When I first thought bout what company I would like to research, I look down and fixed the collar on my shirt. Then it dawned on me that since I love fashion, I could doit on the gap. Who had the power (and the clothes) to make the NYSE take its first casualFriday? The Gap -- the ubiquitous clothing retailer that runs over 3,300 stores, mostly inthe US, but also in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK. Its flagship Gap storesoffer a wide variety of men's and women's casual clothing (T-shirts, jeans, khakis). Thecompany's other chains include Banana Republic, GapKids, babyGap, and its fastestgrowing, Old Navy. Each chain also has an online incarnation. The Gap is addingGapBody intimate apparel stores and restaurants in flagship Old Navy stores. All Gapclothing is private-label merchandise made specifically for the company. The foundingFisher family owns about 34% of the company. Considering that Gap is a designer brand, its competitors would also be designer namesin fashion. Some competitors are American Eagle, Spiegel, and Abercrombie and Fitch. The article, Gap Mishap--But Still Deserves a Look, by Lee Clifford, states that theGap and its subsidiaries make up some 5% of all the clothes bought in the United Statesand it goes on to say that eventually that number will jump to 8%. For right now,however, the Gap is going through some tough times. The San-Francisco based company missed its earnings projections for both the first and second quarters this year and scaledback expectations for the rest of 2000. Store sales in August fell 14%, causing the stockto go down 52% to date. Dan Prislin, the CEO, These are growing pain, not red flags.Most all of the damage is coming at the expense of Old Navy. It has been labeled,problem child, by Prislin. Advertising campaigns were botched and sells have beensuffering because of the merchandise they are putting out. However, there is some good news coming out of the Gap camp. It...
