Gap Closing Nearly 200 Stores
October 18, 2011 6:00 PM 
Gap Inc. will be closing 189 stores–about 20% of its locations–before the end of 2013. USA Today reports that while the company which also runs Old Navy and Banana Republic outlets is closing stores in the U.S they will be expanding the number of locations in China. The reasons for the cutbacks are mostly economic.
Its sales in the U.S. have eroded considerably since it drove America’s love of khakis and all things business casual in the 1990s because of growing competition from specialty retailers like Abercrombie & Fitch and cheap chic merchants like H&M. In the second quarter, Gap’s overall revenue at stores opened at least a year – a measure of a retailer’s health – fell 2 percent during the quarter.
via Gap To Close A Fifth Of All Namesake Stores In United States.
No word on what stores will be closing yet. Hopefully none of the shuttered locations will be local.
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