Pendleton Woolen Mills Dry Goods Store

 Source: Pendleton

July 1955 – April 1990

LOCATION

Frontierland – Pendleton Woolen Mills Dry Goods Store (what a mouthful!) had a central location in Frontierland. The shop’s massive storefront, complete with a porch, stood between the Golden Horseshoe and the corner Frontier Arcade, later another shop. Today, the storefronts in Frontierland’s square connect into a larger gift shop: Bonanza Outfitters.

EXPERIENCE

Details:

• Merchandise – wool and leather goods from the Pendleton Company
• Unique Features – items sold in the park came with a special label, featuring a castle and the Disneyland lettering

The Pendleton shop, often called the “Dry Goods Emporium”, was the largest sponsored shop in Disneyland on Opening Day. Sponsored by Pendleton, the shop sold a huge selection of leather and wool goods, most featuring a recognizable plaid pattern. For tired shoppers, the porch offered some shady benches overlooking the center of Frontierland.

CLOSURE

Walt and his team quickly recognized an opportunity to replace sponsored shops in each land with merchandise more closely themed toward Disney characters and films. As sponsorships ended, Disney regularly opted not to renew, so as to swap out partner goods for Disney wares. By 1990, the Pendleton partnership dissolved (amicably) and Disney swapped out the leather and wool for western Disney merchandise.

TRIVIA

Pendleton published an article with lots of great photos of the old store in 2015 – to celebrate Disneyland’s Diamond Jubilee.

Disney and Pendleton maintain a relationship to this day. In fact, Pendleton goods can still be found in Bonanza Outfitters and in Ramone’s House of Body Art in Cars Land.