200 stores closing, sales numbers continue to slide – today Gap has less investment, less capital, less hours, where do I stop? 2018 will be a bad year for us as customer preferences changes and the folks who sit in the Ivory Tower in San Francisco are clueless about what needs to be done. We’ve gotten lazy as an org, and we’ve lost the edge. Unfortunately, all hard working associates in the stores will pay the price while the executives will continue to push PowerPoint slides and talk ‘digital’ strategy (which is btw non-existent).
If you are surprised by the announcement about stores closing you haven’t been paying attention recently - the whole retail sector is being slammed and apparel is suffering too. Nike just laid off 1000s of people, department stores are closing, etc. The brand (any brand) is under attack as folks are buying more and more unbranded goods (reviews says its good – I do not care about the brand, if the review says its solid)…
I wish I had a solution, maybe there is no solution at all and closing the shop is the only way out.