Consumerist

gap

Sweatshop In Queens Produced Clothes For Macy's, the Gap, Banana Republic, Urban Apparel, and Victoria's Secret

By cwalters 7.24.08

New York state labor officials are bringing one of their largest cases ever against Jin Shun, a clothing factory in Queens, New York that employed Chinese immigrants. Inspectors say the company

cheated its workers out of more than $5 million in pay;
instructed workers to lie to state inspectors;
required 6 and 7-day workweeks, sometimes for up to 120 days at a time;
didn’t pay overtime or minimum wage;
kept two sets of timecards to fake-out inspectors.

Macy’s says they’re “very concerned” about the case and are investigating it, the Gap says they’re cooperating with authorities, and Victoria’s Secret says they have a “zero tolerance policy” for factories that are unwilling to work with them to achieve compliance—all of which makes us wonder whether any of these companies ever investigated the factory personally. (It’s not like it was in some remote part of China.)

identity theft

Friendly Gap Cashier Pockets Lost Wallet

By consumeristcarey 12.28.07

Alenaya traced her lost wallet to a recently visited Gap and pieced together a disturbing story:

Seemingly, walked away from register and wallet fell out of pocket. Kind customer behind me gives to cashier, who sticks it on the side of the register and does not log or tell manager my wallet fell.

clothing

Gap Responds To Child Slave Labor Scandal

By Meg Marco 11.20.07

The Gap has pledged $200,000 to to improve working conditions in India, where only some forms of child labor are outlawed, and it also promised to tighten its own standards. The retailer canceled half of its orders with the vendor in India that was responsible for subcontracting the workshop in which children who had been sold to the factory were working off the debt by embroidering clothing for Gap Kids.

clothing

Amy Poehler And Will Arnett Attempt To Save The Gap

By Meg Marco 10.31.07

According to OK! magazine, Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live and husband, Will Arnett, from Arrested Development are the latest celebrities to attempt to save the GAP by wearing its clothing in advertisements.

gap

GAP Caught Using Child Labor To Produce "GAP Kids" Clothing

By Meg Marco 10.29.07

A freelance journalist has caught the GAP using child labor to produce hand embroidered clothing for its GAP Kids line. The children, who are as young as 10, are quoted as saying they were sold to the factory by their families and cannot leave until their debt is paid. A video of the factory’s squalid conditions shows GAP Kids labels on the clothing.

retail

Hey Shoppers: Apparently, You Still Hate The Gap

By Meg Marco 10.11.07

Even though the Gap was kind enough to address (er, refute) our reader’s observations about the Gap’s general state of crappiness, we haven’t forgotten that the store isn’t doing so well sales-wise, and it is therefore our sad duty to inform you that same store sales are down 7%.

theft

Gap Says Laptop Containing Job Applicant Data Stolen

By Meg Marco 9.28.07

Gap is disclosing that a laptop filled with job applicant data has been stolen. The laptop contained the personal information of 800,000 job applicants, including social security numbers.

retail

Old Navy Hires Todd Oldham As Creative Director

By Meg Marco 9.22.07

Todd Oldham has a new job: Fixing Old Navy. According to the New York Times, Todd has been hired to attract shoppers in their 20’s, a group Old Navy has identified as their target market after years of “trying to be all things to all people.”

Why Do You Hate The Gap? The Gap Responds To Your Complaints

By Meg Marco 8.20.07

Mike Antonucci at the San Jose Mercury News took your complaints to the Gap’s top brass and got some interesting responses. They even responded to our editorializing about the Gap’s general state of failure with some upbeat sentences touting their own profitability. Whoops! We guess we were wrong and everything is just fine. Wait, what about the three-year sales slump, the recent layoffs, and the fact that same-store sales (the most important indicator of the health of a retail operation) have fallen in 12 consecutive quarters. Teehee! Sorry, we were sooo mean!

clothing

Dear New Gap CEO: Here's How To Fix Your Stores

By Meg Marco 7.27.07

A while back we asked the readers to tell us what was wrong with Gap, INC. Since we asked, they’ve sh*tcanned their CEO, closed a chain of stores, launched new ad campaigns featuring celebrities, rethought their merchandise and…nothing has has helped.

clothing

String Bikinis: Now Available for Toddlers!

By Meg Marco 6.28.07

GapKids recently featured a white, crocheted string bikini you’d likely see Anna Kournikova wearing on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. The bikini was for a 12-month-old.

retail

GAP CEO's Email Address

By consumerist.com 3.6.07

According to a tipster, this is the email address for the CEO of GAP: Bob_fisher_ceo@gap.com

retail

Goodbye, Forth & Towne, We Hardly Knew You…

By Meg Marco 2.27.07

Forth & Towne, designed to appeal to women between the ages of 35 and 50, was launched in August 2005. The stores featured larger, centrally located dressing rooms and were stocked with accessories, including handbags and shoes, to help women put together full outfits and drive impulse purchases.

clothing

More Crap About The GAP

By Meg Marco 1.26.07

Pressler’s penny-pinching may have turned off the Gap’s core customers. Sweaters that were once 100% cotton or wool, for example, showed up in stores as acrylic blends, and people noticed. Banana Republic tried to woo the same high-end consumers as J. Crew but didn’t go far enough in offering luxury fabrics, like cashmere, that those shoppers wanted. In 2005, while department stores couldn’t sell enough $100-plus premium jeans, the Gap skipped denim and tried to push khakis. “Pressler went too far in focusing on costs at the expense of merchandising,” says Christine Chen, senior research analyst at Pacific Growth Equities. “Sometimes you just need to go with your gut and do what makes sense to get customers in the door.”

The article also mentions the way in which stores like H&M refresh their looks faster, drawing in and keeping customers in their 20s and 30s. By the time a look hits the GAP, it’s already over, and possibly expensive for the store and unflattering for the customer (skinny jeans?)—MEGHANN MARCO

retail

Gap CEO Resigns

By Meg Marco 1.22.07

advertising

Why Do You Hate The Gap?

By Meg Marco 1.19.07

readers

Fink On Your Employer: Gap Inc.

By consumerist.com 5.18.06

Dog-like sycophants that we are, we love loyalty. Especially when people are more loyal to The Consumerist than the organization that helps them have a roof over their hands. A little bird tweets into our ear about the sugar daddy who pays his bills, Gap, Inc. Looks like they had a lot of whacky doodle malarkey going on with their online shopping system this week. Looks like we got a new stoolie as well.

retail

Stagnating Gap

By consumerist.com 3.16.06

Slate is looking at the Gap and wondering what the fuck happened.

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