in a coffee shop & charge $21 for a coffee,” wrote user lindsayinchicago.
Correct.
There Is An Empty Building Right Now
“Now that Wolfgang Pucks is shuttering, we should petition Disney with this idea,” wrote user megansmagicaladventures.
Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill served its final meal earlier this month. Prime location, currently sitting empty.
“Super dry is always empty and would make an amazing bookstore,” wrote user magicaldoot.
Okay, the Counterpoints
Two replies hit the problem dead on.
“No because people going in there just for the aesthetic and to make content would ruin it for those of us that enjoy a quiet experience and reading,” wrote user nadjag__.
“Oh, yes because people love fighting their way through throngs of humans and screaming children in a bookstore,” wrote user kpton.
Both fair. A gorgeous Belle library at Disney Springs becomes the most photographed room on property in about six days, and nothing over there is calm in December.
And underneath everything, the real gripe:
“They've removed SO much whimsy from Disney Springs to make it more of a bougie outdoor mall you could find in a lot of places,” wrote user djrusso_author.
Why It Still Works
A bookstore is one of the only stores where loitering is the whole point. Standing around for forty minutes buying nothing? Using it correctly.
Nothing else at Disney Springs works that way. Everywhere else wants your money and your table back.
Throw in seating, a few hiding spots, and the cafe everybody kept asking for, and Disney Springs finally has somewhere to stop moving.
Disney has announced nothing and there is zero indication this is even on a whiteboard.
But the building is empty, the books are already theirs, the theme writes itself, and it worked three times.
Source: Threads discussion beginning with a post by user stephintothemagic.
