Narrowing The Gap
Retailer Gap Inc. plans to consolidate its various specialty stores into its main stores to save on real estate costs and unite its brand. Janet Babin reports.
A woman walking in front of a Gap store in San Francisco. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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Kai Ryssdal: Inflation was mentioned prominently in the Federal Reserve's Beige Book today -- that's the Feds once-every-6-weeks study of the economy broken down by region. It said businesses are having mixed luck at best in passing on their rising prices to consumers.
The sagging economy's been tough on a lot of retailers, an issue also reflected in the Beige Book, but The Gap has fallen on especially rough times.
Sales last month were down 8 percent over a year ago and back then it wasn't doing so well either.
The company's held things together this far by cutting costs and Marketplace's Janet Babin reports from North Carolina Public Radio it's planning another big squeeze.
Janet Babin: That old Gap slogan "Fall Into the Gap" has never been easier to do. There's Gap, Gap Body, Gap Maternity...
All told the company has more than 31,000 stores. That includes Old Navy and Banana Republic brands, but still, that's a lot a Gap.
Retail strategist Wendy Liebman calls it "brand saturation:"
Wendy Liebman: They just keep cannibalizing themselves. They're on every other corner and that creates a tremendous amount of sameness.
So Gap is gonna downsize. Beginning this year, spinoffs like Baby Gap will merge into existing Gap stores.
The annual rent reductions could be substantial, but retail consultant Howard Davidowitz says Gap will go nowhere 'til it increases sales.
Howard Davidowitz: Gap in not survivable company unless they can excite the customer and drive more footsteps into these stores.
Gap sales have declined for at least 15 straight quarters. Critics complain Gap has forgotten its core customer: 25 to 35, graduating from beer to wine.
But Simon Doonan, creative director for Barney's New York, says selling fashion to the masses requires a crystal ball.
Simon Doonan: If you're too funky one season, you turn off all the slightly conservative people who are potentially coming to The Gap. If you're too frumpy and you're too safe, then the groovy people don't come.
Gap says it'll return to its roots this year. It wants to be known as the Trader Joe's of clothing -- modern basics on a budget.
I'm Janet Babin for Marketplace.
Comments
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From Pacifica, CA, 09/26/2008
Mark is that you?
From NY, NY, 07/03/2008
I believe it is 3,100 stores NOT 31,000.
From Chicago, IL, 06/12/2008
The story says: "All told the company has more than 31,000 stores. That includes Old Navy and Banana Republic brands, but still, that's a lot a Gap." If the number includes Old Navy and Banana Republic stores, how can a listener know that, as the reporter asserts, "that's a lot a Gap?" Seems like some basic work by the reporter or editor was missing from this story. Why provide a number that is meaningless (31,000 stores) because it includes other things?
From El Cerrito, CA, 06/12/2008
The Gap started losing customers when it made all of its pants for women low-waisted. Who can wear that? A very small percentage of the population - teenagers and college students. No one over thirty can wear a bare midriff, and most companies frown on it. The only way to wear those pants at work is to have very long shirts, which The Gap doesn't sell.
I lived in Gap clothes for twenty years until they decided to abandon pants that hit the waist. Then they were useless for me, since I had relied on them for my work "uniform."
From philadelphia, PA, 06/11/2008
re: narrowing the gap. I don't know who's responsible for the cliche description of the gap's "core customer: 25 to 35, graduating from beer to wine", but please let them know that your craft beer drinking listeners (and craft brew producers, like me) are mighty insulted. The more apt description could have been "graduating from jug wine to vintage" or "old milwaukee to dock street bohemian pils". Beer's a class beverage these day's...even cavemen are drinking it. jeff ware
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