The outlet is operated by liquidator Asset Management & Sales LLC, which sells various overstock and discontinued Disney merchandise, primarily from Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif. The merchandise, which includes apparel, toys and collectibles, is sold at a discount of up to 80 percent.

While the company stages a number of temporary sales of Disney merchandise over periods of six weeks to two months around the country, the Midvale location has been one of four year-round locations. The three others are in Las Vegas and in Fullerton and Pomona, Calif.

After opening in Midvale a little over a year ago, the store did well, said Janie Stump of Asset Management & Sales. But at one point last year, because of legal wrangling between its landlord and an adjacent property owner, the outlet had to move to another location, in Taylorsville.

It later returned to the original Midvale site. "But the sales just aren't there anymore," Stump said.

She said her company can't figure out the problem - the store is located near a busy Wal-Mart and other big-box stores and restaurants. But sales never recovered to acceptable levels after moving back.

With the departure of the liquidation store, the only remaining Disney-oriented store left in Utah is The Disney Store, a full-priced retail format located in the University Mall in Orem.

Stump said she thinks there is enough demand to merit a once-a-year sale of Disney merchandise in the Salt Lake area and she hopes to come back to vacant space in the Salt Lake area for several weeks around the holidays. But for the time being anyway, the idea of a permanent store is out.

Part of the reason the store concept isn't working out in Midvale, she said, is the economic downturn nationally, which, coupled with higher food and gas prices, is causing many people to cut back.

"It's definitely affecting us," Stump said. The Disney merchandise "is definitely not a necessity. People don't have to have it."