Gap’s CEO Glenn Murphy said Tuesday says he plans to close some stores and shrink others in an effort to turn things around at the slumping retailer.
“We got carried away,” Murphy said. “All of a sudden you have larger stores than you need. We also have a store fleet that’s older than we’d like it to be.”
The company will eliminate Baby Gap and Gap Kids stores and incorporate them into their adult stores, according to CNNMoney.
Will this fix the Gap? Is less really more?
Gap CEO Announces Plan To Shrink Store Size [CNNMoney]
(Photo: bopo )
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Too bad for the Gap – one of the few places where I could reliably find 30×36 khakis … many stores don’t even have them available for special order, and from my limited experience the “Big & Tall” don’t serve people who are just tall …
Ah well, at least I don’t wear through khaki pants that quick.
@ChuckECheese: Sorry, I was speaking about Abercrombie and Fitch at that point. But yes, they do that, no joke.
I hated the Gap, Banana and Old Navy but I quickly changed my tune when I needed to start buying maternity clothes. Now the gap is the only place I can find cute and comfortable maternity clothes.
Hey Glenn Murphy: Remember me? I wrote you about how I was so dissatisfied with that garment I purchased from the Gap? And you passed my complaint to your customer service, which incidentally you also give you no authority to resolve almost anything?
And remember how I wrote you again, saying that your customer service was giving me the runaround? And how you promptly passed my letter back to the same customer service people who still didn’t have any authority to resolve the problem?
Well guess what? We shop at Steve and Barry’s now, where they bend over backwards for the customer, have better quality products and ridiculously cheap prices!
And guess what Glenn? You’re closing a bunch of stores and your company is still slumping and you still don’t get why your customers are important.
Gap, let me give you some advice when you look for your next CEO. Any CEO who has no interest in hearing from his customers isn’t worth diddly and has his or her priorities completely out of whack.
@ChuckECheese: Except jjason82 was talking about Abercrombie and Fitch. For some reason.
Sadly, GapKids actually has reasonably priced school uniforms that hold up extremely well despite the best efforts of my 5 and 8 year old boys. They manage to put a hole in at least one knee within a week in just about every other brand, but it takes them over a month on the Gap pants.
Really, their kids line is what they should focus on. Their adult clothing and stores are a complete lost cause.
@Corporate-Shill: Goody’s could use some of their stores to close. Anytime I travel and see one it’s always in the least desirable retail location.
As for the GAP, it’s one of those stories where you shake your head. They were on top of the retail world for a long while after they shook off their late 70′s hideousness. They made money like crazy. But now, their clothing doesn’t interest me.
Basics and kids’ stuff. That’s where they need to focus. Seriously.
I never shopped at the gap but something told me to stay away from it. I never really liked places like old navy, hot topic, etc…I dunno why.
I always wondered why people hated the gap and now I know.
@jjason82: Dude, actual shirtless male models greeting people at your Gap?? Is this like their flagship store or something? I would have assumed you meant pictures of them or something, but your wording sounds like actual shirtless dudes! That’s pretty impressive for the Gap!
@toddiot: OHHHH. after re-reading it, it becomes clear. Still–Shirtless models in a mall store? Wtf.
GAP feels to me like a relic of the 1990s that ran on fumes through this decade. I could see GAP, Inc. shuttering the GAP stores and focusing on Old Navy and their other chains in the next decade.
Baby GAP is the only children’s store that I go into and can’t hold back. I find myself paying three times more for a GAP bodysuit than I would at TJMaxx or Ross.
Everything’s just so…cute. I want to have a baby just to put her in Baby GAP clothes!
It’s quite sickening.
On the other hand, I’ve never had a quality issue with GAP clothing. Quite a bit of my wardrobe is filled with the GAP, Bitten and H&M. I’ve never had quality issues with those brands either.
That explains what happened to all of those snappy Gap Christmas ads – they can’t afford them anymore while (not) selling thread-bare clothing.
oh, man, that sucks — I love gap clothes. Then again, I buy mine at the thrift store. But their jeans are superb and fit so nicely. If they do go out of business, I might just have to go to the mall and pay real prices to stock up on some jeans.
Back in high school (almost a decade ago now), I wore gap clothes almost exclusively. I remember the quality being really high and the clothes being awesome. That somehow changed as I moved into the later years of college. But I still own lots of gap stuff.
i’ll be the lone dissenter, but I really like Gap. All of my jeans and pants are from there; they fit well, are relatively well-priced, and they don’t fall apart. I’m disappointed that they closed two stores near me, because I shop there a lot.
As long as they don’t start closing a ton of Old Navy stores as well. I have very nice polo shirts for work thanks to them, and they are still going strong after a year.
@littlemoose: After working at an Old Navy store for over two years, I can tell you that that is indeed false.
Old Navy’s business has gone into the crapper. The company tried to change its image the same year I started working there, and in doing so it turned people away. They wanted to go more “hip and trendy” while still offering the basics. The basics still sold (especially the 2fors), but the hip and trendy stuff just sat on the shelf until it went clearance. I was in charge of clearance at my store, and even when the items were $6.97 we practically had to PAY people to buy it.
I do not see the store I worked at lasting until the end of the year, and Gap Inc. has said that they are closing numerous stores across the country. I don’t think it helped the company at all when they decided they were going to transform their (some of/all?) outlet stores into regular Old Navy stores.
it make no difference seeing as they are slow turning Old Navy into the GAP
shame on gap for trying to capitalize on a celebrity’s recent death
@dgp: The A&F in one of our malls is really scary. I rarely go to the mall, and I’ve never actually seen an A&F store. The facade is painted black, windows are covered in mostly closed black shutters, mine only has two floor to ceiling murals of topless male models, and there is ridiculously loud club music playing. You’re greeted with a wall at the entrance and have to go left or right, so you can’t even see inside from the mall. It really is a gay club. Ugh, and the smells coming out of that place…
I have a friend who is a manager at Baby Gap so I’m feeling sorry for all the people who are going to lose their jobs.
@intheq: That’s a big reason why i stopped shopping there. Gap really needs to get with the times; if they stopped using sweatshop labor and started trying to reduce their environmental impact, hell yeah I’d shop there. Until then…not so much.
Well, it turns out that the Gap/GapKids at the mall near me is one of those “too big” stores, at nearly 10,000 square feet, which is in line with that “4,000 square feet too much” estimate that the CEO said. Never mind that’s in a high-traffic mall corridor… it’s still too darn big!
My bet: They will relocate to a 5,000-or-so square-foot space in the same mall (as they closed their other store here in town)… either that, or chop up the space and have General Growth re-lease it to another hot retailer like Sephora, Apple, or the like.
i think the gap is a perfect metaphor for the way the middle class is being squeezed out of existence.
ahem. also, for chrissake, old navy and the gap have the same quality clothes these days. gap needs to go back to good fabrics and simple cuts and a great selection of jeans and khakis. leave the fancy sh*t to banana and the trendy sh*t to old navy. hopefully the shrink is indicative of this.
@me and the sysop: i think that’s a hollister. the shutters gave it away. is there a tiki style awning?
@ARP: It’s sad, but even the Banana Republic quality has decreased. They’ve raised the prices on nearly everything (albeit only $1 for most items) and stopped lining most of their pants. While they used to always offer things like casual cotton pants and khakis without a lining, they always used to line the dress pants and linen items, and of course, all white pants, even if they were casual. Now, all but the basic black Martin/Jackson suit pants/skirts are missing a lining. That means the itchy wool pants, the linen, and the white pants and skirts have no lining. I refuse to pay $129 for a pair of pants that have no lining. I understand this is Br’s way of cutting costs, but don’t they think customers are going to notice that they’re being asked to pay the same amount for a lower quality product? Who wants to wear white linen pants without a lining?!
I was wondering why the Gap Kids turned into a Gap Outlet at the local mall…
And for the record, I actually really enjoy Gap / Old Navy clothes. They probably constitute almost half of my wardrobe.
I’m not surprised…they went from being a staple in my closet for years, to suddenly being a place to avoid. Their clothes used to be mostly basics, but attractive and of reasonable quality for the price. Now they are the most boring, shoddy looking rags. Even their jeans, an old favorite for me, are cut very strangely.
Just a few months ago I walked in, and the first thing I saw right on front of the doors were 3 mannequins dressed entirely in black. They were staggered as if they were walking one behind the other, and it looked like a mannequin funeral procession. They must have been honoring a fallen comrade.