Despite not being the typical “House of Mouse” conglomerate, Kroger is in talks with Walt Disney Corp. to bring Disney+ to its grocery delivery program. If all goes well, it could appear before the end of the year as an add-on to its Kroger Boost membership program.
Currently, Disney is losing money at an alarming rate, with over $1 billion per quarter flying out the window as CEO Bob Iger is trying to cut expenses extensively. Their recent talks with Kroger could be a way to end or at least reduce this loss.
One of the biggest causes of all this red ink was their purchase of LucasFilm for $4.05 billion in 2012. According to Igor, this has been a great investment for the company, even going so far as to tell stockholders that the company has made a 2.9x return on the deal. Yet, as Caroline Reid reported for Forbes, that’s not quite accurate.
“Buried in the fine print is the revelation that the purchase price of Lucasfilm isn’t even included in the ROI calculation. Instead, it is purely based on the box office performance of Disney’s Star Wars trilogy, its two spinoff movies, merchandise, DVD, and Blu-Ray sales. As revealed, the methodology is questionable as Disney based the ROI on the revenue generated by the movies, merchandise, DVDs, and Blu-rays rather than the profit they made as it should have done. Using the revenue rather than the profit artificially inflates the result as it doesn’t factor in the costs that Disney had to pay out.”
While Disney has been buying up the rights to shows and multiple fringe programs, they aren’t attracting the customers the company once did. After being known as the clean, family-friendly company through the 80s, by the mid 90s, the sleaze, homosexuality, and immoral jokes has weaseled their way into the limelight. Sure, there were always hidden adult jokes out in the open, but creators at least tried to hide it. These days, it’s in your face like a pride parade.
Shame on Kroger for going this low. Disney isn’t going to sell extra food, and the subscription will cost more than the “new” members will generate in revenue shopping there.
