The Gap Slashes Stores: What Went Wrong and How They Can Fix It

The retail industry is very competitive, not creative and my family and I have long abandoned the Gap for durable dependable clothing staples such as polo shirts, dress slacks, cardigans, blouses and jeans and invest in the more upscale well made brands or designer lines that can transcend many seasons and a lot of wear. Considering the recesssion, I no longer invest the majority of my disposable income in trends in apparel especially if they are over priced and poorly constructed as many of the responses note.
I think it would be better for these retailers to combine there distributions into one storefront therefore reducing their operating costs then distribute these savings to the consumers -- me. I also think it would be beneficial to compensate and train your employees fairly so that they are motivated to provide excellent which I find is missing over all.
Finally, the marketing distribution has changed, because people are purchasing on line and perhaps they should make an ardent attempt to captivate the social media market producing youtube videos or whatever, but for me, I hardly watch television anymore and when I do I can't recall seeing a GAP ad for the past two years. I wish GAP the best will it restructures and believe it or not, in retail companies, investors need customers first then profits will follow.

Does the GAP cloths come from China or here in the USA? Since I have never seen a GAP I don't know the ansure. I do know that the cloths from China, India, or any other place I can't spell do not fit our bodys here in the good old USA. I am not on the upper side of the income ladder but still go out of my way to buy American so I can get the fit I expect! Stop being cheap and buy USA goods, get our jobs back!

This article is right -- the massive stores are overstocked with weirdly constructed and ill-fitting items. It needs to get back to the classic wardrobe staples that it once did so perfectly.

Quality at the GAP is so bad, it is more like Old Navy when that store just opened. I have GAP sweater that I bought 12 years ago and it is the same quality as the one that they make for Banana Republic now. All these companies think that cheap fabric and labor from China will make them more money and don't realize that people are not stupid and they see that the quality of the merchandise is not worth the money. Another problem is not a design but colors. Gap has the most depressing colors of them all. The only bright spot for GAP is baby Gap, but even there things don't look very promising.

I have noticed a poor quality of clothing across the board! Sweaters don't keep a person warm. The material is too thin. Its the same at K-mart, Walmart, Shopko, Fashion Bug, Kohls, Sams Club, Target, Penneys. Nothing is meant to with-stand very many washings. We indeed live in a throw-away society!

Their clothing used to be made in the US some 20 odd years ago. Then they shifted the manufacturing to Mexico which still resulted in the well-known high quality jeans they're known for. However, when they insisted on making mass profits by outsourcing manufacturing to China, India, Vietnam, etc. their quality slipped terribly. Also almost simultaneously they began to market to the 20 something and younger crowd forgetting about the other generations. But their prices continued to soar. The last time I purchased Gap jeans was the aforementioned some 20 odd years ago period. One can see the tremendous difference in quality between what was made in the US/Mexico and those that are now made in either China or some Southeast Asian country. I do hope they fail as they refused to listen to people like myself who had complained about this years ago. But they insisted that profits came first. Their marketing gurus and financial analysts were too stupid to do anything to alleviate this so they need to pay the price.

overpriced cute clothes. not the quality of the older gap clothing!

It would be fantastic if Gap actually read these message boards instead of discussing the problem among themselves. Listen to what your customers are telling you.

$65 for a pair of jeans cheaply made in China? Phawk yew GAP!

I tried buying an Xtra Large shirt a few years ago, and I swear it was made for a small guy who wanted a little bit of extra room. The problem isn't the number or stores or the cost or locations. The problem is the clothes. They're terrible. They don't fit your customers.

I am not fond of "nightclub" stores where the music is louder than what I play on my home stereo - Call me old but I have money I would like to spend...

I remember when they sold Levis. I was always in there. Now I am not interested.

the fabric now is utter crap. They make everything cheaper the quality is got and the fabric is see through. They think we wouldn't notice how thin the fabric became?
plus I'm sick of buying form china gap get it for a dollar a shirt and were suppose to get excited when it goes on sale for 9.99

online they are way over priced they are trying too hard to bend all the companies together (j.crew, banana republic) they're trying to hard to go overpriced and give crappier clothes.

i thought it was just me that stopped shopping there. I use to go all the time but in past 3 years their clothing line fashion wise has just been a mess.

Cheap imports bad dye wash twice throw in trash

Well for one thing... the female mannequins are wearing a size 00!!! Know your customers GAP.

Everything is made in China. EVERYTHING! We need some industry in the USA. Make clothes here and make them well.

Why i no longer shop there is because the advertise mostly to skinny people that no longer exist they dont target the normal people out there.

They make garbage clothes made cheap in other countries and then sell them for outrageous prices.

This is a question for the women on this post. Is it just me or do most of the blouses/tops these days look like maternity wear?

Made in CHINA, that's how!