STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Cricket · Gucci

Anyone else's local Gap close suddenly?

cahabo · Kate Spade

Not here, at least not when I last went there a couple days ago. I agree though that they haven't had that much great stuff in a while. Just basic tees and tanks for me. They have cute stuff for kids and babies though.

Kitty · Hermes

In the town where I lived before this, the GAP in the mall closed. I think this had to do with the fact that the mall was super ghetto and didn't really have anything even remotely close to high-end or normal stores. Everything was like F21, Styles, Wet Seal, Ross, etc.

Aurora · Marc Jacobs

Yup. A few years ago the one by my college campus closed and then last year the one in the turning ghetto mall closed. Both were due to low traffic in the area and the ghetto mall requiring retail stores to sign 10 year leases when it was time for renewal. Most stores are vacating as soon as their leases are up in that mall.

halleybird · Hermes

Cricket -- which store closed? Not Arrowhead?!?!

Cricket · Gucci

halleybird wrote:

Cricket -- which store closed? Not Arrowhead?!?!

Yep, Arrowhead. I was there Monday. Mall customer service said it had been closed for about a week. They're putting a J.Jill in the spot.

BUT... did you see that a Sephora is opening in the spring?

halleybird · Hermes

Cricket wrote:

halleybird wrote:

Cricket -- which store closed? Not Arrowhead?!?!

Yep, Arrowhead. I was there Monday. Mall customer service said it had been closed for about a week. They're putting a J.Jill in the spot.

BUT... did you see that a Sephora is opening in the spring?

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I am not BFFs with Gap, but I can't think of another one remotely nearby. I was just there before Christmas and they didn't have signs up, or super markdowns, or anything! Boo to J.Jill. That mall is full of clothes for 14-year-olds and 50-year-olds, with nothing in between.

Sephora IS a bright spot, though!

Cricket · Gucci

halleybird wrote:

Cricket wrote:

halleybird wrote:

Cricket -- which store closed? Not Arrowhead?!?!

Yep, Arrowhead. I was there Monday. Mall customer service said it had been closed for about a week. They're putting a J.Jill in the spot.

BUT... did you see that a Sephora is opening in the spring?

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I am not BFFs with Gap, but I can't think of another one remotely nearby. I was just there before Christmas and they didn't have signs up, or super markdowns, or anything! Boo to J.Jill. That mall is full of clothes for 14-year-olds and 50-year-olds, with nothing in between.

Sephora IS a bright spot, though!

Yeah, that sucks that there isn't another one close, especially to me in Litchfield Park. I need to return these defective jeans, and now I have to drive to the other Scottsdale or Paradise Valley to return them! My husband had to run over to Mesa today and I was going to have him drop me off at the Fiesta Mall so I could return them, but it looks like their Gap closed too!

bex · Chanel

ours did the same thing about a year ago.

no signs, no warnings... just *poof* it was gone!

Cortney1982 · Chanel

I only have Gap Outlets nearby. They are always busy considering the crappy stuff inside. Looks like they need to change something.

BargainQueen · Marc Jacobs

Cricket wrote:

halleybird wrote:

Cricket wrote:

halleybird wrote:

Cricket -- which store closed? Not Arrowhead?!?!

Yep, Arrowhead. I was there Monday. Mall customer service said it had been closed for about a week. They're putting a J.Jill in the spot.

BUT... did you see that a Sephora is opening in the spring?

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I am not BFFs with Gap, but I can't think of another one remotely nearby. I was just there before Christmas and they didn't have signs up, or super markdowns, or anything! Boo to J.Jill. That mall is full of clothes for 14-year-olds and 50-year-olds, with nothing in between.

Sephora IS a bright spot, though!

Yeah, that sucks that there isn't another one close, especially to me in Litchfield Park. I need to return these defective jeans, and now I have to drive to the other Scottsdale or Paradise Valley to return them! My husband had to run over to Mesa today and I was going to have him drop me off at the Fiesta Mall so I could return them, but it looks like their Gap closed too!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I should start a new post about this, but DH & I officially decided to move to AZ (Buckeye to be exact, I know) at the end of April. We were there this Xmas, and the bright side was we were close enuf to shopping in Litchfield, now no GAP?!

Cricket · Gucci

BargainQueen wrote:

Cricket wrote:

halleybird wrote:

Cricket wrote:

halleybird wrote:

Cricket -- which store closed? Not Arrowhead?!?!

Yep, Arrowhead. I was there Monday. Mall customer service said it had been closed for about a week. They're putting a J.Jill in the spot.

BUT... did you see that a Sephora is opening in the spring?

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I am not BFFs with Gap, but I can't think of another one remotely nearby. I was just there before Christmas and they didn't have signs up, or super markdowns, or anything! Boo to J.Jill. That mall is full of clothes for 14-year-olds and 50-year-olds, with nothing in between.

Sephora IS a bright spot, though!

Yeah, that sucks that there isn't another one close, especially to me in Litchfield Park. I need to return these defective jeans, and now I have to drive to the other Scottsdale or Paradise Valley to return them! My husband had to run over to Mesa today and I was going to have him drop me off at the Fiesta Mall so I could return them, but it looks like their Gap closed too!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I should start a new post about this, but DH & I officially decided to move to AZ (Buckeye to be exact, I know) at the end of April. We were there this Xmas, and the bright side was we were close enuf to shopping in Litchfield, now no GAP?!

Great! Glad you finally decided to move out here! There's nothing wrong with Buckeye. You can get a lot of house for your money out there right now. Have you heard of the Estrella Falls mall? Not sure exactly where it will be, but it will be somewhere off I-10, maybe by Verrado? It's supposed to be huge. I heard that Nordstrom is interested in putting a store out there. Shopping out here is SO much better than it was 2 years ago, but a few years from now, it's going to be great! When are you planning on moving?

BargainQueen · Marc Jacobs

Cricket wrote:

Great! Glad you finally decided to move out here! There's nothing wrong with Buckeye. You can get a lot of house for your money out there right now. Have you heard of the Estrella Falls mall? Not sure exactly where it will be, but it will be somewhere off I-10, maybe by Verrado? It's supposed to be huge. I heard that Nordstrom is interested in putting a store out there. Shopping out here is SO much better than it was 2 years ago, but a few years from now, it's going to be great! When are you planning on moving?

Yes I have! I actually found out about it last year and I asked my aunt's family about it while we were out there last week and they had no idea what I was talking about. They're not that into fashion so I wasnt that surprised. So it's not built yet right? We drove around Verrado, nice place, I was glad to see there "green" trees and grass nearby.

I havent told work yet and the main reason we're not moving sooner is because I'm waiting for my review this month. After the review, bonunes are distributed the 1st week of March. I want to wait another month before dropping the news at work. Announcing it too soon after I get my check would look bad, IMO. Since my job deals with several worldwide locations, I would need a month to hire and train the new manager. That said, the soonest is April 30th.

We've been tossing around the idea literally FOREVER, we love AZ and its close enough to LA and Vegas we can always visit. DH is the one who has been scared to take the plunge. Here in Cali, he's struggled a lot to get top pay and stability in the construction field. I keep telling him construction is huge in AZ and he'll find something in no time! I'm counting down the days though, I cant believe we're really doing it this time. I was thinking of applying for a competitor of my current employer in April, who by pure luck and coincedence is located in Phoenix!

halleybird · Hermes

YAY BQ! You will like AZ, and your husband will, too. There's tons of construction work, especially for those who are good at what they do! The West Valley is def. more suburban, and it doesn't compare to the shopping in the East, but the traffic is far better, and it's a better place to raise a family IMO.

Cricket - I guess there's no Gap at Desert Sky Mall? Remember when it was Westridge Mall?

twinkle_star · Kenneth Cole

I live in Cambridge, MA and my Gap closed suddenly too! I went in to finish my Christmas shopping on 12/23 and found out they were closing on 12/24. With so many students around I found it a little strange (of course the last few times I went in, there was NOTHING I liked so maybe that's why....).

lizardbreath · Nine West

Where I am in NY, the ghetto mall closed the Baby Gap and a smaller mall is closing the Gap on 1/30/07.

There is a huge mall nearby the small mall though, that completely re-designed and expanded their store, it has a huge jeans section and the whole store looks very trendy now, not like your old 1990's Gap!

esquiress · Marc Jacobs

you called it, cricket. take a look at this article from forbes.com:

Market Scan
Gap Possibly Mulling Sale
Joshua Lipton, 01.08.07, 7:06 PM ET

Shoppers don’t appear too interested in Gap’s skirts, jeans, and leather handbags, but maybe some cash-heavy private equity players are.

Gap has hired investment firm Goldman Sachs (nyse: GS - news - people ) to explore “strategic alternatives,” according to published reports. It wasn’t clear why, exactly, the San Francisco-based retailer hired the bank, but speculation of a possible sale pleased traders.

On Monday, shares of Gap surged 7.3%, or $1.37, to $20.26.

Spokeswomen from both Gap and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

Just last week, on Jan. 4, Gap reported disappointing news from its holiday season. The retailer announced net sales of $2.34 billion for the five weeks ending Dec. 30, which is a 4% decrease compared to the year-ago period. The company’s comparable store sales for December 2006 decreased 8%.

Based on that performance, the company decided to revise its fiscal 2006 guidance. Gap now forecasts full-year earnings per share to be $0.83 to $0.87. Previously, the company had expected guidance of $1.01 to $1.06.

“We are clearly disappointed with Gap and Old Navy’s holiday sales and overall performance for the year,” chief executive Paul Pressler said at the time.

Why would a private equity firm be curious about buying the retailer?

Stifel Nicolaus & Company analyst Richard Jaffe said cash flow is extraordinary for all retailers. “The difference between success and poor results is very little. And the perceived ease of performance gets people to invest.” He also noted that the Gap retains well-known brand equity. “They have great market presence,” he said. “They have stores everywhere.”

Jefferies & Co. analyst Donald Trott said the company could possibly be shopping itself to potential buyers, although he cautioned that the retailer, at this point, will be difficult to help. “This is not an easy company to turn around,” Trott said. “It is damaged goods.” He pointed to poor consumer traffic at stores and weak results from brands like Old Navy. “Month after month, it has been a disaster,” Trott said. “Christmas was a flop.”

But Trott thinks this Board of Directors might be less inclined to try and search for a new chief executive as a remedy for the retailer’s woes. “They went through five years with Pressler,” the analyst said. “Maybe they would prefer to avoid going through that again.”

Regardless of how the company decides to move forward, Trott cautioned that there are no available quick fixes. “It is a long process requiring a lot of expertise,” he said. “Right now, there isn’t that expertise at the top."