Were People’s Waistlines Really Mentioned in Disney’s Most Recent Investor Call?

The short answer? Yes. Yes, they were.

Folks, I am, quite frankly, still a bit shocked at what I’m about to share with you right now, but here we are.

As some of you may know, The Walt Disney Company’s first quarter and full-year earnings report call took place on Wednesday evening. Paul Krieger shared the most noteworthy takeaways from the call, but I’m here to point out one more.

First of all, H/T to Scott Sanders for pulling the question and answer I’m speaking of. Here is the clip below so you can be well-informed before continuing to read my thoughts.

Let’s address the question that was asked. A reporter discussed how he has been covering Disney for 30 years, but they’ve never seen this much inflation before. He wondered how Disney would mitigate that inflation.

The moderator specifically asked Bob Chapek, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company, to talk about Disney+ sub growth in the United States and asked Kristine to speak about inflation.

As soon as Chapek took the proverbial floor, he immediately began explaining how many CFOs are facing inflationary pressures and looking at expenses to try to assess what they can do to manage through it. I was honestly a bit taken aback by how long he discussed inflation, but Que será será.

First, Chapek mentioned the increase in the price of acquiring content, such as finding talent and paying hourly workers well. Next, he mentioned adjusting suppliers and substituting products, and then came this shocking quote.

We can cut portion size – which is probably good for some peoples’ waistlines…

Excuse me? Since when is Disney concerned about anyone’s waistline? I am honestly still floored that he made this comment. As a professional person, I could never imagine allowing the second part of Chapek’s comment to come out of my mouth. He should have just left it at, “we can cut portion size” and been done with it.

Maybe I’m taking this more offensively than I should being a “person of size,” but I don’t think so. I don’t believe that anyone’s waistline should be a topic of consideration when discussing a billion-dollar company’s bottom line.

Another point I want to make is that we here at the DIS go out and do many, many dining reviews at restaurants all across Walt Disney World. One of the things we regularly discuss on our Disney Dining channel is the price of meals and whether or not the dish was worth the cost. So if Disney is considering cutting portion sizes, we’re going to have a lot more to discuss than our waistlines.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please sound off in the comments below.