California Apparel News

Gap Inc. unveiled its new store look, with larger fitting rooms and a jeans bar, this October in San Diego, the second-largest city in California.

The new store format made its San Diego bow at the city’s high-profile Fashion Valley Mall. The new format is scheduled to debut at San Diego’s Horton Plaza shopping center and North County Fair mall later this month. In April, Gap showcased the new look at seven stores in Denver.

The format was introduced at a time when Gap’s chief executive, Paul Pressler, is under increasing fire from Wall Street analysts for failing to break the sales slump that has plagued the company with single-digit decreases in comparative sales since November 2004. Gap is the largest specialty retailer in the world, with 3,029 stores.

Bob Buchanan was one analyst who lowered his Gap stock recommendation recently from “Buy” to “Hold” in a research note published Oct. 14. “Paul Pressler may be the wrong person to run the Gap,” wrote Buchanan, who follows the stock for A.G. Edwards & Sons, based in St. Louis.

The company, however, regards the new look as a way for the San Francisco–based specialty retailer to connect with a new generation of consumers, according to Gap statements.

“Since Gap was founded in 1969, we’ve evolved the brand to meet our customers’ needs,” said Lee Bird, chief operating officer, in a company statement. “That’s one of the hallmarks of a great brand—the ability to anticipate and innovate to meet the changing needs and lifestyles of its customers.”

Not every Gap will adopt the new format in its entirety, according to Christine Chen, an analyst with Pacific Growth Equities in San Francisco. Rather, company executives will give themselves the liberty to iron out kinks. “At the end of the day [a new format] is incremental,” Chen said. “What’s going to get results is merchandise, and [Gap] is still struggling with that.” The Gap did not reply to several interview requests from California Apparel News.

A break with the past

The new format breaks with tradition. Instead of the unisex shopping that has been a hallmark of the Gap, the store further divides shopping into separate men’s and women’s sections, each with its own entrance.

The main cash register station, or cash wrap, normally located in the back of the store, is placed in the middle in the new Gap format. Additional cash registers are placed in the fitting-room area, which has undergone other transformations.

Fitting-room booths are larger. Customers can control the lighting in the booths, and restrooms are adjacent to the fitting-room area.

The back of the store is dominated by a jeans bar, which displays myriad styles of private-label denims manufactured by the Gap. A lounge, outfitted with comfortable chairs, magazines and books, is placed next to the jeans bar.

The store’s interior color scheme also varies. Instead of the white walls common to most Gap stores, consumers shop at a store with walls in white, blue and other shades, such as dark green and deep burgundy.Walls featuring the darker colors may be changed every few months.

Floors have a dark wood stain, and the new format’s lighting scheme calls for incandescent lighting, which may look to some as if the store lights have been turned down low.

Critiquing the format

Gap has not made any statements as to future locations where the new format will be rolled out. The Fashion Valley Mall store got mixed reviews from Brian Dyches, president of the Los Angeles chapter of The Institute of Store Planners, an organization of retail architects and designers. Dyches is also the vice president of brand strategy at Watt International, a Toronto-based brand-design firm.

“It’s not a bull’s-eye,” said Dyches, who is based in Laguna Beach, Calif. “It is demonstrative of Gap’s recognition that they can’t stand on ceremony of the past; they have to rethink what the company’s place will be in the next 15 years.”

The spacious fitting rooms and their proximity to cash registers and restrooms met with high praise from Dyches. He also felt the store’s new wrapping paper, which bears the image of the first Gap store, was an example of well-thought-out branding.

Dyches criticized the central cash wrap. He thought it would create customer traffic-flow problems and lines packed with stressed-out consumers during the holiday season. He said he believes the low lights don’t mix with many of Gap’s interior surfaces. He also said he thought that the public might have problems with the entry scheme of the Gap adult store. It has separate entrances for the men’s and women’s sections. Dyches said, “I saw people passing by the store and not figuring out how to get in. My concern is that the facade is the biggest miss.”

Retail analyst George Whalin said the Gap is still a highly coveted tenant at shopping malls. “They’re one of the best retailers in the world. They’ve had their problems, but they sell a lot of merchandise,” said Whalin, president of Retail Management Consultants in San Marcos, Calif.