Photo by Allen Huffman, 2001

Welcome to the biggest store in Yester California Adventure. Here’s how the official park website describes this store:

Greetings from California

Greetings from California, where you can find everything under the sun, is the quintessential Disney’s California Adventure™ park shopping experience where Guests can discover souvenirs, mementos, and take home lots of Disney memories.

Ready to do some shopping?

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010

Front entrance

This store is so big that it has to have multiple entrances, each with its own personality. The front entrance is built into the largest ceramic mural in the World.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010

Side entrance

The entrance on the other side of the park’s Golden Gate Bridge is flanked by large display windows. A huge sign carries forward the California postcard theme of the park entrance. There’s even a giant fountain pen on the sign.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010

Display window

The display windows use tires and highway signs to convey the fun and excitement of traveling through the Golden State.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2006

Corner entrance

Around the corner from the side entrance, the corner entrance suggests the streamline moderne architecture of Los Angeles in the 1930s. Four double doors beckon you. There’s another entrance to the right. There’s still another into the Candy Shoppe, which you can think of as a separate store or as the candy section of Greetings from California.

Atop the corner entrance, a tower with a sphere held by three pylons is reminiscent of the globe tower at Crossroads of the World on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. As homage to the past, the corner entrance is a bit clumsy, but that doesn’t matter. After all, Greetings from California is hip and contemporary. Guests who want an old-fashioned store should try a different theme park.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010

Dragon fly ceiling art

You’ll see just how contemporary when you step inside the front entrance. Look up at the ceiling. Above the giant hanging bugs, there’s exposed ductwork. This isn’t one of those theme park stores that’s supposed to make you feel as if you’ve traveled to another place and time.

The place is here—the hip and edgy California Adventure park. And the time is now—the dawn of the new millennium.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009

Lots of Disney stuff

A lot of the merchandise here is similar to what you would find at the Disneyland Emporium—but the atmosphere is completely different. There are also some park-specific items.

Photo by Allen Huffman, 2001

A pen that writes in pink neon

Continuing with the postcard theme of the park entrance and store signs, there’s a giant postcard to Goofy from Mickey and Minnie. It reminds their friend that the park even has the Golden Gate Bridge.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009

“Memories Galore”

A sign on the soffit promises “Memories Galore,” including memories of when cell phones had antennas and little, tiny displays.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009

California Adventure landmarks

Park landmarks adorn a “ribbon” wrapped around a column. Look for the Sun Wheel, Orange Stinger, and Mickey Head on California Screamin’.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009

Interior with palms

Photo by Tony “WiseBearAz” Moore, 2003

Signs as decor

Not only does this store sell “everything under the sun,” that could also describe the decor. Among other things, there are stylized palm trees, realistic palm trees, pirate skeletons, road signs, and billboards.

A billboard for The Talc of Tinseltown Premier Face Powder has Minnie Mouse proclaiming, “I don’t do close-ups without it!”

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009

Sunglasses—a recurring theme in this store

As is often the case with neon signs, Greetings from California looks best at night. Colorful neon tubes glow brightly in the darkness.

Photo by Allen Huffman, 2009

Side at night

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010

Corner at night

Photo by Allen Huffman, 2001

Parade t-shirts

Speaking of colorful lights at night, Disney’s Electrical Parade—not the Main Street Electrical Parade—passes outside Greetings from California every night. Don’t miss it. Then come back in and buy the t-shirt.

When Disney’s California Adventure opened in February 2001, Greetings from California was the park’s version of the Emporium at Disneyland—a large store on the right as guests headed for the exit after a day at the park.

It continued to play that role until August 2011, when it closed for the transformation of the old park entrance corridor to Buena Vista Street.

The store’s decor did not change much over the course of a decade. Even in its final years, some of the store’s decor was based on attractions that were gone—even Superstar Limo. Of course, the store offered the latest “Disney Parks” merchandise and items that reflected Disney classics, current Disney movies, and Disney Channel programs.

Somehow, the same items looked better in the Emporium across the Esplanade at Disneyland.

The space that had been Greetings from California and the Candy Shoppe reopened in June 2012 as Los Feliz Five & Dime, Big Top Toys, and Elias & Co.—with lavish new interiors.

Photo by Chris Bales, 2023

Former front entrance (tile mural entrance)

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2015

Under the monorail bridge

Photo by Allen Huffman, 2017

Same building, but an entirely new look

Photo by Chris Bales, 2023

Elias & Co. corner entrance

Los Feliz refers to the Los Angeles neighborhood where Walt Disney lived from 1923 to 1950, and where he had his first studio in California. Big Top Toys is a nod to Walt Disney’s Dumbo (1941), but it also seems to be an ironic reference to the low ceiling necessitated by the monorail track. The name of Elias & Co. is homage to Walt Disney’s father, Elias Disney (1859 - 1941).

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013

Elias & Co. interior

What a difference!

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Updated August 11, 2023