Another interesting fact is that Swarovski recently took away the ability for the common crafter to purchase Swarovski's crystals. The entire beading community felt betrayed. Swarovski decided to focus their skill? snobbery? and anything else, on the 'high end' aspect of their company. This is what they dumped many customers over? This is more profitable? I would LOVE to know how many of those castles they have sold?
Let's be honest, if you had the money to buy this thing, you'd already have a house to live in, because your parents were millionaires and you were born with money. That's the kind of people this thing is for. It's for celebrities who have more money than brains.
Absolutely There's a TV show in the UK called "Escape to the Chateau", about a couple doing up a chateau (I know, whoda guessed 🤭). The wife sold her London flat and they bought a 45 room French chateau for the price of her flat/this curious thing, it was like 10 years ago, but still...
Fun fact: this "useless trash" is actually a marketing gimmick By having something outrageously expensive, everything of a reasonable price seems cheap by comparison, even when it's at the high end Guitar stores do this too, they have the 50k guitars at display in the front of the store and you have to wander around a bit to find the reasonably priced guitars, which seem much cheaper than they are because "those guitars at the front were 50k" The problem isnt useless shit being made, the problem is the useless shit being used to get away with taking as much as they want from us poor fucks
Coincidentally this also describes my dating strategy. I put on my ugliest outfit and lead with my worst attributes so everything else seems not as bad in comparison. Problem is, much like the castle I can’t seem to convince anyone to take me home with them 🥲💔
This strategy would never work on me, because I would think "this store is out of my price range" and so I wouldn't even enter in the first place. Maybe a guitar store is different because they are specialised objects that you don't purchase every day or without doing research.
Try being a left-handed bassist in a right handed world; the same new bass that runs 400$ as a right handed instrument is suddenly TWICE THAT FOR A LEFT-HANDED. 😭😭 Worse, the resale is crap (your 800$ bass is only worth 200$ resale), so it's best to buy second hand.
That's all well and good if you're rich. I'm not so I'd look round point and laugh loudly at any one buying any thing. Then loudly whisper should give that money to poor enployeys if they can spend the money ON THAT
I noticed a decline in Disney employee friendliness over the past 2 decades. (I'm 40... I guess I'm old now lol.) When I was a little girl the employees were the warmest, happiest people! When I later brought my 6-year-old around 2007 it was shocking how negative the employees were getting. My last visit in 2023 was REALLY sad. Employees were looking so downtrodden... obvious fake smiles on 90% of them.. like they tried but were run down.
That is really sad. We went when our kids were little in 2013. Everyone was wonderful. It is sad for the employees, but also sad for the guests. It seems like Disney would get more repeat business by offering a good experience for the guests AND cast members. Eventually, their reputation for churning out crap and treating their cast members like 💩 will catch up with them.
I worked at a (non Disney) amusement park, and I had a friend who worked at Disney. This was many years ago now, but I remember being so surprised at how well they were treated, and suspected that's why people thought they were nicer than we were. Seeing what they're going through now I see why they would be as run down as just a random terrible amusement park's workers.
I remember in the early 2000s (at Disney World not sure about land) there used to be a glass blowing exhibition and every year they would make a gigantic handblown castle. They would raffle the castle off at the end of the year...now the exhibition is just a jewelry store and this replaced the glass castle. The Magic left the Magic kingdom when money became more important than imagination.
It’s an amusement park. You’re trying to add more meaning to it than it has. Would you act like this about a 6 flags? Of course not, but everyone thinks Disney is supposed to be different because it gives them the feels. Money has always been more important. Walt was worth about $1 billion in today’s money when he died. He didn’t make that much by not caring about money.
@@Idontwantone950When your gimmick is childlike wonder, imagination and creativity, then yeah, it's not weird for people to expect you to uphold your theme. That's always been the theme of the parks. Even Walt cared about the Disney esque experience in his parks. He was always constantly changing the rides and coming up with creative ideas to make his films come to life in his park. The last time I checked, six flags wasn't specifically a child cartoon like attraction, and they never market themselves that way. They're meant to be an amusement park, and Disney is meant to be a DISNEY themed park. Disney can care about money, but they should at least do the favor of giving their fans quality shit. They don't even offer that with their modern movies nowadays.
Before you started explaining it and zooming in, I just thought it was Lego so I was confused because it would be really cool if it was just Lego. But after hearing the details and seeing the zoomed in parts, I agree. Thats f’cking stupid
I have know some things with Swarovski Crystals and this seems cheap in comparison... but given the current LEGO sets 250.000 would also seem cheap if this was made out of Legos
@@DeaDiabolano, not all, no need to get hysterical. Only the big sets that take several hours to complete, like the bonsai tree. Denigrating them by calling them “just plastic” is rich from a micro plastic filled organism such as yourself 😂
I was watching Ryan McCartan's twitch streams. The guy who used to play duggy on Liv and Maddie, and resently he was talking about his experience when working for disney and he was saying that while he was filming liv and maddie he was also working as a cast member at one of the disney parks and he was still living in his car during that time because they werent paying him enough to even have a roof over his head and that he would have a gym membership just so that he could shower and change clothes. Its really sad how someone who works that hars for a company gets treated that badly.
Disney isn’t the problem, you don’t hear these issues coming out of the Florida parks just the California parks, the problem is Gavin Newsom and democrats who I bet most Disney employees vote for.
@@tiffanyroberts6460 LOL, ok there Tiffany, tell me more about how Disney is the devil incarnate, but only in CALIFORNIA where the evil Democrats reign. You might want to look at Ronda Santis' attempt to take Disney down a peg in Florida which was a miserable failure before spouting bullshit about California's problems.
@@tiffanyroberts6460 "The problem isn't the company that gives the man his wages and doesn't give a single fuck about him struggling. It's obviously the fault of this one politician from this one state!" Braindead.
@@Beautiful_Mess I agree, but the poster above sounds like a deranged Republican who blames everything on Democrats and “elites” despite the myriad of reasons for Disney employees problems. I know a few Floridian Disney employees and they have to deal with the the same stuff (high rents, low pay, long hours) everyone else has to.
I actually worked for Disney, and got a call from a customer (guest) asking me why his castle had not been delivered on the morning of his daughters birthday, the daughter was 6. Getting screamed at over the phone about something that costs as much as a house is an experience.
@@kheventplanner lol of course nobody wants to be or should be screamed at at their job. But I'm also being realistic like it's understandable someone might be pissed about such an expensive gift for their daughters birthday not turning up. I'm sure you tell them not to worry and invite them to the party huh 😏
Another thing: Swarovski crystals are notorious for being horrific in quality. They have such inconsistent colors, crack easily, and fall out like crazy. There's a reason most jewelry stores that carry pieces with Swarovski crystals on them don't have gemstone protection on those pieces. Edit: A lot of people have said that it's just colored glass, which is something I totally forgot about. Yeah definitely don't buy Swarovski pieces if you're looking for something of quality.
Yeaaahhhh just look up the videos on their Christmas calendar last year. 😬😬 specially Cherry Wallis and Alexandria Ryan. Whom are both always super honest… yeah it’s yikesville how bad and cheaply made they were
@@maximillian1109 lol 🤣 The same could be said about diamonds. Then came the Dutch. Then DeBeers… Now that diamonds can be man-made much more easily, and efficient, than mining… All bets are off.
@@DeaDiabola Supply, and demand. The supply is artificially decreased, to increase demand. That, and great marketing. They gave "crystals" to celebrities, for promotion. You know how sheeple buy anything the Kartrashians are wearing.
You know, the original owner, Daniel Swarovski had "wanted to make a diamond anyone could afford" 132 years & a few greedy Swarovski's later... we have this eyesore with a heafty price tag... Daniel's rolling in his grave.
That's so incredibly vile.. Daniel Swarovski and his legacy deserves better.. along with the huge chunk of humanity that also deserves better! I also hope he haunts them for all of eternity!
@@shelbyb9965Well someone had to manually glue each cristal to that thing which would be pretty long and annoying process if the tiny frog i bedazzled once is anything to go by lol. Also it's Disney and Disney will change whatever the fuck they want for their IP. So that would be where the price would come from i imagine. The cristals themselves wouldn't be that expensive
As a former intern, yes we deserve better. We deserve not to be accused of stealing if a boss gives us a food item to eat and we don't eat it at the correct area. This was a real thing they said to me that happened when i was doing orientation. Its a shame employees get treated like they do because so many are great people.
The employees voted to unionize. It's called Magic United. Hopefully, this will change things for employees who are more dedicated than Disney deserves.
@@xamyx725yep, unions charge outrageous dues... I know my union (Pipefitters) charges me an exorbitant amount a month... $37!!! I only get fully paid health insurance, $250,000 automatic life insurance, a pension, paid training and some useless thing called a union rep. STFU and let the grown ups talk.
I remember reading an interview with Walt Disney, the originator of the company, talking about how everyone who worked at Disneyland was important. He respected his employees, not matter the job and made sure they were paid a decent paycheck. There were no "lesser" jobs. It is sad to see how far the company has fallen. 😭
As a former Cast Menber, I agree Disney needs to do better BUT this $250,000 castle is not sold by Disney technically. It is sold by Arribas Brothers which is a third-party company on property. They have nothing to do with the way Disney cast members are treated or paid, they only have control over their own employees treatment and pay.
Yes, but the issue is that Disney is paying them that much for marketing, labor & supplies instead of paying cast members better. For that 3rd party company, Disney is the client, so any materials & labor used gets charged to Disney.
@@krt2018 idk the deal exactly, but Disney is definitely profiting off it it via licensing the IP. If they weren’t involved they’d be getting lawyers after them for sure😂
@@humansizedbirdnest9435 the point I was replying to was that Disney was spending money for this castle to be made, which isn't the case. Each castle is made to order so the customer is paying for it to be made, not Disney. And if Disney is profiting off the sales of the castle, which would be very little money as theyve only sold 5 of these, wouldn't we want people to buy it so that they money could go to the employees? Whether or not it actually does isn't the point, the point is that you can't use this castle as an argument that Disneh doesn't pay its employees enough bc they don't actually make enough or spend enough money on the castles to make any kind of dent in their employees' paychecks.
And that is the major problem with capitalism, eventually they are no longer able to increase profit because the market is completely satiated, which leads to cost cutting measures that slowly destroy the company until it fails.
@existingthinking7771 Why wouldn't you expect a company to focus on it's primary reason for existing? They are a business and not a charity. That does not preclude them from treating their employees well but it makes your statement meaningless drivel.
@@Serai3Agreed for this particular item.But many other bullshit items definitely sold by disney and people bought them. I say this as a Disney adults and have taken my kids there on multiple occasions.
Hence the shit "like" this, whether or not that one specifically sold. The point still stands. Corporations like Disney need to pay their workers better.
As a current seasonal Disney employee, yes. They make it impossible to get out of the Disney bubble and everything costs a fortune. Yesterday I tried to treat my friends to a day in the parks with the free tickets I get (after having worked 600 hours lol), but they ended up having to pay for all my food because I had -$5 in my bank account.
Swarovski has a contract with Disney to sell things with the IP on it and make this showpieces for the Disney locations to draw attention to the mass produced crystal pieces. It’s like designers dressing people on the red carpet, it gets their name recognition for the people most likely to have to buying power for their products
That sort of the issue, they care more about working with a brand like Swarovski instead of actually taking care of their employees - which they can clearing more than afford.
Which is even more wild cause didn't Swarovski stop selling to the general public years ago? Atleast they no longer sell their gems, which screwed over some artists I know who used their gems in their work
This. Went to Disneyland a few years back. Tipped an amazing Cast Member - they broke down sobbing, they'd been so hungry. They were starving and couldn't afford to eat. Our tip had been enough to buy them food for the day. Went back a few years later and I don't think they work there anymore but wherever they are I think about them often and hope they're doing better.
You’d think the employees would AT LEAST be allowed to eat any leftovers of the food found at Disney, ideally be able to eat at Disney free of charge, at best have a nice fancy employee caf as a thank you but apparently not lmao. And if someone is going to argue business and margins or whatever, Disney can 100% tank the fucking pocket change it’d need to feed their workers.
So many of my classmates work at Disney. But Disney paris. They love it. This is an america problem first and foremost because they simply can’t get away with treating their employees like that in Europe
@@redred7702I'll argue business and margins(jokingly, of course).... The more well fed, housed employees tend to work for you longer and provide better service, and better employee livelihood is better all around for every aspect of the economy. I remember being hungry all through school, and that meant I was not focusing on the task at hand, had to catch up once I got away from the issue, my parent.
It's so sad what's happened to the Disney parks over the years. My mom was a Cast Member back in the 90s, a street photographer at Disney Studios, and it was a *wonderful* place to work. Then Eisner and Iger took their turns sucking every bit of joy out of working at the parks in the name of cost-cutting.
That's so sad! People kept telling me I needed to ring a certain Belle and I have heard horror stories from people who actually worked in similar positions. I said, "All that and Florida humidity too? Nope."
Exactly this! My father was a contractor who worked for Disney back in the 80s when they were still doing a lot of construction and additions to the park. Our family relocated to Orlando just because the work was so good and such good pay and benefits. It's so sad that now their employees can't even make enough to survive, nevermind thrive.
I googled prices for visiting Disney world a few weeks ago. Had been there in the early 90s and liked it a lot. Prices are ridiculous. Only millionaire families can go there now. I could not afford going there by myself let alone with my family.
The same goes for Trader Joe's employees. You may love your trendy Trader Joe's store, but the employees, the Crew, they are poor. The only ones who make a livable wage are the Mates and the Captains, but the Crew do most of the hard work.
And for anyone saying, "The Crew make $30 an hour!". Wrong! Trader Joe's hardly pays for your experience when you are hired, the starting pay is less than $20, and it takes YEARS to get to $30 an hour. The "raises" every seven months are a mere 75 CENTS. 75 CENTS every seven months. Inhumane. Not cute. Not trendy. Exploitive.
Ah yes. We can afford $250,000 dollars for a shiny paperweight but can’t afford paid overtime for our workers. EDIT: ok forget overtime, apparently DISNEY the MULTIBILLION DOLLAR COMPANY can’t afford to pay their employees a few more thousand dollars a year. The median cost of living in the us is $43,913.50 it can range anywhere between $32,336 and $55,491. The median salary of a cast member per year is $39,000 but this can range between $33,000 and $46,000. Which is clearly, either below or just above it. Don’t forget taxes! The people who live in an area where the cost of living is $42,000, still have to pay government tax which brings the pay of only $39,000, which is already too little, to an even smaller amount. This is all from me, thank you for reading. (All currency is in US dollar)
Aren't they selling this to someone with more money than sense so they can have money for said employees? If they are in fact making these collector items as a source of revenue then it's not so much that this exists, but they don't share the profits properly.
She embodies why women dont excell, looking at invention and creation and scoffing and constantly going back to "oooo wot bout poor" . If we all thought like that there would be no space exploration, no internet, no medicine, we'd be still be in 1800s.
@@armondtanz Wow! That was extremely seסst and unnecessary. Women excel perfectly fine. Men of history have been known to block women's advancements by keeping them in "their place." Some have even stolen their ideas as their own. So, if you're asking, "why does it seem as though mostly men have progressed in life and women haven't?" Well, it's not because of how she feels about that dumb@$$ castle. It's most likely because they had their ideas, inventions and theories stolen by someone who thinks like you. The castle is stupid. Period. Giving a d@mn about others is how humanity will honestly progress. If it weren't for people like her, who gave a d@mn about others, we'd still have sl@very and segreg@tion in The States. We don't, though, and that's true progression. Just a small example on a worldwide scale. There's no point in "exploring" space when we can't manage our own sh¡t here on Earth. She's on the right track.
@@armondtanz exploration and the internet are completely different than a bunch of crystals sitting on a table. One brings value and benefit, the other just sits and gathers dust. Try again.
Fun fact. Those castles existed for a LONG while. Before i was born mom was rushed into the nearby mall to look for something for a wedding (at the time she was helping a event planner at some convention center or- whatever it is) and they encountered it at the disney store. She didnt have the money so she asked the event planner and bought it. So yeah- kinda shows how expensive those castles are with them being avalible for over 20 years
I would not argue about the cost if the persons who actually had to place each of those crystals got most of what was paid for the time it took to do it. I'm sure they weren't, and Disney sure isn't taking care of its workers.
Yeah, this is something that should be a commissioned item from an eccentric billionaire that will one day be donated to a museum when he, she, or their children get tired of looking at it. Maybe that's why it's there in the first place. It's the same in the world of handmade crafts. Crochet/knit blankets and quilts don't get sold at craft fairs because people think they are too expensive so the only options for people to obtain them is to either commission them, make them themselves, or have someone kind enough to make one for them out of the kindness of their hearts. This is because you can buy a knitted blanket or quilt in a store for easily 1/3 of the price due to automation. Crochet in any form is still only made by hand and seeing clothing items done in literal thread being sold for $25-50 dollars screams slave labor to me. Sorry, small rant. But thinking about all the time spent on that means I agree with the price but I don't agree with why it should have been made in the first place.
@@EcstaticTeaTimeIt’s obviously not meant for purchase 🤣 It’s on display to get people walking by to stop in to look at it, and as a result, look around the rest of the shop while there… No one ever seems to criticize the amount of money well-established brands pay for advertising, and we have a tradition of celebrating Superbowl ads, so how is this any different…?
@@xamyx725 Well here's the thing: not everyone watches the Superbowl or the Olympics. I don't. My dad will watch the former and my mom the latter. And I know I am the minority mindset in this case. I do criticize how much money is spent on advertising, coaching, and big American sports, especially with cheerleaders right there as an example of inequal effort to pay. They arguably work just as hard, they have more restrictions on what they look like, how they even get to be a cheerleader in the big leagues is just as much about how pretty they are as their skill, and their schedules are more grueling for it because they don't get paid enough to live around the home stadiums they work at so many still have to work another job, if they can find one that can work around their training schedule. So it is a minority mindset that complains about these things. Just like other issues happening in the US, there are not enough people to tip the tide and start changing systems.
@@msmltvcktl it very well might have something to do with it. Even in jobs where discrimination is illegal, you notice that management changes once they find out you're LGBTQ.
Maybe because they live in California where Dinseyland is at and there is a huge housing crisis and ridiculously expensive rent. Dinseyland didn't inflated the housing market or caused the crazy rental prices.
@@KenikoB if they are making minimum wages they can't afford to live alone. Depending on their job title their wages various. Plus it's 1 in 10 meaning 9 out of 10 they could afford rent.
The logic doesn't track. If I worked at a car dealership and sold a Lamborghini to a rich moron, then took the profits that I made and distributed them to the underpaid janitor that I worked with, would I be a bad person for doing so? The issue at hand is low wages. The castle is a revenue stream that could (and definitely should) be distributed to the workers. Assuming they're making a profit on these ridiculous castles, cutting off that revenue stream would, if anything, be detrimental to paying workers. If the issue at hand is low wages (I fully agree), then it's best to make a logically sound argument. The real issue is that the massive amount of profit that the company collects from customers at all income levels always seems to trickle up instead of down.
@@acupuncturekidafter the Great Depression Roosevelt put in a wealth tax to help people get back. That wealth tax was about 75% of the top 5% money. So you're wrong. California is corrupt just like everyone is in our government these days. We didn't have as much with Roosevelt. Goodness dude. Please study History. Please study why California is corrupt. In places like Denmark, New Zealand etc they have a fair system. It's not completely socialist. They do have capitalism but lobbying is illegal and all the things that make the US politicians corporate fascists is illegal there. Btw Disney World has the same problem and it's in Florida which is a Republican state. If you think you have a side in this country then you're silly. Lol they're all laughing at us and your social war The longer you keep disliking your own people the more they win.
It's much deeper than this. It's not wages and it's not taxes. It's greed, corruption that most people don't understand, lobbyists, getting people to fear unions and corporate fascism. And don't let people trick you about taxes. There was a Great Depression and after that Roosevelt started taxing the top 5% 75% of their income. Go read up on that. ❤
💯 thanks for highlighting this issue. In Florida the amount of cast members who live in their cars and sleep in the magic kingdom parking lot is sick. Alot of those without a car live in the motels on 192
@@jillb9220not many jobs pay better without a degree that takes years to acquire. A lot of them are flown in to work there from other countries as well. It’s not that simple, not everyone is so fortunate as you.
This reminds me of when I got into a conversation/debate with some kid who was convinced that if the employees didn’t like working for Disney, they should buy enough Disney stock to actually sit on the board of investors. This was before the pandemic though. I wonder what shattering realizations he’s had since then.
As someone who works at a themepark (not disney) we all deserve better, shit, all of my adult coworkers have to work two jobs to make ends meet, the rest of them are just highschoolers having summer jobs
A lot of people where I live have to work two jobs, my sister is looking for a third, that's the economy and province's fault not the places we work, they follow wage laws. Part personal responsibility too, people I know who went into trades make a lot of money
Dude no, the park I work at gets interns from overseas for the summer and those of us working full time get cut to one or two days a week, so we have people who don't live here getting more than the people trying to pay rent
@kasperkjrsgaard1447 a person working a theme park (high school and no skilled labor but customer service) should make $25hr? Are you serious? I worked in a foundry in the melting department and poured iron and made $28...you have an incredibly skewed view of value of labor lol.
I’m honestly just glad you added the word “insecure”. I really thought that was going to stay as “one third of them qualify as food”, and that didn’t seem out of character for Disney.
I started off with “holy crap that’s absolutely gorgeous” to “okay that’s really unnecessary” to “why are all big companies evil and out to kill us” Edit: regarding the comments I’ve received about me being easily manipulated by the internet: first, you’re not doing anything to refute what Maggie is saying to change my mind. Second, that is my thought process watching this. The castle is beautiful, but who actually needs to buy this? Was it worth Disney’s money to pay an artist? Why wouldn’t they use the money to pay their employees? Or donate to a charity? Why collaborate with a luxury company? Is that something people wanted?
If an independent artist did this, which a lot of creators I follow could build this from the ground up, THEN I’d be like yeah. That’s badass. Love it. Knowing these were placed by hand by someone that will never see even a fraction of that $250k while other employees literally starve is just… I can’t.
@@paulashe61girl 😂 i don’t think millennials are the ones that created disney. even if they all boycotted the company it’s still a multi billion dollar conglomerate backed by investors and even the government in MANY instances. even the most die hard disney adult is not “creating” the company. someone could go into debt on disney world and it STILL wouldn’t be a fraction of what a single investor has put into disney. it’s so simple minded to blame the consumers for consumerism, and not the companies that force it upon us as if it’s normal.
A few notes about this. Though the price tag is ridiculous, it is a beautiful piece of artwork that took nearly 4,000 hours for the artist to complete. As wild as it is to be sold in a theme park, it's still a piece that should be appreciated based on the artist's work. 50 of them have been made and it is believed that over half of them have been sold. Regarding Disney having this but not paying their employees enough: I don't disagree with those sentiments, but Disney doesn't own this piece. Arribas Brothers is a third-party company that leases space on WDW property. They commissioned the piece and are selling it themselves. Edit: I didn't expect this to blow up, but for anyone reading this thread thinking I'm some kind of villain, I don't disagree that Disney needs to pay their employees better. My issue is that people often have undue or misdirected anger about these types of things.
Thank you... I think it's a beautiful and impressive work too, not trash at all. I'm sure a lot of people and esp children enjoy seeing it in person and taking pictures in front of it. So I'm not sure why it offends this woman so much. Disney not treating it's employees well is a completely unrelated issue to this being made and sold. The internet is just full of haters acting like knowledgeable authorities on everything
Yes, thank you. Also, does anyone understand basic economics anymore? How in the world would selling a $250k product *not* be in the employees best interest? Selling "trash" like this is how this store pays it's rent and pays it's employees.
@@proud2batj87 I mean, I used to also have this mind set, but it's like, even though that's how it should work in theory, they aren't really giving that money to employees. Like, they clearly make a lot of profit on a lot of other stuff, especially this, so why then are the employees still suffering?
@lonewolfcello9814 I think the issue is more nuanced. Apparently Disney pays its employees an average of $23.95 an hour. Hourly pay can range from $15.76 to $46.68 an hour. Depending on your job. A chef, a custodian and a cast member all make different salaries. Sure Disney makes a lot but it also spends a lot each Day to run the parks and make films and give patrons the pristine magical fantasy experience they expect. The daily fireworks alone cost millions. The cost of living in California is high so I can def see someone struggling if they only make $16 an hour and have to commute to the park. Personally I know 2people that have worked for Disney one as a cruise director and another as a barbershop quartet performer and performance director. They both enjoyed their jobs and felt the perks and salary and fun atmosphere was worth it but I don't know how much they made. ...Shrug... regardless. $250k is a drop in the bucket for Disney. A crystal coated castle at Disney is to be expected. Maybe she should do a vid explaining why homeless people are working there. Is it because they offer a housing program? Is it because California and Florida happen to have a large homeless population?
@@Beherenoww Dang, those are all really good points. Yeah I was just kinda thinking very generally in terms of how big corporations, even if they do stuff for the profit, they most likely wouldn't have the ethics to actually pass it down to the workers, focusing more on shareholders, stock prices and bonuses, that kinda stuff. But yeah a video on that stuff would be very interesting to see!
I wish them luck, I was attrations (ride operator) at Disneyland 2008-2012, which was unionized, but it was still the poorest I've been my entire life. I was never homeless, but it barely covered rent (with roommates) food and fuel. At the time the union contracts secured benefits those who had been there for years by severely limiting the pay for newer hires (like myself).
This is why people dgf anymore about working. While employees bust azz to make the company run, they can't pay rent or buy food yet these azzholes can blow $250,000 on some bs. AMERICA IS FED TF UP!
I just built my dream house on a lake. 5 bedrooms 3 1/2 bath on 3 acres of (again) lake front property. I DIDN'T SPEND THAT MUCH ON IT!!! You can't even live in that thing😂😂
I'm gonna have to move out of state because a town house costs more than that where I live. All of my family got housing when it was moderately cheaper, so I'll be the only one away
I'm gonna have to move out of state because a town house costs more than that where I live. All of my family got housing when it was moderately cheaper, so I'll be the only one away
This is the type of stuff that reminds me that the park character actors once had to fight with Disney in order to be allowed to wear their own under garments so they could stop getting crabs from the costumes.
Do you really think this $250,000 castle is a children's toy? It is a marketing gimmick, genius. They don't expect anyone to actually buy it, it's to grab people's attention and get them into the store to buy other stuff.
I don’t even understand the hate against this (as a hippy who believes in aliens )WHEN LOCAL CHURCHES ARE THE SIZE OF APARTMENTS AND DENY SHELTER TO THOSE IN NEED AND ASK MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH TO PROVIDE SHELTER AND DONATION THEN SHAME THEM WHEN THEY DONT!!! EVEN THO CHURCHES WERE BUILT FOR THE NEEDY!!!!!!!!! who gives a flying fuck about a corporation! When there are CHURCHES!! WHO DODGE TAXES AND TAKE MONEY FROM THE FAITHFUL ALL WHILE SHAMING THEM IN ONE LECTURE!!!!! We as humans should first acknowledge that corruption then when the definition of faith is restored in church we can bring ethics INTO MONEY AND BUSINESS!! Change starts small and locally have conversations with your neighbors visit small locals businesses and understand the ethics of your community before you try and change the ethics of a corporation alone. You have to paint a picture. Not just talk about it.
I grew up in church my whole childhood and even tried to find faith after but the LAST TIME I stepped foot into a church was with my friend… I prayed for a sign to continue going cuz I stopped after highschool and RIGHT AFTER I PRAYED THE PASTOR STARTED TALKING ABOUT DOWNLOADING THE CHURCHES NEW APP!!!!! I know church is corrupt not god not Jesus no faith in this world just money. And when you mix faith with money it’s ugly.
@@loosilu Pray tell, how did they get the diamonds to make this? Did they conjure them from pixie dust? Did employees donate their spare dimonds that they just had laying around? Does Disney own a diamond mine? Or did they BUY the diamonds for this project (instead of paying their employees a living wage) and what are the chances that they'll use the money from selling it to pay the employees instead of just filling their own pockets?
I live outside orlando... So many folks work for disney. Such a profitable company that pays great wages for the state .... The problem is what was considered a great wage in 2005 doesnt work anymore and people are just beaten down and afraid to strike.
This is why context is so important for understanding art. If you told me about this before knowing about how Disney treats its employees then I would simply say it's a cool piece of art, but in context it is more like a statement of "let them eat cake".
I mean before I knew about the employee stuff I definitely see that piece as "wow ok that uh.. yeah that looks very McMansion "I have too much money than I know what to do with" levels of vibes" (also tbf I am far from a fan of Disney in general but ye)
Totally agree that it’s absolutely crazy that people can’t live off a salary. However, the price of that castle has nothing to do with how much employees are paid. It’s not a valid argument to equate something they’re selling with how much they’re paying their staff. If they were buying them it would make more sense. A better argument would be “look how much they are spending to upgrade x and y”. I just think it’s a weird argument. As long as the person who made that is getting paid fairly, there’s not anything wrong with an expensive item being sold there.
@@gothtaino I don't see that they implied so in their post. The point is that the amount Disney is selling this item for doesn't have any correlation to how well they're paying their staff. The short implies this is an either/or situation, but it isn't. Disney can make stupid stuff like this AND pay its employees well, if anything they should be using the profits from this to do so.
This item is sold by a third-party company called Arribas Bros. (AKA Crystal Arts) that operates out of the Disney parks and even sell their items on Shop Disney. They rent space from Disney but are not owned by them.
@@NoThankUBeQuiet not anymore. A lot of animators got laid off last year after Wish failed in the box office. Instead of learning from their mistakes, they decide to punish animators who have hinted that the movie was sabotaged by executive meddling. Also not sure if you know this but Moana 2 isn't actually Moana 2. It's a Disney +series they're reediting into a film. That's another decision by Bob Iger, not Chapek.
@@drewt1717 What if you factor-in the $billions in losses? Disney streaming loss for the year ending March 2024 was $4billion. Theatrical loss so far in 2024 was $20million. etc.
Uh...employee salary doesn't have any relation to that. Employees need improved and secured rights, a living wage, benefits, and dignity. That has nothing to do with this castle. Why would it? A major corporation allowing an artist to sell an overpriced pretty thing in a store has zero connection to the way that corporation treats employees. Address the REAL issue. You mention the real problems but no one notices, they're focused on the complete lack of any logic in your 'argument'. Conglaturations, a winner is you for getting attention - not advancing the discussion of worker's rights.
Honestly, it’s beautiful and I am happy it exists, and people were paid to create such incredible art. Yes, Disney should pay their workers more, but this piece isn’t what’s preventing Disney from increasing their wages.
@@bryaneberly4407you can say that about literally anything. Just a big pile of plastic, just a big pile of wood, just a big pile of metal. If you dont like art or appreciate just move on but you dont need to insult it just because you cant appreciate it yourself
Literally. Common people are always mad at the wrong things. A little bit of critical thinking would reveal that rich people having the money to afford an albeit frivalous piece of art and craftsmanship is not the problem. It's just that corporations chronically underpay their employees. In reality, the two things have almost nothing to do with each other, this goes for every other luxury item and lifestyle that can be bought with money that common people are angry and judgemental of. It's just jealousy of the ability to live in Abundance or Excess and the lack of ability to focus their anger on who and what actually matters.
@@bryaneberly4407 every industry has its clients, obviously you dont care for the art industry so just move along and focus on something you do care about instead of being mad about something you dont ❤️
@@alisambrano i saw someone review the advent calendar last year and it was like 1200.. for some ugly christmas ornaments that you dont even get to see before you buy them
Well, I agree with you that a 250,000 bejeweled Cinderella's Castle is a disgusting waste of money. Last I checked, employment at Disney is still voluntary. If you choose to work somewhere that you can't put a roof over your head or food in your stomach, that's on you!
Whoa! You unloaded on Disney. Good on you, I despise the Disney company. They have jacked the cost of admission and most families can no longer afford it.
I looked up the VIP experience just for fun... It's like 500-800 bucks an hour with a minimum of 7 hours. That doesn't include the price of your tickets either. So that's minimum 3500 plus the price of your 200+ dollar ticket per person. The fact that ticket prices are 200-350 bucks for a one day ticket is crazy to me. Smh.
Disney didmt spend a dime on that castle. Swarovski places it there and makes money as they sell and Disney gets a piece. So if they sell one they make money for your employees your worried about. 🤦
Walt Disney would weep if he could see what his company has become. Disney started drawing as a kid as a form of escape from reality, and got into movies so that everybody else, no matter what class, could temporarily escape into a world of warmth and kindness, and then he literally opened "the happiest place on Earth" to bring that beauty closer to us. His workers had incredible rights, and he worked like a man obsessed to keep Disney non-corporate and caring all his life. If he weren't already dead, the current form of Disney would kill him.
I mean, it's very well documented he was a raging antisemite, incredibly sexist in his hiring and wage practices, and deeply, deeply homophobic. To the point that even when society at large was recognizing the harms in these types of prejudices and moving away from them he and the company were doubling down on some very regressive policies. Walt was no kind of Saint.
I don't what stone you live under but Disney became the KING in corporatations in his day. It was absolutely his dream to have a mega kingdom of money driven by capitalism. Oh he wouldn't approve what's being made now because 90% of it is remakes and sequels. And he notoriously disliked sequels. But that doesn't mean he weren't a staunch capitalist.
The problem isn't that people wanna buy it, the problem is that it's ridiculously expensive and non of what it costs is going to the employees who actually deserve that money
@@NotD-kp3by Oh my gosh employee not getting paid the amount they deserve!!! …. Dude that happens everywhere in the U.S. it’s not just Disney. Like, the job I had in the past paid the employees very little and barely paid for new equipments and my boss got a new car… it’s nothing new.
Your videos always get a laugh out of me - often the only thing that can. Most days the paralysis of depression and anxiety, and the ever growing list of things I need to do *now*, keep me in a literal corner of my room. Thanks for being a bright spot in a dark life.
Girl, that newscaster/computerized/asmr voice pitch was fvcking perfect!! 😂 Loved it! Damn straight. On a separate note, I've learned a few things in the last few years that have made me hopeful that Disney does a bit of a crash and burn. Imma add this one on the pyre. 😊
@michellemiller4742 Yeahh, I got that.... I was saying she did it well and it was funny. That's what the laughing emoji was about. Guess I thought that was as obvious as you thought mine was.
@@Kelli.B. That is not misophonia. internet creators are using annoying ASMR settings. You are not special. misophonia is a sensation, not a condition that you have. Its like when people say " Im IFNTJ" im an empath....its just like horoscopes. And ofcourse people confirm their own delusion by saying things online like;'i have found my fellow empath/sufferer/victim/, arent we special? Lets confirm eachothers bias!
I want to do this with my channel. This is such a funny idea. With that being said as a former Disney employee, I have a lot of respect for you and thanks for looking out for the little guy.
Do you… do you think the fact that they’re selling something for a ridiculous price has any bearing on employee salary? It’s not made to order, it says limited edition. People are not lining up to buy these- the same one has been sitting there for a decade. It’s a showroom piece. The salary discussion and this are completely different topics with no relation to one another.
This. And the fact that high price also entails the hundreds of hours workers put into creating this piece and quality of materials used. Should they not be paid fairly because someone doing another job isn’t?
Thank you. This is one the dumbest reels I have come across online in a long time. There is literally no correlation. Disney is addressing consumer need as there are park guests who WANT to and have the financially capacity to purchase this set without blinking twice. The increased cost of living in Central Florida is not keeping up with the pay in many industries - not just entertainment - (for just one of many example, lots of people moving here from wealthier states and countries have been spiking up the costs on housing). So even with pay raises and company perks, it still probably isn’t enough to meet employee needs. Disney may not innocent as they are a business and their priority is to make a profit and keep shareholders happy, but there are so many factors that contribute to why employees are having a tougher time these days than in the past - and one cannot connect them selling and expensive products as to why employees are struggling. This reel is nonsensical…
I worked at Disney World 20 years ago and I loved the job, but I definitely qualified as “food insecure” and I literally couldn’t afford to keep working there as much as I wanted to. The only thing that made it bearable was that I loved the job and I was living with roommates that also worked at the parks and were also broke.
Disney employs over 77,000 cast members. This cost $250,000. That would equate to each cast member gaining just under $3.25. But that's based on the price they are selling the piece for, not how much they paid for it, so reallocating that money would give cast members even less. I'm not saying Disney is in the right, but this just feel like fighting stupid with stupid.
She's not saying that they should reallocate the money for that castle to the employees. Overall though Disney and the parks overcharge for basics as well as the fancier things. This is just an extreme example. But at the same time they managed to pay their employees horrendously.
I work at Disney, they provide free food it’s just for all businesses that the pay isn’t increasing enough to battle the increasing price of housing the prices of apartments are becoming what the price of a 2000 sq ft homes used to be… less of a Disney issue and more of an inflation issue
@@Shastasnow It could, they might stop flushing money down the toilet with all those movies that nobody wants and focus on ones that are actually compelling stories like they used to.
I totally agree with improving salaries and treating their employees way better. But people online do have the tendency to get pissed at things they won’t consume and not made for them
Because it's also about the waste of space and resources. We're all allowed to be upset about the fact that this thing is an abuse of all human concepts. I would be so interested to see if any consciousness finds anything to like about it. It is, I suppose, a testament to the perversity of human tenacity. Somebody sat with glue for a very long time. That's months of some seriously disturbed person's life.
@@batintheattic7293 its a peice of artwork. You dont have to like it to acknowledge that. "Ooh, I dont like this, I'm going to insult the person who was hired to make it".
To be fair ive seen that exact castle since i was a kid. So that specific castle was made over 20 years ago at least. That castle has nothing to do with the companies inability to provide their employees with a livable wage. I agree with the overall point of the video, but the castle has no affect on the subject. Chances that more than 5 people in the world bought a custom made crystal castle is very low. The castle was more than likely made to be more of a display rather than a item thats for sale. They have a whole dress boutique in disney land where custom made dresses go for at least 200 dollars. To me thats mpre of a problem because the entire store is like that whereas with the castle its in a display case in a store that offers several cheap crystal souvenirs inside. So, with the crystal store they cater to a wider range of people in comparison to the boutique. Thats not even going on to talk about how expensive it is to just eat at a restaurant there.
And if Disney actually shared the profits with their hourly employees, there'd be nothing wrong with it, other than the excess of it all! And of course a total waste of money.
About half of these castles have sold, and there’s been around 50 made, they’re also not sold by Disney, so it has zero effect on how employees are paid.
Something like this would appreciate in value over time. It's both Disney and Swarovski, so basically if someone bought this I could end up worth millions. Even some old Disney toys that originally cost 5 dollars are now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. So I could see someone with that kind of money seeing it as a long term asset.
@@kristingallo2158Not exactly. There needs to be a market for this and this hasn't sold, and if I understand what another comenter said, it's not new and has been around since at least the early to mid 90s, if not earlier.
Pretty much anywhere you went on vacation with your parents (never made it to Disneyland) but you know what I loved on trips to Colorado? Those shiny tumbled rocks and the fool's gold. My brother and I though fool's gold (iron pyrite) was so funny and fun.
You should look at Sara Shakeel’s work, she does Swarovski crystal stuff that I think is so silly (most of it is photoshop with a “special technique” developed to show the shine of swarovskis… it’s just sparkles in random spots)
The thing with the cast members is 100% an issue, but i fail to see how disney selling this has anything to do with the cast member issue. The problem is disney being money hungry and refusing to pay cast members more despite the constantly inflating florida and california economy. Not the fact that disney sells expensive stuff like this.
Indeed. Unless whoever's making these monstrosities to order is getting grossly underpaid like park employees, the mere existence of the crystal castles doesn't drive anyone into penury. They do need to treat their staff better, and I do miss the glassblowers.
This castle has nothing to do with people being homeless or hungry. Its not like the bought this instead of buying someone food. Two totally different subjects. Im not a fan of Disney but how sparkley that must be!!!!
Yes, it DOES have something to do with DISNEY employees being homeless and going hungry. DISNEY chose to spend a ridiculous amount of money to have this thing constructed, set up, well lit, and guarded while at the same time NOT paying their employees a living wage. (Most likely the people who hand set every crystal on this monstrocity were grossly under paid as well.) 😢
Is Disney for older adults? That Swarovski castle is not being force-sold to employees. That's meant for rich parents whose children need assurance that they have their parent's attention for the few minutes it takes to convince them to buy it.
Former cast member of 14 years here and I want to say I LOVE everything you've said here, I was even a tipped employee so can't complain as much, but those poor hourly employees are SAINTS, plz be kind to the cast members people they don't control the prices, they're often just college kids or retirees and I swear they're smiling out of love for the idealism, not cause they're paid well❤
You could literally rebuild that for 50 bucks with a few old cardboard boxes, cheap acrylic paint and a lot of cheap crafting crystals. They come in rolls with glue on them after all.
I’m a little confused, wouldn’t selling something either this expensive, or selling anything just put money into the company that it can then use to pay people? Am I misunderstanding something?
That’s the thing: no matter how much money Disney makes, they aren’t going to pay their employees any better. They’re worth billions and yet their employees are treated like shit
You're not misunderstanding anything, she is. Selling an expensive pretty thing - especially since it's sold by the artist, just on Disney property - has nothing to do with employee wages. Disney has the money to pay employees, they just don't. The castle has nothing to do with it.
@@Flutter_Aeina a lot of Disney employees sell food out of vendors, that's minimum wage work. Why would Disney have to pay more than that. If they don't like working at Disney there are other min wage jobs they can choose
@@Flutter_Aeina that's not what it is at either Disney locations in the US. California for instance, the cost of living is equal to where I live and min wage is $17 here, Disney employees make $20 more than min wage where I live but cost of living is the same. Inflation is making it hard to live not wages paid by the company. $7 dollars sounds incredibly low, min wage where I live was $8 when I started working 15 years ago. What is the cost of rent in comparison to wages there?
Another interesting fact is that Swarovski recently took away the ability for the common crafter to purchase Swarovski's crystals. The entire beading community felt betrayed. Swarovski decided to focus their skill? snobbery? and anything else, on the 'high end' aspect of their company. This is what they dumped many customers over? This is more profitable? I would LOVE to know how many of those castles they have sold?
Truth. No more jewelry or anything made with crystals unless you were making garbage like this Cinderella castle.
Saudi billionaires would be the only ones or Chinese CCCP members maybe. Might be the only buyers.
@@katsiduzynski488It's not even attractive. It would look better made out of Legos and cost a fraction of the price.
@@emilala9049 It wouldn't be much cheaper, if at all, if it were made with Legos. Have you seen the price of Lego sets?
It’s not about actually selling it, it’s marketing!
If I had $250,000 sitting around, I would invest it into a house that I could live in!
Let's be honest, if you had the money to buy this thing, you'd already have a house to live in, because your parents were millionaires and you were born with money. That's the kind of people this thing is for. It's for celebrities who have more money than brains.
Absolutely
There's a TV show in the UK called "Escape to the Chateau", about a couple doing up a chateau (I know, whoda guessed 🤭). The wife sold her London flat and they bought a 45 room French chateau for the price of her flat/this curious thing, it was like 10 years ago, but still...
This comment needs way more likes!
@@johncheetham4607Not women. Humans. Crows. Etc.
I'm sure the people who are buying this have more than one house already.
Fun fact: this "useless trash" is actually a marketing gimmick
By having something outrageously expensive, everything of a reasonable price seems cheap by comparison, even when it's at the high end
Guitar stores do this too, they have the 50k guitars at display in the front of the store and you have to wander around a bit to find the reasonably priced guitars, which seem much cheaper than they are because "those guitars at the front were 50k"
The problem isnt useless shit being made, the problem is the useless shit being used to get away with taking as much as they want from us poor fucks
Coincidentally this also describes my dating strategy. I put on my ugliest outfit and lead with my worst attributes so everything else seems not as bad in comparison.
Problem is, much like the castle I can’t seem to convince anyone to take me home with them 🥲💔
This strategy would never work on me, because I would think "this store is out of my price range" and so I wouldn't even enter in the first place.
Maybe a guitar store is different because they are specialised objects that you don't purchase every day or without doing research.
Try being a left-handed bassist in a right handed world; the same new bass that runs 400$ as a right handed instrument is suddenly TWICE THAT FOR A LEFT-HANDED. 😭😭
Worse, the resale is crap (your 800$ bass is only worth 200$ resale), so it's best to buy second hand.
This is so real because id unironically buy it
That's all well and good if you're rich. I'm not so I'd look round point and laugh loudly at any one buying any thing. Then loudly whisper should give that money to poor enployeys if they can spend the money ON THAT
Her initial hello…had a “My name is Indigo Montoya, you kill my father, prepare to die” vibe 😂
Real 😂😂😂😂
Love that film, The Princess Bride!
It's "killed" my father not kill😮
Exactly 💯😂
Best movie ever.
I noticed a decline in Disney employee friendliness over the past 2 decades. (I'm 40... I guess I'm old now lol.) When I was a little girl the employees were the warmest, happiest people! When I later brought my 6-year-old around 2007 it was shocking how negative the employees were getting. My last visit in 2023 was REALLY sad. Employees were looking so downtrodden... obvious fake smiles on 90% of them.. like they tried but were run down.
That is really sad. We went when our kids were little in 2013. Everyone was wonderful.
It is sad for the employees, but also sad for the guests. It seems like Disney would get more repeat business by offering a good experience for the guests AND cast members. Eventually, their reputation for churning out crap and treating their cast members like 💩 will catch up with them.
I worked at a (non Disney) amusement park, and I had a friend who worked at Disney. This was many years ago now, but I remember being so surprised at how well they were treated, and suspected that's why people thought they were nicer than we were. Seeing what they're going through now I see why they would be as run down as just a random terrible amusement park's workers.
I went multiple times in 2023 and 2022 and the employees were very happy and friendly every time.
I wouldn’t be smiling either if I were being abused by screaming kids & their drunk, entitled parents for a living
@@aarishowton8037that's there job. Lol
I remember in the early 2000s (at Disney World not sure about land) there used to be a glass blowing exhibition and every year they would make a gigantic handblown castle. They would raffle the castle off at the end of the year...now the exhibition is just a jewelry store and this replaced the glass castle.
The Magic left the Magic kingdom when money became more important than imagination.
They give us what we tolerate…boycotting is a thing…
It’s an amusement park. You’re trying to add more meaning to it than it has. Would you act like this about a 6 flags? Of course not, but everyone thinks Disney is supposed to be different because it gives them the feels. Money has always been more important. Walt was worth about $1 billion in today’s money when he died. He didn’t make that much by not caring about money.
@@Idontwantone950 You can have both.
And they're losing the money they cheeped out for.
@@Idontwantone950When your gimmick is childlike wonder, imagination and creativity, then yeah, it's not weird for people to expect you to uphold your theme. That's always been the theme of the parks. Even Walt cared about the Disney esque experience in his parks. He was always constantly changing the rides and coming up with creative ideas to make his films come to life in his park. The last time I checked, six flags wasn't specifically a child cartoon like attraction, and they never market themselves that way. They're meant to be an amusement park, and Disney is meant to be a DISNEY themed park. Disney can care about money, but they should at least do the favor of giving their fans quality shit. They don't even offer that with their modern movies nowadays.
Before you started explaining it and zooming in, I just thought it was Lego so I was confused because it would be really cool if it was just Lego. But after hearing the details and seeing the zoomed in parts, I agree. Thats f’cking stupid
I have know some things with Swarovski Crystals and this seems cheap in comparison... but given the current LEGO sets 250.000 would also seem cheap if this was made out of Legos
@michaelklaus I'm sorry... what!? $250 LEGOS!? THEY'RE BOXES OF PLASTIC
@DeaDiabola look up the big Star Wars Lego sets and their botanical series. They can get ridiculously expensive.
@@kristinaschmitt8298 Oh my GOD you are right - are all Lego sets like this now!? It's literally just a shitheap of plastic...
@@DeaDiabolano, not all, no need to get hysterical. Only the big sets that take several hours to complete, like the bonsai tree. Denigrating them by calling them “just plastic” is rich from a micro plastic filled organism such as yourself 😂
"They were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should." 🤣
I was watching Ryan McCartan's twitch streams. The guy who used to play duggy on Liv and Maddie, and resently he was talking about his experience when working for disney and he was saying that while he was filming liv and maddie he was also working as a cast member at one of the disney parks and he was still living in his car during that time because they werent paying him enough to even have a roof over his head and that he would have a gym membership just so that he could shower and change clothes. Its really sad how someone who works that hars for a company gets treated that badly.
Disney isn’t the problem, you don’t hear these issues coming out of the Florida parks just the California parks, the problem is Gavin Newsom and democrats who I bet most Disney employees vote for.
@@tiffanyroberts6460 LOL, ok there Tiffany, tell me more about how Disney is the devil incarnate, but only in CALIFORNIA where the evil Democrats reign. You might want to look at Ronda Santis' attempt to take Disney down a peg in Florida which was a miserable failure before spouting bullshit about California's problems.
@@tiffanyroberts6460 "The problem isn't the company that gives the man his wages and doesn't give a single fuck about him struggling. It's obviously the fault of this one politician from this one state!" Braindead.
The problem is California rent prices. Yes, Florida is expensive too, but not $6k a month expensive.
@@Beautiful_Mess I agree, but the poster above sounds like a deranged Republican who blames everything on Democrats and “elites” despite the myriad of reasons for Disney employees problems. I know a few Floridian Disney employees and they have to deal with the the same stuff (high rents, low pay, long hours) everyone else has to.
I actually worked for Disney, and got a call from a customer (guest) asking me why his castle had not been delivered on the morning of his daughters birthday, the daughter was 6. Getting screamed at over the phone about something that costs as much as a house is an experience.
I mean...why wasn't it delivered? Quarter of a million gift for my daughter's birthday not showing up , I couldn't say I'd be delighted 😅
@@thesoul2sqeezefr same 😂
I'd have either hung up or lost my shit on the guest. Either way I'd be losing my job that day. Just gross
@@thesoul2sqeezeapparently you missed the entire point of the story. Big shocker for people these days though
@@kheventplanner lol of course nobody wants to be or should be screamed at at their job. But I'm also being realistic like it's understandable someone might be pissed about such an expensive gift for their daughters birthday not turning up. I'm sure you tell them not to worry and invite them to the party huh 😏
Another thing: Swarovski crystals are notorious for being horrific in quality. They have such inconsistent colors, crack easily, and fall out like crazy. There's a reason most jewelry stores that carry pieces with Swarovski crystals on them don't have gemstone protection on those pieces.
Edit: A lot of people have said that it's just colored glass, which is something I totally forgot about. Yeah definitely don't buy Swarovski pieces if you're looking for something of quality.
It’s cause they’re not gem stones. They’re glass.
Damn
@@mackie911 even worse, they're glass that contains a high amount of lead.
You don’t put gemstone protection on glass. They’re not crystals they’re GLASS.
Yeaaahhhh just look up the videos on their Christmas calendar last year. 😬😬 specially Cherry Wallis and Alexandria Ryan. Whom are both always super honest… yeah it’s yikesville how bad and cheaply made they were
I've never understood the attraction to Swarovski "crystal". It's just cut glass. People will waste money on anything.
Apparently it was meant to be a "diamond anyone could afford". Then it all went to hell.
@@maximillian1109
lol 🤣 The same could be said about diamonds. Then came the Dutch. Then DeBeers…
Now that diamonds can be man-made much more easily, and efficient, than mining… All bets are off.
@@maximillian1109
If the process isn’t sold to DeBeers. By next year, gem quality man-made diamonds will cost less to produce than cut glass.
They used to be nice and affordable funnily enough.
@@DeaDiabola
Supply, and demand. The supply is artificially decreased, to increase demand. That, and great marketing. They gave "crystals" to celebrities, for promotion. You know how sheeple buy anything the Kartrashians are wearing.
You know, the original owner, Daniel Swarovski had "wanted to make a diamond anyone could afford"
132 years & a few greedy Swarovski's later... we have this eyesore with a heafty price tag... Daniel's rolling in his grave.
He should haunt them.
That's so incredibly vile.. Daniel Swarovski and his legacy deserves better.. along with the huge chunk of humanity that also deserves better!
I also hope he haunts them for all of eternity!
The worst part? It's literally glass! Crystals aren't even precious stones. How anyone can sleep at night charging that much for GLASS is beyond me.
@@shelbyb9965Well someone had to manually glue each cristal to that thing which would be pretty long and annoying process if the tiny frog i bedazzled once is anything to go by lol. Also it's Disney and Disney will change whatever the fuck they want for their IP. So that would be where the price would come from i imagine. The cristals themselves wouldn't be that expensive
oh so is walt disney
As a former intern, yes we deserve better. We deserve not to be accused of stealing if a boss gives us a food item to eat and we don't eat it at the correct area. This was a real thing they said to me that happened when i was doing orientation.
Its a shame employees get treated like they do because so many are great people.
Umm Disney is making people work for them?
@@thesun-N-moon8885Do you work bud?
@@thesun-N-moon8885I genuinely don't understand this question.
Also, I'm sorry you had to deal with that,OP. I hope you have since found a less toxic workplace.
@@thesun-N-moon8885 don't you think employers should respect their employees? We're all really on the same team.
The employees voted to unionize. It's called Magic United. Hopefully, this will change things for employees who are more dedicated than Disney deserves.
Until they find out how much they’re going to be mandated to pay in dues every month… 🤣
They have been unionized for decades
@@xamyx725yep, unions charge outrageous dues... I know my union (Pipefitters) charges me an exorbitant amount a month... $37!!! I only get fully paid health insurance, $250,000 automatic life insurance, a pension, paid training and some useless thing called a union rep.
STFU and let the grown ups talk.
And hopefully the union will do a better background check on the employees so they stop hiring pedophiles and sex offenders.
And hopefully the union can do a better background check on the employees so they stop hiring pedophiles and sex offenders.
I remember reading an interview with Walt Disney, the originator of the company, talking about how everyone who worked at Disneyland was important. He respected his employees, not matter the job and made sure they were paid a decent paycheck. There were no "lesser" jobs. It is sad to see how far the company has fallen. 😭
You know Walt Disney was racist , misogynistic and a possible pedo.
1941 Disney Animator Strike.
He didn’t even credit the voice actors or animators in his movies?
As a former Cast Menber, I agree Disney needs to do better BUT this $250,000 castle is not sold by Disney technically. It is sold by Arribas Brothers which is a third-party company on property. They have nothing to do with the way Disney cast members are treated or paid, they only have control over their own employees treatment and pay.
Yes, but the issue is that Disney is paying them that much for marketing, labor & supplies instead of paying cast members better. For that 3rd party company, Disney is the client, so any materials & labor used gets charged to Disney.
@@MICCZECH But Disney isn't their client. This is made and sold solely by the Arribas Brothers. It's not made for Disney to sell.
@@krt2018 idk the deal exactly, but Disney is definitely profiting off it it via licensing the IP. If they weren’t involved they’d be getting lawyers after them for sure😂
@@humansizedbirdnest9435 the point I was replying to was that Disney was spending money for this castle to be made, which isn't the case. Each castle is made to order so the customer is paying for it to be made, not Disney. And if Disney is profiting off the sales of the castle, which would be very little money as theyve only sold 5 of these, wouldn't we want people to buy it so that they money could go to the employees? Whether or not it actually does isn't the point, the point is that you can't use this castle as an argument that Disneh doesn't pay its employees enough bc they don't actually make enough or spend enough money on the castles to make any kind of dent in their employees' paychecks.
@krt2018 ohhhh so it's not Disney marketing, it's just Swarovski marketing, so yes they're probably paying Disney then.
Companies care more about filling stockholders pockets than taking care of their employees.
And that is the major problem with capitalism, eventually they are no longer able to increase profit because the market is completely satiated, which leads to cost cutting measures that slowly destroy the company until it fails.
@@Krishnath.Dragon Thanks for letting us all know that you utterly fail to understand capitalism.
@existingthinking7771 Why wouldn't you expect a company to focus on it's primary reason for existing? They are a business and not a charity. That does not preclude them from treating their employees well but it makes your statement meaningless drivel.
Yes it is. It is a &94 million charity for its 7 member C-suite.
I know as a former Barnes and Noble employee from the 2000s.
They've sold shit like that for decades. They've had far too long to get their shit together.
Pretty sure they've never actually sold a single one of these. That one has sat in the Disneyland shop since the 80's.
@@Serai3
I think that's a shame. I get so much enjoyment thinking of rich imbeciles separated from their largely unearned money...
@@Serai3Agreed for this particular item.But many other bullshit items definitely sold by disney and people bought them.
I say this as a Disney adults and have taken my kids there on multiple occasions.
Hence the shit "like" this, whether or not that one specifically sold. The point still stands. Corporations like Disney need to pay their workers better.
They get free publicity from the “ outrage” they generate and they sell a bunch of them to the mega rich people who spoil their kids.
As a current seasonal Disney employee, yes. They make it impossible to get out of the Disney bubble and everything costs a fortune. Yesterday I tried to treat my friends to a day in the parks with the free tickets I get (after having worked 600 hours lol), but they ended up having to pay for all my food because I had -$5 in my bank account.
Swarovski has a contract with Disney to sell things with the IP on it and make this showpieces for the Disney locations to draw attention to the mass produced crystal pieces. It’s like designers dressing people on the red carpet, it gets their name recognition for the people most likely to have to buying power for their products
I can just imagine seeing that in Paris Hilton's dog's house real soon.
So that's why Disney is such a trash company, thanks for the info! =]
Disney is trash company bevause they partner with other companies? @danielleclark-zack864
That sort of the issue, they care more about working with a brand like Swarovski instead of actually taking care of their employees - which they can clearing more than afford.
Which is even more wild cause didn't Swarovski stop selling to the general public years ago? Atleast they no longer sell their gems, which screwed over some artists I know who used their gems in their work
This. Went to Disneyland a few years back. Tipped an amazing Cast Member - they broke down sobbing, they'd been so hungry. They were starving and couldn't afford to eat. Our tip had been enough to buy them food for the day. Went back a few years later and I don't think they work there anymore but wherever they are I think about them often and hope they're doing better.
You’d think the employees would AT LEAST be allowed to eat any leftovers of the food found at Disney, ideally be able to eat at Disney free of charge, at best have a nice fancy employee caf as a thank you but apparently not lmao.
And if someone is going to argue business and margins or whatever, Disney can 100% tank the fucking pocket change it’d need to feed their workers.
@@redred7702 my local wendys is better than disney because the employees can at least eat for free during their lunch breaks…jfc
So many of my classmates work at Disney. But Disney paris. They love it. This is an america problem first and foremost because they simply can’t get away with treating their employees like that in Europe
@@redred7702I'll argue business and margins(jokingly, of course).... The more well fed, housed employees tend to work for you longer and provide better service, and better employee livelihood is better all around for every aspect of the economy. I remember being hungry all through school, and that meant I was not focusing on the task at hand, had to catch up once I got away from the issue, my parent.
Jesus that is BLEAK
It's so sad what's happened to the Disney parks over the years. My mom was a Cast Member back in the 90s, a street photographer at Disney Studios, and it was a *wonderful* place to work. Then Eisner and Iger took their turns sucking every bit of joy out of working at the parks in the name of cost-cutting.
That's so sad! People kept telling me I needed to ring a certain Belle and I have heard horror stories from people who actually worked in similar positions. I said, "All that and Florida humidity too? Nope."
Exactly this! My father was a contractor who worked for Disney back in the 80s when they were still doing a lot of construction and additions to the park. Our family relocated to Orlando just because the work was so good and such good pay and benefits. It's so sad that now their employees can't even make enough to survive, nevermind thrive.
I remember Kissimmee in the late 60's, before Disney. It was a pleasant little town.
I googled prices for visiting Disney world a few weeks ago. Had been there in the early 90s and liked it a lot.
Prices are ridiculous. Only millionaire families can go there now. I could not afford going there by myself let alone with my family.
Eisner? The Eisner years were incredible.
The same goes for Trader Joe's employees.
You may love your trendy Trader Joe's store, but the employees, the Crew, they are poor. The only ones who make a livable wage are the Mates and the Captains, but the Crew do most of the hard work.
And for anyone saying, "The Crew make $30 an hour!". Wrong! Trader Joe's hardly pays for your experience when you are hired, the starting pay is less than $20, and it takes YEARS to get to $30 an hour. The "raises" every seven months are a mere 75 CENTS. 75 CENTS every seven months. Inhumane. Not cute. Not trendy. Exploitive.
Good luck keeping up with the cost of living while being a Crew at Trader Joe's
Ah yes. We can afford $250,000 dollars for a shiny paperweight but can’t afford paid overtime for our workers. EDIT: ok forget overtime, apparently DISNEY the MULTIBILLION DOLLAR COMPANY can’t afford to pay their employees a few more thousand dollars a year. The median cost of living in the us is $43,913.50 it can range anywhere between $32,336 and $55,491. The median salary of a cast member per year is $39,000 but this can range between $33,000 and $46,000. Which is clearly, either below or just above it. Don’t forget taxes! The people who live in an area where the cost of living is $42,000, still have to pay government tax which brings the pay of only $39,000, which is already too little, to an even smaller amount. This is all from me, thank you for reading. (All currency is in US dollar)
Forget overtime, they won't pay them living wages!
@@Just1Nora You are correct, when deciding between a shiny paperweight and healthy, happy employees, the directors of Disney clearly chose wrong.
@poseidonskidfromfrance capitalism always chooses wrong.
Dude, sorry, but I read dictators at first instead of directors.@poseidonskidfromfrance
Aren't they selling this to someone with more money than sense so they can have money for said employees? If they are in fact making these collector items as a source of revenue then it's not so much that this exists, but they don't share the profits properly.
You're delivery is perfect. Thank you for putting out human perspective, verses the BS of happiest place on earth.
It’s not because she doesn’t understand what she’s talking about lol
She embodies why women dont excell, looking at invention and creation and scoffing and constantly going back to "oooo wot bout poor" . If we all thought like that there would be no space exploration, no internet, no medicine, we'd be still be in 1800s.
@@armondtanz Wow! That was extremely seסst and unnecessary. Women excel perfectly fine. Men of history have been known to block women's advancements by keeping them in "their place." Some have even stolen their ideas as their own. So, if you're asking, "why does it seem as though mostly men have progressed in life and women haven't?" Well, it's not because of how she feels about that dumb@$$ castle. It's most likely because they had their ideas, inventions and theories stolen by someone who thinks like you. The castle is stupid. Period. Giving a d@mn about others is how humanity will honestly progress. If it weren't for people like her, who gave a d@mn about others, we'd still have sl@very and segreg@tion in The States. We don't, though, and that's true progression. Just a small example on a worldwide scale. There's no point in "exploring" space when we can't manage our own sh¡t here on Earth. She's on the right track.
@@armondtanz exploration and the internet are completely different than a bunch of crystals sitting on a table. One brings value and benefit, the other just sits and gathers dust. Try again.
@armondtanz Dude it's a castle made out of pretty rocks, not a cure for cancer.
Honestly, the Swarvoski section of Disney Springs more of an art gallery than an actual store
Fun fact. Those castles existed for a LONG while. Before i was born mom was rushed into the nearby mall to look for something for a wedding (at the time she was helping a event planner at some convention center or- whatever it is) and they encountered it at the disney store. She didnt have the money so she asked the event planner and bought it. So yeah- kinda shows how expensive those castles are with them being avalible for over 20 years
I would not argue about the cost if the persons who actually had to place each of those crystals got most of what was paid for the time it took to do it. I'm sure they weren't, and Disney sure isn't taking care of its workers.
Imho, corporations like Disney and Amazon are bigger threats to the average person's life than Putin or Jinping.
I know how to do it.. use non branded stones.. I'd change 25,000.. it'd take nearly a year. Have seen this.. it's been there since at least the 80s
Yeah, this is something that should be a commissioned item from an eccentric billionaire that will one day be donated to a museum when he, she, or their children get tired of looking at it. Maybe that's why it's there in the first place.
It's the same in the world of handmade crafts. Crochet/knit blankets and quilts don't get sold at craft fairs because people think they are too expensive so the only options for people to obtain them is to either commission them, make them themselves, or have someone kind enough to make one for them out of the kindness of their hearts. This is because you can buy a knitted blanket or quilt in a store for easily 1/3 of the price due to automation. Crochet in any form is still only made by hand and seeing clothing items done in literal thread being sold for $25-50 dollars screams slave labor to me.
Sorry, small rant. But thinking about all the time spent on that means I agree with the price but I don't agree with why it should have been made in the first place.
@@EcstaticTeaTimeIt’s obviously not meant for purchase 🤣 It’s on display to get people walking by to stop in to look at it, and as a result, look around the rest of the shop while there… No one ever seems to criticize the amount of money well-established brands pay for advertising, and we have a tradition of celebrating Superbowl ads, so how is this any different…?
@@xamyx725 Well here's the thing: not everyone watches the Superbowl or the Olympics. I don't. My dad will watch the former and my mom the latter. And I know I am the minority mindset in this case. I do criticize how much money is spent on advertising, coaching, and big American sports, especially with cheerleaders right there as an example of inequal effort to pay.
They arguably work just as hard, they have more restrictions on what they look like, how they even get to be a cheerleader in the big leagues is just as much about how pretty they are as their skill, and their schedules are more grueling for it because they don't get paid enough to live around the home stadiums they work at so many still have to work another job, if they can find one that can work around their training schedule.
So it is a minority mindset that complains about these things. Just like other issues happening in the US, there are not enough people to tip the tide and start changing systems.
"This... *thing* " LOL
One in Ten Homeless Disney Employees.
You are correct.
Everything is STUPID until they fix that
One in ten people are also LGBTQIA. I hope that's not a factor in their homelessness.
I've been there. It's devastating
@@msmltvcktl it very well might have something to do with it. Even in jobs where discrimination is illegal, you notice that management changes once they find out you're LGBTQ.
Maybe because they live in California where Dinseyland is at and there is a huge housing crisis and ridiculously expensive rent. Dinseyland didn't inflated the housing market or caused the crazy rental prices.
@@CrimsonEclipseno but they do pay their employees inadequately if they're not able to afford housing
@@KenikoB if they are making minimum wages they can't afford to live alone. Depending on their job title their wages various. Plus it's 1 in 10 meaning 9 out of 10 they could afford rent.
A crystal ornament the price of a decent house in many countries.
The logic doesn't track.
If I worked at a car dealership and sold a Lamborghini to a rich moron, then took the profits that I made and distributed them to the underpaid janitor that I worked with, would I be a bad person for doing so?
The issue at hand is low wages.
The castle is a revenue stream that could (and definitely should) be distributed to the workers.
Assuming they're making a profit on these ridiculous castles, cutting off that revenue stream would, if anything, be detrimental to paying workers.
If the issue at hand is low wages (I fully agree), then it's best to make a logically sound argument.
The real issue is that the massive amount of profit that the company collects from customers at all income levels always seems to trickle up instead of down.
Yah, but these people that make dumb ass videos like this don't have any logical thoughts or facts to back shit up......they just see "Rich man bad"
And?
The issue isn't the wages. California has really high wages. It's the taxes and cost of living.
@@acupuncturekidafter the Great Depression Roosevelt put in a wealth tax to help people get back. That wealth tax was about 75% of the top 5% money. So you're wrong. California is corrupt just like everyone is in our government these days. We didn't have as much with Roosevelt. Goodness dude. Please study History. Please study why California is corrupt. In places like Denmark, New Zealand etc they have a fair system. It's not completely socialist. They do have capitalism but lobbying is illegal and all the things that make the US politicians corporate fascists is illegal there. Btw Disney World has the same problem and it's in Florida which is a Republican state. If you think you have a side in this country then you're silly. Lol they're all laughing at us and your social war The longer you keep disliking your own people the more they win.
It's much deeper than this. It's not wages and it's not taxes. It's greed, corruption that most people don't understand, lobbyists, getting people to fear unions and corporate fascism. And don't let people trick you about taxes. There was a Great Depression and after that Roosevelt started taxing the top 5% 75% of their income. Go read up on that. ❤
My dad was a Disney employee. He loves his job. He didn't starve to death but he joined the union.
union strong
Dis-ney has Three6's in their lo-go. Research Cath-y-Ob-rien too. Its-not-good. Involves Cl-ub33. Sorry but the higher upside are sata-nic-scumbags. 😮
BOOYAH!
IATSE local 839? You automatically become a union member when you start working at Disney feature/TV. Convenient!
NPR and the looney left say you are a cheap fake
💯 thanks for highlighting this issue. In Florida the amount of cast members who live in their cars and sleep in the magic kingdom parking lot is sick. Alot of those without a car live in the motels on 192
Then why not get a different job that pays better?
@@jillb9220right
Maybe because of the following?
1) No better jobs in the area.
2) Don’t qualify for anything better.
3) Can’t afford to go elsewhere for work.
@@jillb9220not many jobs pay better without a degree that takes years to acquire. A lot of them are flown in to work there from other countries as well. It’s not that simple, not everyone is so fortunate as you.
That's despicable.
This reminds me of when I got into a conversation/debate with some kid who was convinced that if the employees didn’t like working for Disney, they should buy enough Disney stock to actually sit on the board of investors. This was before the pandemic though. I wonder what shattering realizations he’s had since then.
I have seen that castle so many times. It’s in a glass shop in Disney Springs. It’s pretty. But costs as much as a freaking house.
About 10 times more than my house.
It costs the same as a house.
My house 7 years ago cost $45k BECAUSE I choose to live where I could afford!!! Would I like to live somewhere else, yes can I afford to , no.
As someone who works at a themepark (not disney) we all deserve better, shit, all of my adult coworkers have to work two jobs to make ends meet, the rest of them are just highschoolers having summer jobs
A lot of people where I live have to work two jobs, my sister is looking for a third, that's the economy and province's fault not the places we work, they follow wage laws. Part personal responsibility too, people I know who went into trades make a lot of money
Dude no, the park I work at gets interns from overseas for the summer and those of us working full time get cut to one or two days a week, so we have people who don't live here getting more than the people trying to pay rent
America is probably the place on earth where the workers apparently has the least value 🤦♂️
A park employee ought to have at least $ 20-25 an hour.
Vote differently
@kasperkjrsgaard1447 a person working a theme park (high school and no skilled labor but customer service) should make $25hr? Are you serious? I worked in a foundry in the melting department and poured iron and made $28...you have an incredibly skewed view of value of labor lol.
I’m honestly just glad you added the word “insecure”. I really thought that was going to stay as “one third of them qualify as food”, and that didn’t seem out of character for Disney.
"This is stupid and I hate it" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I LOVE THIS!!
I started off with “holy crap that’s absolutely gorgeous” to “okay that’s really unnecessary” to “why are all big companies evil and out to kill us”
Edit: regarding the comments I’ve received about me being easily manipulated by the internet: first, you’re not doing anything to refute what Maggie is saying to change my mind. Second, that is my thought process watching this. The castle is beautiful, but who actually needs to buy this? Was it worth Disney’s money to pay an artist? Why wouldn’t they use the money to pay their employees? Or donate to a charity? Why collaborate with a luxury company? Is that something people wanted?
Then I’ve done my job
If an independent artist did this, which a lot of creators I follow could build this from the ground up, THEN I’d be like yeah. That’s badass. Love it. Knowing these were placed by hand by someone that will never see even a fraction of that $250k while other employees literally starve is just… I can’t.
Because you created them. Stop buying their crap and see what happens?
@@dejahdangerTHIS ! you said it perfectly
@@paulashe61girl 😂 i don’t think millennials are the ones that created disney. even if they all boycotted the company it’s still a multi billion dollar conglomerate backed by investors and even the government in MANY instances. even the most die hard disney adult is not “creating” the company. someone could go into debt on disney world and it STILL wouldn’t be a fraction of what a single investor has put into disney. it’s so simple minded to blame the consumers for consumerism, and not the companies that force it upon us as if it’s normal.
A few notes about this. Though the price tag is ridiculous, it is a beautiful piece of artwork that took nearly 4,000 hours for the artist to complete. As wild as it is to be sold in a theme park, it's still a piece that should be appreciated based on the artist's work. 50 of them have been made and it is believed that over half of them have been sold.
Regarding Disney having this but not paying their employees enough: I don't disagree with those sentiments, but Disney doesn't own this piece. Arribas Brothers is a third-party company that leases space on WDW property. They commissioned the piece and are selling it themselves.
Edit: I didn't expect this to blow up, but for anyone reading this thread thinking I'm some kind of villain, I don't disagree that Disney needs to pay their employees better. My issue is that people often have undue or misdirected anger about these types of things.
Thank you... I think it's a beautiful and impressive work too, not trash at all. I'm sure a lot of people and esp children enjoy seeing it in person and taking pictures in front of it. So I'm not sure why it offends this woman so much. Disney not treating it's employees well is a completely unrelated issue to this being made and sold. The internet is just full of haters acting like knowledgeable authorities on everything
Yes, thank you. Also, does anyone understand basic economics anymore? How in the world would selling a $250k product *not* be in the employees best interest? Selling "trash" like this is how this store pays it's rent and pays it's employees.
@@proud2batj87 I mean, I used to also have this mind set, but it's like, even though that's how it should work in theory, they aren't really giving that money to employees.
Like, they clearly make a lot of profit on a lot of other stuff, especially this, so why then are the employees still suffering?
@lonewolfcello9814 I think the issue is more nuanced. Apparently Disney pays its employees an average of $23.95 an hour. Hourly pay can range from $15.76 to $46.68 an hour. Depending on your job. A chef, a custodian and a cast member all make different salaries. Sure Disney makes a lot but it also spends a lot each Day to run the parks and make films and give patrons the pristine magical fantasy experience they expect. The daily fireworks alone cost millions. The cost of living in California is high so I can def see someone struggling if they only make $16 an hour and have to commute to the park. Personally I know 2people that have worked for Disney one as a cruise director and another as a barbershop quartet performer and performance director. They both enjoyed their jobs and felt the perks and salary and fun atmosphere was worth it but I don't know how much they made. ...Shrug... regardless. $250k is a drop in the bucket for Disney. A crystal coated castle at Disney is to be expected. Maybe she should do a vid explaining why homeless people are working there. Is it because they offer a housing program? Is it because California and Florida happen to have a large homeless population?
@@Beherenoww Dang, those are all really good points. Yeah I was just kinda thinking very generally in terms of how big corporations, even if they do stuff for the profit, they most likely wouldn't have the ethics to actually pass it down to the workers, focusing more on shareholders, stock prices and bonuses, that kinda stuff. But yeah a video on that stuff would be very interesting to see!
Disneyland face characters unionized. So at least there is progress.
They did it on the first vote. It's is well past high time.
Why did I read that as "un-ionized" ?
🎵 And the World will know!
And the Journal too!
Mr. Hearst and Pulitzer,
Have we got news for you!
Yes. But its a bit of a Mickey Mouse union ... or so Im told.
I wish them luck, I was attrations (ride operator) at Disneyland 2008-2012, which was unionized, but it was still the poorest I've been my entire life. I was never homeless, but it barely covered rent (with roommates) food and fuel. At the time the union contracts secured benefits those who had been there for years by severely limiting the pay for newer hires (like myself).
This is why people dgf anymore about working. While employees bust azz to make the company run, they can't pay rent or buy food yet these azzholes can blow $250,000 on some bs. AMERICA IS FED TF UP!
"Swarovski crystals" so... glass. It's just bits of glass.
Not exactly it’s costume jewelry with really good marketing
Overpriced QVC jewels.
I just built my dream house on a lake. 5 bedrooms 3 1/2 bath on 3 acres of (again) lake front property.
I DIDN'T SPEND THAT MUCH ON IT!!! You can't even live in that thing😂😂
My first thought was also...my real, human-sized house cost less than that 😂😂
I'm gonna have to move out of state because a town house costs more than that where I live. All of my family got housing when it was moderately cheaper, so I'll be the only one away
I'm gonna have to move out of state because a town house costs more than that where I live. All of my family got housing when it was moderately cheaper, so I'll be the only one away
@@alyssanielsen8521or just wait for those of us with crazy high mortgage rates to foreclose and yeet one
Where? Where I live you can't buy a junker in the middle of the city with one bedroom for that price!
This is the type of stuff that reminds me that the park character actors once had to fight with Disney in order to be allowed to wear their own under garments so they could stop getting crabs from the costumes.
You also forgot to mention how 1/4 of the Disney workers end up arrested or charged with pedo crimes or trafficking rings so there's that, too.
And I thought the Lego version of the castle with Lego figures was expensive 😅
At least the Lego version has some amount of playability to compensate for the price. This thing has no such factor
My daughter was happy with a plastic Barbie camping van. She could actually play with it too. It even had furniture, etc.
One of my sisters had that with the pop out tent. We had a blast with that thing.
Do you really think this $250,000 castle is a children's toy? It is a marketing gimmick, genius. They don't expect anyone to actually buy it, it's to grab people's attention and get them into the store to buy other stuff.
Rich people buy useless but pretty crap all the time, there are definitely people buying this.
& it's one of the companies...that really could pay all their employees well & barely take a financial hit. 🙄
Fun fact: THey didn't BUY this castle. They are SELLING IT. Things they sell pay employee salaries.
I don’t even understand the hate against this (as a hippy who believes in aliens )WHEN LOCAL CHURCHES ARE THE SIZE OF APARTMENTS AND DENY SHELTER TO THOSE IN NEED AND ASK MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH TO PROVIDE SHELTER AND DONATION THEN SHAME THEM WHEN THEY DONT!!! EVEN THO CHURCHES WERE BUILT FOR THE NEEDY!!!!!!!!! who gives a flying fuck about a corporation! When there are CHURCHES!! WHO DODGE TAXES AND TAKE MONEY FROM THE FAITHFUL ALL WHILE SHAMING THEM IN ONE LECTURE!!!!! We as humans should first acknowledge that corruption then when the definition of faith is restored in church we can bring ethics INTO MONEY AND BUSINESS!! Change starts small and locally have conversations with your neighbors visit small locals businesses and understand the ethics of your community before you try and change the ethics of a corporation alone. You have to paint a picture. Not just talk about it.
I grew up in church my whole childhood and even tried to find faith after but the LAST TIME I stepped foot into a church was with my friend… I prayed for a sign to continue going cuz I stopped after highschool and RIGHT AFTER I PRAYED THE PASTOR STARTED TALKING ABOUT DOWNLOADING THE CHURCHES NEW APP!!!!! I know church is corrupt not god not Jesus no faith in this world just money. And when you mix faith with money it’s ugly.
@@loosiluthat implies anyone will buy it, which they won't.
@@loosilu Pray tell, how did they get the diamonds to make this?
Did they conjure them from pixie dust? Did employees donate their spare dimonds that they just had laying around? Does Disney own a diamond mine?
Or did they BUY the diamonds for this project (instead of paying their employees a living wage) and what are the chances that they'll use the money from selling it to pay the employees instead of just filling their own pockets?
I live outside orlando...
So many folks work for disney. Such a profitable company that pays great wages for the state ....
The problem is what was considered a great wage in 2005 doesnt work anymore and people are just beaten down and afraid to strike.
This is why context is so important for understanding art. If you told me about this before knowing about how Disney treats its employees then I would simply say it's a cool piece of art, but in context it is more like a statement of "let them eat cake".
I mean before I knew about the employee stuff I definitely see that piece as "wow ok that uh.. yeah that looks very McMansion "I have too much money than I know what to do with" levels of vibes" (also tbf I am far from a fan of Disney in general but ye)
Lmao! Modern art is just as useless as this crystal covered castle, babe. Context has nothing to do with it.
I'm sorry. Are the employees being forced to work there? They have the choice quit and find other work.
@@BOT_JERRY muh capitalism.
@@miffedcuttlefish6139 what's that mean? If you can't make it enough at a job... Guess what! You find another job that can support you. 🤦
Totally agree that it’s absolutely crazy that people can’t live off a salary.
However, the price of that castle has nothing to do with how much employees are paid. It’s not a valid argument to equate something they’re selling with how much they’re paying their staff. If they were buying them it would make more sense. A better argument would be “look how much they are spending to upgrade x and y”. I just think it’s a weird argument. As long as the person who made that is getting paid fairly, there’s not anything wrong with an expensive item being sold there.
Exactly! She needs to buy one of these things so they can pay their employees.
It's extreme capitalism... that's the point... what purpose does it even serve? It's narcissistic trash...
...you think the person who made it is getting paid well themselves?...lmao
Thank you for proving that there’s someone, anyone who understands cause and effect.
@@gothtaino I don't see that they implied so in their post. The point is that the amount Disney is selling this item for doesn't have any correlation to how well they're paying their staff.
The short implies this is an either/or situation, but it isn't. Disney can make stupid stuff like this AND pay its employees well, if anything they should be using the profits from this to do so.
This item is sold by a third-party company called Arribas Bros. (AKA Crystal Arts) that operates out of the Disney parks and even sell their items on Shop Disney. They rent space from Disney but are not owned by them.
Thank you!!!! The company that's made this has been around forever. They have a talent.. I appreciate your knowledge.
Homeless Californian here, and I approve this message.
Courtesy of that financial wizard, Bob Iger. For every 100,000 fans he drives away, he only has to sell ONE of these to cover the loss.
I mean he's still better than Chapek
@@NoThankUBeQuiet not anymore. A lot of animators got laid off last year after Wish failed in the box office. Instead of learning from their mistakes, they decide to punish animators who have hinted that the movie was sabotaged by executive meddling. Also not sure if you know this but Moana 2 isn't actually Moana 2. It's a Disney +series they're reediting into a film. That's another decision by Bob Iger, not Chapek.
That assumes Disney only makes $2.50 per customer. I think they make more than that
@@drewt1717 What if you factor-in the $billions in losses? Disney streaming loss for the year ending March 2024 was $4billion. Theatrical loss so far in 2024 was $20million. etc.
@@fanime1 wasn't it Iger who pushed for the creation of Disney+?
Disney as an employer is what Amazon is working towards.
I've worked at Amazon, and at least I got paid $16:00 an hour, starting wage, and full medical benefits.
@@arkbien9303that’s crazy because Disney’s starting wage is $18/hr for full time cast members
My heart goes out to all Disney employees...
Uh...employee salary doesn't have any relation to that. Employees need improved and secured rights, a living wage, benefits, and dignity. That has nothing to do with this castle. Why would it? A major corporation allowing an artist to sell an overpriced pretty thing in a store has zero connection to the way that corporation treats employees. Address the REAL issue. You mention the real problems but no one notices, they're focused on the complete lack of any logic in your 'argument'. Conglaturations, a winner is you for getting attention - not advancing the discussion of worker's rights.
Honestly, it’s beautiful and I am happy it exists, and people were paid to create such incredible art. Yes, Disney should pay their workers more, but this piece isn’t what’s preventing Disney from increasing their wages.
it's literally just a big pile of glass
@@bryaneberly4407you can say that about literally anything. Just a big pile of plastic, just a big pile of wood, just a big pile of metal. If you dont like art or appreciate just move on but you dont need to insult it just because you cant appreciate it yourself
@@modestfurret youre right. so, maybe we should stop making and collecting garbage?
Literally. Common people are always mad at the wrong things. A little bit of critical thinking would reveal that rich people having the money to afford an albeit frivalous piece of art and craftsmanship is not the problem. It's just that corporations chronically underpay their employees. In reality, the two things have almost nothing to do with each other, this goes for every other luxury item and lifestyle that can be bought with money that common people are angry and judgemental of. It's just jealousy of the ability to live in Abundance or Excess and the lack of ability to focus their anger on who and what actually matters.
@@bryaneberly4407 every industry has its clients, obviously you dont care for the art industry so just move along and focus on something you do care about instead of being mad about something you dont ❤️
that price tag probably includes a nice profit that could help those employees get a raise
if anyone is dumb enough to buy one of these
I know someone who has a Disney/Swarovski piece. Not sure how much it was, not sure I want to know.
@@alisambrano i saw someone review the advent calendar last year and it was like 1200.. for some ugly christmas ornaments that you dont even get to see before you buy them
X to doubt
could, not would
What’s wrong with buying it.
Well, I agree with you that a 250,000 bejeweled Cinderella's Castle is a disgusting waste of money. Last I checked, employment at Disney is still voluntary. If you choose to work somewhere that you can't put a roof over your head or food in your stomach, that's on you!
Somewhere out there, theres a rich kid who will enjoy this for all of 2 minutes before the novelty wears off. 😂
Damn how this world has little care for the workers 😔
And if you care, you're a "Communist".
Whoa! You unloaded on Disney. Good on you, I despise the Disney company. They have jacked the cost of admission and most families can no longer afford it.
I read somewhere that that's on purpose. They only want rich families to come anymore. Rich families = more money for them to spend in the parks.
Yep, you pay $200 a person to wait in line! Forget it. Greed!
I looked up the VIP experience just for fun... It's like 500-800 bucks an hour with a minimum of 7 hours. That doesn't include the price of your tickets either. So that's minimum 3500 plus the price of your 200+ dollar ticket per person.
The fact that ticket prices are 200-350 bucks for a one day ticket is crazy to me. Smh.
@@sallyfurness5048 unfortunately, if they made the ticket prices cheaper you'd be waiting in an even longer line.
Disney didmt spend a dime on that castle. Swarovski places it there and makes money as they sell and Disney gets a piece. So if they sell one they make money for your employees your worried about. 🤦
Walt Disney would weep if he could see what his company has become.
Disney started drawing as a kid as a form of escape from reality, and got into movies so that everybody else, no matter what class, could temporarily escape into a world of warmth and kindness, and then he literally opened "the happiest place on Earth" to bring that beauty closer to us. His workers had incredible rights, and he worked like a man obsessed to keep Disney non-corporate and caring all his life. If he weren't already dead, the current form of Disney would kill him.
I mean, it's very well documented he was a raging antisemite, incredibly sexist in his hiring and wage practices, and deeply, deeply homophobic. To the point that even when society at large was recognizing the harms in these types of prejudices and moving away from them he and the company were doubling down on some very regressive policies. Walt was no kind of Saint.
i think having movies about POC characters would get him before any of this tbh. he was not a good man.
I don't what stone you live under but Disney became the KING in corporatations in his day. It was absolutely his dream to have a mega kingdom of money driven by capitalism.
Oh he wouldn't approve what's being made now because 90% of it is remakes and sequels. And he notoriously disliked sequels.
But that doesn't mean he weren't a staunch capitalist.
It looks pretty. If you can afford it you are free to do what you want with your money. Employee wage is an entirely different and separate issue.
Facts she thought she ate lol
@@thisaliensaysnothingtono-o9980 what does "she thought she ate" mean? I've seen it twice recently but never heard it before
@@azuraroycroft2419 Basically she thought her opinion or statement was amazing.
The problem isn't that people wanna buy it, the problem is that it's ridiculously expensive and non of what it costs is going to the employees who actually deserve that money
@@NotD-kp3by Oh my gosh employee not getting paid the amount they deserve!!! …. Dude that happens everywhere in the U.S. it’s not just Disney. Like, the job I had in the past paid the employees very little and barely paid for new equipments and my boss got a new car… it’s nothing new.
Your videos always get a laugh out of me - often the only thing that can. Most days the paralysis of depression and anxiety, and the ever growing list of things I need to do *now*, keep me in a literal corner of my room.
Thanks for being a bright spot in a dark life.
That is at Arribus Brothers shop. They are an independent contractor, not Disney.
Girl, that newscaster/computerized/asmr voice pitch was fvcking perfect!! 😂
Loved it! Damn straight.
On a separate note, I've learned a few things in the last few years that have made me hopeful that Disney does a bit of a crash and burn. Imma add this one on the pyre. 😊
idk id pay about 250 k to watch this video without hearing her mouth sounds on every syllable
@@trrulieeeeeOh my! Have I found someone else with misophonia??
I just listened to it with my earbuds in.I have to agree. Strongly.
Misophonia sucks.
She is imitating people who talk like this!!! Hellooooo!!!
@michellemiller4742 Yeahh, I got that.... I was saying she did it well and it was funny. That's what the laughing emoji was about.
Guess I thought that was as obvious as you thought mine was.
@@Kelli.B. That is not misophonia. internet creators are using annoying ASMR settings. You are not special. misophonia is a sensation, not a condition that you have. Its like when people say " Im IFNTJ" im an empath....its just like horoscopes. And ofcourse people confirm their own delusion by saying things online like;'i have found my fellow empath/sufferer/victim/, arent we special? Lets confirm eachothers bias!
I want to do this with my channel. This is such a funny idea. With that being said as a former Disney employee, I have a lot of respect for you and thanks for looking out for the little guy.
Do you… do you think the fact that they’re selling something for a ridiculous price has any bearing on employee salary? It’s not made to order, it says limited edition. People are not lining up to buy these- the same one has been sitting there for a decade. It’s a showroom piece.
The salary discussion and this are completely different topics with no relation to one another.
She needs to learn to hate corporations properly.
This. And the fact that high price also entails the hundreds of hours workers put into creating this piece and quality of materials used. Should they not be paid fairly because someone doing another job isn’t?
@@f.leming If the same one has been sitting there for ten years, let's not also try & say the individuals who made it are living off the sales
@@srahhh I'm pretty sure they also work on smaller orders and the model of Disney castle is mainly used as promotion.
Thank you. This is one the dumbest reels I have come across online in a long time. There is literally no correlation. Disney is addressing consumer need as there are park guests who WANT to and have the financially capacity to purchase this set without blinking twice. The increased cost of living in Central Florida is not keeping up with the pay in many industries - not just entertainment - (for just one of many example, lots of people moving here from wealthier states and countries have been spiking up the costs on housing). So even with pay raises and company perks, it still probably isn’t enough to meet employee needs. Disney may not innocent as they are a business and their priority is to make a profit and keep shareholders happy, but there are so many factors that contribute to why employees are having a tougher time these days than in the past - and one cannot connect them selling and expensive products as to why employees are struggling. This reel is nonsensical…
Best video series concept ever!
I worked at Disney World 20 years ago and I loved the job, but I definitely qualified as “food insecure” and I literally couldn’t afford to keep working there as much as I wanted to.
The only thing that made it bearable was that I loved the job and I was living with roommates that also worked at the parks and were also broke.
Disney employs over 77,000 cast members. This cost $250,000. That would equate to each cast member gaining just under $3.25. But that's based on the price they are selling the piece for, not how much they paid for it, so reallocating that money would give cast members even less. I'm not saying Disney is in the right, but this just feel like fighting stupid with stupid.
She's not saying that they should reallocate the money for that castle to the employees. Overall though Disney and the parks overcharge for basics as well as the fancier things. This is just an extreme example. But at the same time they managed to pay their employees horrendously.
Yes, odds are this castle is fake garbage that a starving orphan in pakistan had to put together at gunpoint for 50 cents
Thank you… this is ridiculous and completely a false equivalency 🙄
Disney also probably didn't pay for this directly. It's a promotional piece.
Thanks for missing the point 😊
I work at Disney, they provide free food it’s just for all businesses that the pay isn’t increasing enough to battle the increasing price of housing the prices of apartments are becoming what the price of a 2000 sq ft homes used to be… less of a Disney issue and more of an inflation issue
Hope you learn how to budget because it will not get better.
@@Shastasnow It could, they might stop flushing money down the toilet with all those movies that nobody wants and focus on ones that are actually compelling stories like they used to.
🤦🏻♀️
You have me in stitches my dear😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I love how calm she is it makes this vid even better along with the facts she's saying
Even better? As if it's good to begin with? Facts? Christ, could this video be any more foolish?
@@Jianju69 agreed. This castle isn't even sold by Disney 😂
Should more condescending then calm then calm tbh. Not that I disagree with her message
Facts? What facts lmao
Morally, its a no ❤
I totally agree with improving salaries and treating their employees way better. But people online do have the tendency to get pissed at things they won’t consume and not made for them
okay but who /was/ that made for even?
Because it's also about the waste of space and resources. We're all allowed to be upset about the fact that this thing is an abuse of all human concepts. I would be so interested to see if any consciousness finds anything to like about it. It is, I suppose, a testament to the perversity of human tenacity. Somebody sat with glue for a very long time. That's months of some seriously disturbed person's life.
@@batintheattic7293 its a peice of artwork. You dont have to like it to acknowledge that. "Ooh, I dont like this, I'm going to insult the person who was hired to make it".
@@remy_ratking people who can afford it and are big Disney fans. It's pretty obvious homie.
@@batintheattic7293 dude it's just an art piece, get your life together if something like this makes you so mad
❤️ love this and the message behind it. Keep it up beautiful!
To be fair ive seen that exact castle since i was a kid. So that specific castle was made over 20 years ago at least. That castle has nothing to do with the companies inability to provide their employees with a livable wage.
I agree with the overall point of the video, but the castle has no affect on the subject. Chances that more than 5 people in the world bought a custom made crystal castle is very low. The castle was more than likely made to be more of a display rather than a item thats for sale. They have a whole dress boutique in disney land where custom made dresses go for at least 200 dollars. To me thats mpre of a problem because the entire store is like that whereas with the castle its in a display case in a store that offers several cheap crystal souvenirs inside. So, with the crystal store they cater to a wider range of people in comparison to the boutique.
Thats not even going on to talk about how expensive it is to just eat at a restaurant there.
And if Disney actually shared the profits with their hourly employees, there'd be nothing wrong with it, other than the excess of it all! And of course a total waste of money.
Very well said
About half of these castles have sold, and there’s been around 50 made, they’re also not sold by Disney, so it has zero effect on how employees are paid.
I love how the title of these videos gets more and more blunt and hilarious. 😂
“thing” I think the word “Monstrosity” is apt in this situation. It doesn’t have to be ugly to be monstrous.
abomination comes to mind as well
I accidentally read Montessori and I was confused as to why you cared about that in this context lol
It is ugly though! Shiny doesn't equal
pretty
(Un?)luckily, this is both!
I usually agree with your takes on things, but this time, I REALLY, REALLY, SERIOUSLY, STRONGLY AGREE with your take.
You can have this tiny model of a house for the price of an actual small house that you could actually live in!
Something like this would appreciate in value over time. It's both Disney and Swarovski, so basically if someone bought this I could end up worth millions. Even some old Disney toys that originally cost 5 dollars are now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. So I could see someone with that kind of money seeing it as a long term asset.
@@kristingallo2158Not exactly. There needs to be a market for this and this hasn't sold, and if I understand what another comenter said, it's not new and has been around since at least the early to mid 90s, if not earlier.
@@arkbien9303 There will be a market, kinda like how people laughed at Bitcoin.
Pretty much anywhere you went on vacation with your parents (never made it to Disneyland) but you know what I loved on trips to Colorado? Those shiny tumbled rocks and the fool's gold. My brother and I though fool's gold (iron pyrite) was so funny and fun.
No joke, I love that castle and always have.
Ok
@@refashionedhippieok
You should look at Sara Shakeel’s work, she does Swarovski crystal stuff that I think is so silly (most of it is photoshop with a “special technique” developed to show the shine of swarovskis… it’s just sparkles in random spots)
The thing with the cast members is 100% an issue, but i fail to see how disney selling this has anything to do with the cast member issue. The problem is disney being money hungry and refusing to pay cast members more despite the constantly inflating florida and california economy. Not the fact that disney sells expensive stuff like this.
Indeed.
Unless whoever's making these monstrosities to order is getting grossly underpaid like park employees, the mere existence of the crystal castles doesn't drive anyone into penury.
They do need to treat their staff better, and I do miss the glassblowers.
I haven’t even finished this short, but the intro is hilarious. I love listening to things that people hate!
This castle has nothing to do with people being homeless or hungry. Its not like the bought this instead of buying someone food. Two totally different subjects. Im not a fan of Disney but how sparkley that must be!!!!
Yes, it DOES have something to do with DISNEY employees being homeless and going hungry. DISNEY chose to spend a ridiculous amount of money to have this thing constructed, set up, well lit, and guarded while at the same time NOT paying their employees a living wage.
(Most likely the people who hand set every crystal on this monstrocity were grossly under paid as well.) 😢
Her iconic, "hello" always reminds me of "hello, im shelly duval"
Those “hand placed Swarovski crystals” look a lot like those gem paint by numbers kits I see on Facebook
Haven’t gone to Disney in 10 years and I don’t miss it. It’s about 40 minutes from where we live. They’ve gone insane over there.
Is Disney for older adults?
That Swarovski castle is not being force-sold to employees. That's meant for rich parents whose children need assurance that they have their parent's attention for the few minutes it takes to convince them to buy it.
Former cast member of 14 years here and I want to say I LOVE everything you've said here, I was even a tipped employee so can't complain as much, but those poor hourly employees are SAINTS, plz be kind to the cast members people they don't control the prices, they're often just college kids or retirees and I swear they're smiling out of love for the idealism, not cause they're paid well❤
It's hot out there too
You could literally rebuild that for 50 bucks with a few old cardboard boxes, cheap acrylic paint and a lot of cheap crafting crystals. They come in rolls with glue on them after all.
I’m a little confused, wouldn’t selling something either this expensive, or selling anything just put money into the company that it can then use to pay people? Am I misunderstanding something?
That’s the thing: no matter how much money Disney makes, they aren’t going to pay their employees any better. They’re worth billions and yet their employees are treated like shit
You're not misunderstanding anything, she is. Selling an expensive pretty thing - especially since it's sold by the artist, just on Disney property - has nothing to do with employee wages. Disney has the money to pay employees, they just don't. The castle has nothing to do with it.
@@Flutter_Aeina a lot of Disney employees sell food out of vendors, that's minimum wage work. Why would Disney have to pay more than that. If they don't like working at Disney there are other min wage jobs they can choose
@@azuraroycroft2419 minimum wage is way lower than it should be. Where I’m from, minimum wage is only 7 bucks an hour. Thats not enough to live off of
@@Flutter_Aeina that's not what it is at either Disney locations in the US. California for instance, the cost of living is equal to where I live and min wage is $17 here, Disney employees make $20 more than min wage where I live but cost of living is the same. Inflation is making it hard to live not wages paid by the company.
$7 dollars sounds incredibly low, min wage where I live was $8 when I started working 15 years ago. What is the cost of rent in comparison to wages there?