Will Gap’s 40th Change Its Luck?

[Editor's Note: Ian Ritter is taking a much-deserved vacation over the next week, and GlobeSt.com retail reporter Debra Hazel is filling in for him on Counter Culture. Please be nice.]

Mention 1969 to any New York Mets fan, and we all get a little dreamy with visions of Seaver, Koosman, Ryan and the late great Gil Hodges (yes, man walked on the moon and there was some concert upstate, but we have our priorities straight). But that year also saw the birth of The Gap, so the company is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a concert to be simulcast in more than 700 stores this evening, contests and a casual day (in 1969 Premium jeans) at the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow.

All the hoopla, however, can’t erase the fact that like the Mets, recent years haven’t been kind to The Gap. Final second quarter sales and earnings will be released later today, but total company July comp sales were down 8%. On Aug. 6, the company said its second quarter comps also decreased 8%.

Are Outlet Malls a Scam?

A new book called Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture is suggesting that outlet malls are deliberately trying to fool consumers. Excerpted on the site AlterNet, the book has some interesting assertions:

It says outlet malls’ long distances from metropolitan centers aren’t only a result of developers trying to get cheap real estate. It’s also a psychological maneuver that makes people want to buy more since they’re investing more time. “Because the effort required to reach and shop at them is substantial, even extraordinary, the experience of going to the outlet is elevated in our minds to ‘special occasion’ status.”

Gap Had No Real Estate Strategy

How could this have happened?

The largest apparel retailer in the US didn’t really plan where it was putting stores, according to Chairman and CEO Glenn Murphy. “We’ve never had a clear real estate strategy,” Murphy said. “We now have that information, and it will allow us to make quick decisions.”

Will Gap’s Downsizing Work?

Gap Inc. Chairman and CEO Glenn Murphy yesterday told a New York City investor conference that his company is looking at combining concepts into single stores and reducing store count.

The retailer will accomplish this, in some cases, by putting an adult Gap, along with baby, body and kids concepts, under one roof creating a superstore.