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May 03, 2005
Will Old Orchard get FAT?
Ah, you have to love Paul Pressler. He's currently the President and CEO of Gap, Inc. But before that, he spent 10 years running the Disney theme park empire into the ground. If that was his goal, he did a fine job. You see, he wasn't a creative guy. He was a business-oriented, retail guy, having gained favor at Disney via his successful reign with The Disney Store. Eventually, he left Disney due to various factors and started at Gap in September 2002.
What does this have to do with Old Orchard? Well, for one thing, the center already has a Banana Republic, in addition to combination Gap/Gap Body and Gap Kids/Baby Gap stores. Old Orchard also offers Talbots and J. Jill. Why mention those retail locations? Because Gap is launching a fourth store brand targeted directly at the same market... with Chicago being a testing ground for 4 new stores called Forth & Towne. The name refers to the company's fourth store brand (after Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy) and "Towne" is supposed to convey a sense of community.
Chicago a 4-store lab for Gap's Forth brand
Becky Yerak
May 3, 2005The Chicago market soon will be a retail laboratory for Gap Inc.
When the San Francisco-based merchant begins testing its Forth & Towne format in Chicago this fall, it'll try new approaches to see what works and what doesn't. Four Forth & Towne stores will open in yet-to-be-announced malls and shopping centers in the Chicago area. A fifth will open in New York.
"We'll experiment with different ideas across the five stores to understand what really resonates and then apply what we learn to future openings," Gap Chief Executive Officer Paul Pressler said in an April 21 conference call. "This includes testing the right combination of store experiences, styles, quality, fit and value."
Finding the winning formula for Gap's fourth retail concept is important because Forth & Towne seeks the affections of women who are 35 and older
That demographic is increasingly coveted by retailers because it's growing rapidly and earns the highest average income of any age group of women, Pressler said. Typical customers at the company's namesake chain are 18 to 34. It also owns Banana Republic and Old Navy. While younger women typically shop at specialty stores, older ones tend to default to traditional department stores. "They don't feel there's a viable alternative," Pressler said.
Forth & Towne prices will fall somewhere between Gap and Banana Republic. The test stores range in size from 8,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet. That's bigger than other specialty retailers wooing that demographic.
For example, Janeville stores, launched last year by Gymboree Corp. for women in their mid-30s and older, are 3,000 square feet. The typical store of Chico's FAS Inc., whose clothes are known for their forgiving fit, is 2,600 square feet.
Stocking a wider array of sizes will be a Forth & Towne hallmark. "We want to make sure we offer a broad size range" so we can serve shoppers with different needs, Pressler said.
The fitting rooms will be in the center of the store, surrounded by "neighborhoods" of merchandise. Gap executives, echoing recent comments by Federated Department Stores Inc. CEO Terry Lundgren, are waxing poetic about how a decent dressing room helps convert store traffic into sales.
Gap expects to have about 30 Forth & Towne stores through 2007.
The chain is being developed by Gap veterans and new talent based in New York. "They're functioning like a start-up," Pressler said.
Chicago was picked as a test market because it's centrally located and has a "great demographic" of women 35 and older, a Gap spokeswoman said.
Source: Chicago Tribune
No word has been made yet regarding which shopping centers in the Chicago area will get the 4 test stores. Also odd is the spelling of the name "Forth & Towne". As mentioned by Snarkmarket.com, they misspelled both "fourth" and "town". Go figure. And over at SnarkHunting.com, it's illustrated how Gap was smart to use the ampersand in the new store name rather than spelling out the word, as the initals for the chain would then reflect Forth And Towne. Would that really describe the 35+ women's market?
We here at the Observer will keep you posted on future developments!
Posted by Tannerman at May 3, 2005 01:55 PM | Categories: News | Other Malls | Pear Lane | The Garden