Posted on 06/15/2015 4:06:50 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
(Reuters) - Apparel retailer Gap Inc (GPS.N) said it would close a quarter of Gap specialty stores in North America over the next few years, including 140 this year, potentially affecting thousands of jobs as the company struggles with a slump in sales at its namesake brand.
San Francisco-based Gap also said it would cut 250 jobs at its headquarters.
The company did not say how many employees would be laid off as a result of the store closures. As of Jan. 31, Gap had about 141,000 full- and part-time employees in about 3,700 company-owned and franchise stores worldwide.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
When we walk by Abercrombie or Hollister stores in the mall I tell my young sons that those stores are for girls and homo’s.
I say it loud enough to be heard by the clerks and patrons so there is no ambiguity. My boys won’t be caught wearing their stuff.
When my boys were teens, they fell into that desire for ‘designer’ cr@p.
After MANY talks about how those clothes were made in sweat shops by kids younger than themselves...and all that you were doing in the end was ADVERTISING a BRAND for FREE for the designer...the craving to ‘fit in’ was still pretty strong. I mean, I don’t blame them; I went through that too, as a teen. I ‘got’ it.
SO...I used to buy them designer duds for pennies on the dollar at thrift shops. They were happy, and I was happy to give that hard-wrought clothing one more life before it went to the Rag Bag or the Landfill.
And don’t even get me started on my $10 Donna Karan ‘Little Black Skirt’ that has gotten me through MANY a wedding and funeral these past 20 years - and still looks like new!
Twenty Bucks! (Life as a Bottom Feeder ROCKS, LOL!)
What an awful company. I went to BR once to buy some pants and they pushed their credit card applications pretty hard with 20% off. So I went for it since the discount was so big, but they wouldn't let me pay for it at that time. I had to wait for the bill.
The bill came quite a bit later, maybe two days before it was due. I paid in full immediately, but a few weeks later I received a bill for a late charge. I called and sent them letters, but to no avail. They kept sending late charges on top of late charges. Soon my $80 pants had over $300 in late charges. I never did pay it and it took me years to get if off my credit report.
A few years later I had my second issue with Gap stores. My credit card was used fraudulently on a shopping spree that included Toys R Us, Radio Shack, DSW Shoes, and Gap. I called all of those companies and with one exception, they were all courteous and professional. All but one store had either spotted the fraud and canceled the order before I called or canceled it as I was on the phone. The one store that told me that I'd have to take it up with my bank? Yes, it was Gap.
I hope they go under.
I find myself in a 2nd career, surrounded by 20-30 yr olds. When I see the old navy t-shirts I tell them there is nothing old or navy about them. I crack myself up.
The problem with The Gap is that everyone who shops there shops sales, coupons, and specials. I can easily buy over $300.00 in clothes for between $50-75.00.
I’ve wondered for years how they are profitable. No one I know goes there and pays anywhere close to full price,
Get your Crap at the Gap.
Because, like all major chain clothing stores, they have a supply chain going back to Cambodia and Vietnam and their full price is set at 10-15 times their cost. So on a 70% off sale, they still make money.
Major malls only want stores like this because this type of supply chain allows them to afford major mall rents - but this is why most malls have become so bland and generic and are rapidly losing customers.
But sometimes, even a large chain retailer can get overextended - as rents have become so high (to pay huge shopping center mortgages on properties that should have defaulted and gone back to the banks, but then would have to be marked to market value instead of fantasy - crashing the whole economy) that even the big stores can't operate profitably. Thus you now see the massive store closings by retailers who made the mistake of offering nothing special and thinking it wouldn't make any difference - that 2005 consumer spending patterns were here to stay.
Watching the gyrations being undertaken to maintain commercial real estate values at their current astronomical levels has been quite a cabaret show. The side-effects on the "real" economy have been just as devastating as the dreaded crash would have been - but the banks are still getting to play "let's pretend" indefinitely.
Obamaeconomy continues.
Isn’t The Gap a very PC company
I do not remember the last time I went to a mall at all
LMAO!!! Git ‘im!!
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