Does a brand identity really matter when people have turned away from shopping?
U.S. retailers, already struggling with a protracted sales slump this year, suffered another disastrous sales month in October as Americans continue to shun unnecessary purchases in tough economic times.
Dismal September sales results from mall-based apparel chains, released Thursday, offered more fresh evidence that American consumers, spooked by the financial meltdown, shut their wallets tight last month
I'm going to come right out and cop to this -- I have been dumped more times than I can count. You'd think that after the 5,234th time, I'd be a tad more resilient, but nah. I have mourned certain dead relationships for longer than they went on in the first place and made an idiot of myself over men so patently unworthy, it's a wonder I haven't had my feminist card revoked.
Consumers nervous about the weak economy abandoned higher-end clothing store chains for discount retail giants such as Wal-Mart, Costco and BJ's, which reaped back-to-school sales in August.
Employees were underpaid millions of dollars and worked under sweatshop conditions at a New York factory that made garments for major retailers including Macy's and The Gap, the state Department of Labor said Wednesday.
Online searches for gift cards are rising, and they're more generic than ever. We're one step away from just giving money
Gap Inc.'s fashions are hardly topping consumers' shopping lists this holiday season. But that shouldn't stop investors from taking a closer look at the company's stock, which has been soaring, even as shares of other major retailers hit the skids.
Clothing retailer Gap Inc. has fired an Indian company accused of using child labor to make clothes, the company's president said.
The product recall over child labor allegations could deter other Western brands from sourcing their production to India
Does a brand identity really matter when people have turned away from shopping?
U.S. retailers, already struggling with a protracted sales slump this year, suffered another disastrous sales month in October as Americans continue to shun unnecessary purchases in tough economic times.
Dismal September sales results from mall-based apparel chains, released Thursday, offered more fresh evidence that American consumers, spooked by the financial meltdown, shut their wallets tight last month
I'm going to come right out and cop to this -- I have been dumped more times than I can count. You'd think that after the 5,234th time, I'd be a tad more resilient, but nah. I have mourned certain dead relationships for longer than they went on in the first place and made an idiot of myself over men so patently unworthy, it's a wonder I haven't had my feminist card revoked.
Consumers nervous about the weak economy abandoned higher-end clothing store chains for discount retail giants such as Wal-Mart, Costco and BJ's, which reaped back-to-school sales in August.
Employees were underpaid millions of dollars and worked under sweatshop conditions at a New York factory that made garments for major retailers including Macy's and The Gap, the state Department of Labor said Wednesday.
Online searches for gift cards are rising, and they're more generic than ever. We're one step away from just giving money
Gap Inc.'s fashions are hardly topping consumers' shopping lists this holiday season. But that shouldn't stop investors from taking a closer look at the company's stock, which has been soaring, even as shares of other major retailers hit the skids.
Clothing retailer Gap Inc. has fired an Indian company accused of using child labor to make clothes, the company's president said.
The product recall over child labor allegations could deter other Western brands from sourcing their production to India
Clothing retailer Gap Inc. said that it will convene all of its Indian suppliers to "forcefully reiterate" its ban on child labor after children were found making Gap clothes
Gap Inc. announced Friday that a laptop containing the personal information of about 800,000 job applicants was stolen from the offices of one of its vendors that manages data for the company.
Slumping clothing retailer Gap Inc. said Friday it has hired interior designer and television personality Todd Oldham to bring his sense of style to its Old Navy discount chain.
Gap Inc. on Thursday posted second-quarter profits that met Wall Street estimates, helped by the retailer's ongoing cost-cutting initiatives and reduced discounts at its Gap and Old Navy stores.
Despite heavy back-to-school discounting from Wal-Mart and other merchants, retailers reported a mixed bag of sales at their stores last month.
Gap Inc. announced Thursday that it has appointed Glenn Murphy to serve as chairman and chief executive officer of the clothing retailer which has struggled to keep up with rival chains.
General Electric's consumer lending unit GE Money announced Monday that it will offer a Visa credit card to customers of the clothing retailer Gap Inc.
Struggling clothing chain Gap Inc. could soon announce job cuts as part of its ongoing efforts to reduce business costs in light of weak sales and traffic trends at its stores, according to a published report Wednesday.
On a cold September day in 1941, Donald Fisher, the founder of Gap Inc., was fishing on a Northern California beach. Suddenly, 12-year-old Don hooked a bass so big his brother Bob thought it was a ...
America's bloated retail landscape is about to shrink some more.
February was a disappointing month for retailers.
The Global Fund's "Red" anti-AIDS campaign vigorously disputed reports Monday that its marketing budget grossly exceeds charitable donations the fund has received.
Gap Inc. said Monday that it will close its Forth & Towne stores after an 18-month pilot that began August 2005.
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are going to miss their family. Not their immediate family -- their movie family.
Veteran retailer Millard (Micky) Drexler, currently CEO of J. Crew, delivered a very blunt message to his peers Tuesday: "I have a few issues about where our business is going. American fashion is not doing what we need to do. Our industry doesn't inspire customers today."
It's only January but several retailers are already in spring cleaning mode and they're dumping senior executives, including their CEOs.
Shares of struggling apparel retailer Gap Inc. surged nearly 10 percent Monday after a news report said the company had hired Goldman Sachs to help it explore strategic alternatives, including sale of the company.
Unless Old Man Winter shows up soon, this year's unusually mild winter could devastate crucial fourth-quarter sales and profits at struggling chains like Gap and Ann Taylor and other retailers that have failed to lure shoppers on warm weather gear, even with extra-deep discounts.
Although retailers benefited from a surge of bargain hunters on Black Friday and the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, warmer-than-usual weather tempered November sales gains especially at some specialty apparel and department store chains.
Retailers turned in a mixed bag for August as many U.S. chain store operators failed to get a hoped-for back-to-school sales boost.
Private equity firms, flush with more than $200 billion in cash, have been aggressively mining the retailing sector over the past 12 months for acquisition targets.
No. 1 apparel seller Gap Inc. on Tuesday announced that all of its namesakes U.S. stores are getting a substantial makeover this July and the retailer will also relaunch its TV ads in a bid to win back customers and revitalize its sagging sales.
Hot Topic, Pier 1 Imports and Gap are three troubled retailers trying to dig out of a deep hole. Unfortunately, time may be running out while the hole just seems to be getting bigger.
During an investor conference call last spring, Gap Inc. CEO Paul Pressler did a mea culpa, admitting he was "disappointed" by the retail firm's sagging sales. Pledging that a turnaround was in the...
Gap has lost its sense of style. After decades of outfitting the nation's weekend wardrobe, America's favorite clothing brand faltered, and CEO Paul Pressler is under increasing pressure to bring it back into fashion.
During an investor conference call last spring, Gap Inc. CEO Paul Pressler did a mea culpa, admitting he was disappointed by the retail firm's sagging sales. Pledging that a turnaround was in the works, he indicated that improvements in the company's clothing lines should appear by year's end.
A late-stage dose of heavy discounting appeared to be exactly what the doctor ordered to rev up crucial December sales, as apparel sellers, high-end merchants and even one long-time laggard in the home furnishing arena posted surprisingly strong numbers.
Bad news for holiday bargain hunters: Since so many of you were out there shopping the last full weekend before Christmas, retailers weren't offering deep-discount "panic sales."
Wal-Mart and Abercrombie & Fitch were among the winners of Black Friday while Gap suffered on one of the biggest holiday shopping days of the year, according to a research report issued Monday.
Playboy.com is looking for the Gap's sexiest sweater sweeties to pose for its upcoming "Girls of the Gap" online, to be launched in time for the holiday shopping season.
"We don't intend to stop until we become the world's No. 1 casual apparel company."
The nation's retailers often blame the weather for poor sales but found themselves crediting a hot and muggy June for strong sales of summer clothes, air conditioners and garden furniture last month.
ONE OF AMERICA'S leading retailers thinks it's found the path to success—and it starts with separate entrances for men and women. After almost 12 straight months of declining same-store sales, Gap ...
Clothing retailer Gap Inc. reported lower earnings and sales Thursday but shares rose after hours when the numbers came out slightly ahead of analysts' estimates and the company raised its full year forecast.
WHEN A FORTUNE 500 CEO IS OUSTED, he usually pockets a massive severance check and retreats to golfing, "consulting," and shopping for a third wife. Mickey Drexler did the opposite. When Gap Inc. b...
In the retail world, Gap's CEO Paul Pressler has been a star. But lately, he's not shining too brightly.
Bad news for retailers: Shoppers seems to be winning the game of chicken this holiday season.
Wal-Mart's November sales woes may be a heavy burden to bear for discounters in particular, but the rest of the retail sector managed to pull out some positive surprises during the important holiday shopping month.
One hot holiday gift this year is that easy-to-buy "Get it Yourself" present: the gift card.
Oops, it happened again.
Investors will look to earnings reports from retailers Gap and Nordstrom as well as a handful of technology companies to move the market Friday morning.
Investors checked out of retailer Gap Inc. Thursday after it delivered a disappointing sales report card for July with failing grades in its three core divisions: Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy.
Back-to-school shopping was the predominant theme in July and helped provide some relief to retailers after a disappointing performance in the previous month but failed to fuel the big results.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it -- and perhaps no one knows that better than executives at the Gap.
Gap Inc. CEO Paul Pressler hinted Tuesday that the apparel retailer has two new concepts in the works that would extend the retailer's offerings beyond its three iconic brands of Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy.
Hollywood actress and HBO's "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker will headline the 35th anniversary campaign for apparel retailer Gap Inc., the company said Wednesday.
Wild Planet Toys, a toymaker known for its adventure and surveillance products, said on Thursday it is teaming up with GapKids on a line of cargo shorts with spy tools.
Embattled hospital chain Tenet Healthcare Corp. said it will pay $30.75 million to settle charges it improperly paid physicians for referrals and billed Medicare in discharging patients, boosting its shares in after-hours trade.
With a slew of earnings news streaming in this week, investors will be looking to see which companies have been turning a profit and which ones have been generating wider losses.
Gap Inc.'s glaring December sales miss has many on Wall Street asking one question: What's the retailer doing differently this spring to allay fears that its year-long turnaround is starting to sputter?
What a difference a year makes: After a rotten 2002, Gap Inc. has had four consecutive quarters of growth, with 2003 summer sales tripling to $209 million. Gap's leading position among U.S. clothin...
Watch out, fashionistas: You may soon be working at the Gap.
GAP INC. (GPS) CEO: Paul Pressler Tenure: Six months Price: $14.76 52-week range: $8 to $14.76 Profits: $447 million Est. '03 P/E: 20 Revenue: $14 billion Market cap: $13 billion
After two years of fashion faux pas (glittery T-shirts, anyone?), longtime chief Mickey Drexler himself fell into the gap. Drexler, 57, says he'll retire once a replacement is found. Stores have po...
Barely one in 5,000 Africans has access to the Internet, often through services such as the one advertised at left, in Kampala, Uganda. But a project is under way to encircle the continent with 32,...
One of the dullest stops on a fashion editor's calendar is a men's wear trade show known as MAGIC, the Men's Apparel Guild in California. Somehow, balding men hawking pleated khakis and argyle sock...
From Ford Broncos to Coke cans, the history of American scandal is the history of product placement. Even Watergate, the mother of all scandals, was essentially a years-long plug for a Washington l...
Of four professors who taught Mickey Drexler in his senior year at college, not one remembers him, not faintly. "The name doesn't mean a thing to me," says one professor of marketing. Classmates ar...
Meet two powerful consumers coveted by some of the country's biggest companies: Willie Hershey, 8, pictured at left, and Elizabeth Severson, 17, photographed on page 100.
Not all companies distort earnings. Many outfits with smaller followings than the 30 Dow Jones blue chips have avoided big special charges that inflate their earnings. Here are six stocks that anal...
When it comes to money, everyone has problems with commitment. You work hard to earn the stuff, but you're not interested in a long-term relationship. So you never have any money saved when you nee...
Back in January, this column recommended three retail stocks: Liz Claiborne ($34.25), The Gap ($55.25) and Sears Roebuck ($48.75). Now all have nearly met or surpassed the target prices they were s...
You probably never realized how pampered college life was until you got out and tried to date on a real-life paycheck. Dinner and a movie? You can break $100 without breaking a sweat. And at $100 t...
AND JUST EXACTLY HOW did "Old Navy" get picked as the name for the clothing-store juggernaut that is even now rumbling noisily across the blasted landscape of retailing, reverberating in our weary ...
THIS MONTH: Why some investors are moving in on home-security firms Dividend stocks take the lead A familiar consumer giant is busting out with profit potential
EVERY SO OFTEN you've got to say the heck with all those brokerage reports, newsletters, and other materials that entire forests died for. Let's face it, there are only three sure ways to beat the ...
GAINS FROM GROUNDED STOCKS
As the Dow Jones industrial average roared to one overvalued record after another in January, investors had much to celebrate. But the Dow's sharp drop in early February reminded them that they had...
Outlet stores, where hard-to-move merchandise gets another chance, used to be employed mostly by manufacturers to peddle the excess they couldn't persuade department stores to stock. Increasingly, ...
A funny thing happened on our way to finding the world's best investments: Most of them turned out to be right in our backyard. In fact, two-thirds of our 12 picks are U.S. issues. ''That's not sur...
Although he was the legendary manager of the world-beating Fidelity Magellan Fund, Peter Lynch has long espoused the heartening and heretical view that individual investors could actually do better...
Since he founded Nicholas Co. in 1967, Albert Nicholas of Milwaukee has managed to ride the bulls without getting chewed up by the bears. His hallmark fund, the no-load, $2.4 billion Nicholas Fund,...
With the 30 Dow Jones industrials up a seemingly unsustainable 38% in less than two years, many seasoned investors won't touch stocks now. They figure that anything they buy will decline sharply wh...
For many mutual fund investors, the first half of 1992 was one big reality check. After gaining more than 31% last year, the average domestic-stock fund plopped back to earth, losing 2.7% in the si...
WE'RE at Galeries Lafayette, a chic new Parisian clothing store in midtown Manhattan. A stylish woman in her 30s is speaking rapid French to a friend in front of a display of denim jeans. Spotting ...
MANAGING/COVER STORIES 56 CLOSING THE INNOVATION GAP America isn't creating new products fast enough for global competition. Smart executives know that developing mold-breaking ideas isn't magic --...
THE WRECKAGE in retailing has piled up so high that you need to check every week to see who's in and who's out of business. Once-proud names -- B. Altman, Bonwit Teller, Garfinckel's -- have closed...
After a disappointing season late last year, major retailers have enjoyed strong spring sales. As a result, investors have gone shopping, bidding up the shares of some top chains, including The Gap...
MILLARD DREXLER, president of the Gap, is seeing red -- literally. The holiday window display at the Gap store in the Stanford Shopping Center, about an hour south of downtown San Francisco, featur...
With some analysts growling that the recent run-up in stock prices was just a sucker's rally, MONEY asked Kenneth Hackel of Systematic Financial Management in Fort Lee, N.J. to identify companies w...
The Woolworths and the Hartfords built their wealth discovering the idea. Leslie Wexner of the Limited and Sam Walton of Wal-Mart Stores amassed their money perfecting it. Now Donald Fisher, 59, th...
ANGELA AZZARETTI, 25, the daughter of Italian immigrants, was graduated from the University of Illinois and took a job at Caterpillar's headquarters in Peoria during the summer of 1987. Angela's wa...
| Most Viewed | Most Emailed | Top Searches |
Video
