While every other Disney theme park around the world is open for business to one degree or another, the parks at Disneyland are still shuttered while the parks and the state of California try to hammer out a set of guidelines for reopening that both find acceptable. However, in the meantime, Disneyland Resort has found a way to utilize part of one of the theme parks in a way that current standards allow. Stage 17, an area in Disney California Adventure's Hollywoodland will be opening to the public as a new merchandise location, which will specialize in Halloween themed Disney merch.
The new area is called the Backlot Premiere Shop and will be accessible from the east end of the Disneyland Resort entrance plaza, the space opposite the rest of the Downtown Disney shopping district. Stage 17 is frequently used for special events, you can have your wedding there if you like, though it has occasionally been used as attraction space for limited-time events, such as Olaf's Snow Fest, and Who Wants to be a Millionaire: Play It!.
Based on the description, it appears that the Backlot Premiere Shop may include a lot of the same Halloween gear that the main World of Disney store also has. However, the World of Disney store has, on occasion, proved so popular with guests that the store itself as needed to use a theme-park like virtual queue. With the Backlot Premiere shop soon to be an option, it will mean less waiting for those Disney fans who want to get their hands on the latest seasonal stuff, which is always in fairly limited supply.
This isn't the first move that Disneyland Resort has made to expand merchandise sales. Recently, the Wonderground Gallery was transformed into a store selling the gear that previously was only available at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.
And of course, the other thing this allows Disneyland Resort to do is to put some of the theme park square footage to use. Since March the parks have been empty and none of that space is making the Parks division any money. Some of that pain was reduced when Downtown Disney was able to open, but the entire Parks division has been in free fall ever since they were forced to close. At least this way, all that empty space is now slightly less empty and able to generate some revenue, and it will also mean more hours for some of the cast members that haven't been able to work as much if at all, an especially nice thing considering that cast members are likely all on edge following the layoffs that just took place.
Of course, everybody is still waiting for every other part of the Disneyland theme parks to reopen. The state of California reportedly had guidelines ready to go, but Disneyland and other theme parks balked at them. Now the guidelines are being reviewed by both the state and the parks, and one expects that an agreed-upon version of the guidelines will be replaced in the very near term.
