Monday, June 25, 2007

The Gap's Problems

Seth Godin looks at what's happening at The Gap:

They're closing about 50 stores net this year, trying to make their business match the market. At the same time, it was pretty obvious from my visit that they're working hard to save money on sales staff, store designers and other expenses. It took me twenty minutes to check out. In the old days, it would have been two minutes. My reading of the Dip is that nickel and diming is a dumb strategy.

They should close 200 or even 500 stores and keep the very best people from each store, redeploying them to their best stores. They should invest in those great stores, invest in design, in targeted marketing. In other words, instead of shrinking themselves back to greatness, they ought to avoid the nickel and diming and go back to what made them great in the first place.

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