Economics

To bas emore on the economic side of street wear it definetly erupted into a high price high quality clothing industry inside fashion itself. For instace, it's even gotten to the point were companies like payless are starting to get high. Now would would of expected somrthimg like that to happen. I thought in a recession to cheaper stores stayed cheap and afortable. I guess that's why Steve & Berry and Gap are having such problems. For instacne, No one's minding the Gap anymoreThe Gap is one of the megabrands that shaped retailing and consumer culture in the 1990s. Throughout the decade, city corners, suburban main streets, and exurban strip malls were carpet-bombed with the emporia of reasonably priced denim and cotton. And along with those other megastores of the 1990s Starbucks, Staples, Barnes & Noble, Home Depot the Gap became so ubiquitous that consumers all over the country could share common retail experiences. "The Gap also imposed itself on the larger culture with its popular ads; the Saturday Night Live parody featuring David Spade, Chris Farley, and Adam Sandler as shop girls; and Monica Lewinsky's stained blue dress". You'd think with taht type of continuing publiscity nothing could have gone wrong. Maybe they just didn't have of enough top brand street wear." The Gap influenced the way people dressed remember the unfortunate jeans and light-blue work-shirt period when yuppies outfitted themselves like dock hands?-and surfed the business-casual wave". Parent company Gap Inc. expanded and extended the core brand, adding Baby Gap and Kids Gap. It segmented the market, too, rolling out Banana Republic for upscale shoppers and Old Navy for bargain-hunters. And the company could apparently do no wrong. "The charts from the 1999 annual report are stunning, particularly the one on Page 16. Sales rose more than sixfold, from $1.9 billion in 1990 to $11.6 billion in 1999". "In 1999, the company opened 299 Gap stores in the United States, bringing the total to 1,767". But since the millennium turned, it's all gone horribly wrong."For retailers, same-store sales growth is the key metric. And as this chart of same-store sales since 2000 shows, the numbers for Gap stores are ugly: down 12 percent in 2001, down 7 percent in 2002, and off 5 percent in 2005"."By my calculation, a hypothetical Gap store that did $1,000,000 sales in fiscal 1999 did only about $830,000 in fiscal 2005. And the trend is continuing". I read that in February, same-store sales for the Gap North America unit fell 7 percent, tklk about major upset. "Inthat smae month, traffic worsened versus fourth-quarter trends, which caused lower unit sales velocity". "This led to significantly lower merchandise margins," as executive Sabrina Simmons put it. This just goes to show people that they can't just expect people to buy to smae old stlye of clothing yaer after year. Which is why money dosen't seem to circulating the way it used to anymore. Because the the government wa and still is being so greedy you either spend so much money on clothes you dont need or start bargen shopping. Which could explain why no finds Gap high priced and dull clothing lines apealing anymore.