SYNOPSIS
Gap, Inc. was originally founded by Doris and Donald Fisher. The company has evolved from a single store located in San Francisco, California into a predominate retail chain that includes the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Forth & Towne, and Piperlime.com. The company sells a huge variety of clothing from casual to chic for men, women, and children.
The 21st century has brought hard times to this extremely successful company, especially Gap adult stores and the company is losing market share. Key problems with the company have been identified and the follow solutions have been offered: increase supply chain streamlining and efficiency, decrease number of stores, hire creative staff to focus on fashion styles and trends,
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Unfortunately, Mr. Fisher’s strategy of attracted customer by means of selling records caused no one to notice the jeans and the store was almost driven to bankruptcy ("The Gap, Inc.," 2006). Mr. Fisher invested more in advertising his low prices and emphasized the youthful ambiance of the store naming it The Gap, an allusion to the generation gap in society ("The Gap, Inc.," 2006). Donald Fisher “incorporated his business as The Gap Stores, Inc. and it was an immediate success” ("The Gap, Inc.," 2006). Within two years of opening the first Gap store, sales were at $2.5 million annually ("The Gap, Inc.," 2006). The company went public though the Fishers retained a majority of the stock ("The Gap, Inc.," 2006). Within five years, Gap sales increase almost 50-fold to $97 million and there were 186 stores total ("The Gap, Inc.," 2006).
In 1983, Millard ("Mickey") Drexler joined the Gap, Inc. as President and COO of the Gap division and the Gap grew significantly from this point. Within the same year, the company acquired Banana Republic, a safari and travel clothing company with only two stores ("About Gap, Inc.," 2007). In 1986 the first GapKids store opened and in 1987 the first international Gap store opened in London, England ("About Gap, Inc.," 2007). The Gap became the second-largest selling apparel brand in the world in 1992 ("About Gap, Inc.," 2007). In 1994, the first Old
Founded in 1969 by Donald Fisher and Doris Fisher, Gap Inc is largest clothing and accessories retailer in America. The clothing store began in San Francisco California, where the Fishers opened their first shop because they had been frustrated with the poor service and clothing styles offered at other retailers. The store was named the gap because it supplied clothing to teenagers and college students, the "generation gap" between children and adults.
nearly $260 billion in sales, managed over 5,000 stores in 10 countries, and employed over 1.5 million
Our VA is a great place to work overall. I feel most people work there because they love working with and caring for Veterans. It is our duty to promote well-being and happiness so we can recruit and retain the brightest and most talented people. The VA has a good retirement program and benefits package and it is what initially entices non-physician applicants at first. The application process is a bit complicated and our HR does not do well in the communication part of the process. Once employees are hired on, which can take several months, they are usually pretty happy. Physicians and nurses are boarded, there is a very detailed algorithm used to determine their grade and step, which ultimately calculates their fair
The Gap Inc. is a global specialty retailer that operates stores selling casual apparel and accessories for men, women, and children (Yahoo Market Guide, 2001). Under the Gap, are the Old Navy and Banana Republic brands (Yahoo Market Guide, 2001).
Eddie Bauer yielded the lowest net income among its competitors like The Gap, A & F and Land’s End. It achieved similar gross profit margin but got a poor performance on overall net income at 1% because it suffered from high expenditure on SG&A in both retail and catalog operations which accounted for 37% of its total net sales. This is extraordinary high while compared with its main competitors like A & F, and the Gap whose SG&A amounted to 22% and 27% of their net sales respectively (Table 1). A & F and Eddie Bauer are similar in size,
The Silverman family first founded American Eagle Outfitters in 1977. They operated specialty clothing stores under the name Retail Ventures. In 1980 the Silverman's encountered financial troubles when the Schottenstein family bought out 50% of the Retail Ventures. In 1991 the Schottenstein family bought the rest of Retail Ventures and opened 153 American Eagle Outfitters. By late 2000 the company had introduced 46 new stores in Canada. American Eagle had approximately $2 million in annual sales in 2003 and now operates over 800 stores in the United States and Canada (http://www.hoovers.com/american-eagle-outfitters/--ID__17231--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml).
success factors. However, the company has a few weaknesses and threats they need to address in
Old Navy is a brand owned by Gap, Inc. As a whole, Gap’s purpose is “to make it easy for you to express your personal style throughout your life” (www.gapinc.com). The culture of Gap, Inc is governed by their key values: integrity, respect, open-mindedness, quality and balance. One way Gap achieves their purpose is through one of their four brands, Old Navy. The brand is known for offering on-trend apparel and accessories at great value. Old Navy's mission is to
By 1979 the company had seen rapid expansion and had a total of 26 stores. Further expansion ensued through a combination of mergers and acquisitions. In 1980 B&Q bought
Nordstrom was co founded 1901 by a 30 year old man named John W Nordstrom and his partner Carl Wallin. At age 16, John W of Sweden left his home and moved to Alaska where he struck gold. While in Alaska, he met a man named Carl Wallin, “who owned a shoe repair shop in downtown Seattle” (Nordstrom Employee, 2006). The two decided form a partnership and open a shoe store entitled Wallin & Nordstrom.
Originaly Don intented GAP to be called "Pants and Discs," but instead Doris came up with "Gap" -- short for "generation gap"
The Giant store brand was founded by the Teng family as a simple grocery store in one of the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur in 1944. Its mission was to offer a wide variety of products at the lowest possible prices. As its reputation grew, so did its business.
Gap Inc. is a large company in the clothing business with over 3,300 stores worldwide. As one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies in 2012 for the sixth straight year, it might be interesting to investigate the ethical issues that have risen in the past years (Gap Inc., 2013a).
Gap Inc. is a leading global apparel retail company offering apparel, accessories, and personal care products for men, women, and children under the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, Athleta, and Intermix brands. Having distinct brands across multiple channels and countries allows Gap Inc. a strong competitive advantage.
The Gap was founded in 1969 when Donald Fisher and his wife, Doris opened a small clothing store near San Francisco State University. By 1971 they were operating six Gap stores. In 1995, Fisher retired as CEO and Drexler, now age 50, took over the title.