Major Clothing Chains, Including Gap, Are Closing a Total of 150+ Stores
Companies are looking to downsize their retail fleet as part of ongoing transformations.
Planning to clean out your closet this spring? You might want to make sure your go-to clothing store is still going to be around before you try to refresh your wardrobe. Retailers across the board have been downsizing with closures across the U.S., including well-known names like Walmart, Best Buy, and CVS. Now, some major clothing chains are also looking to pare things down as well. Read on to find out which companies, including Gap, are closing a total of more than 150 locations this year.
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Gap is planning to close around 50 locations this year.
Gap Inc., is gearing up to pare down its physical portfolio in 2023 across two of its major brands. During a March 9 earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Katrina O'Connell confirmed that the company plans to "close 50 to 55 Gap and Banana Republic stores" in 2023.
O'Connell did not share any additional information about exactly which locations will be shut down or when the closures would take place. Best Life reached out to Gap Inc. to find out more about the 2023 closures, and we will update this story with their response.
The company has been paring things down since 2020.
This news isn't necessarily surprising. Gap Inc., first announced back in Oct. 2020 that it planned to close a total of approximately 350 Gap and Banana Republic stores across North America over the following three years. During the recent earnings call, O'Connell noted that the 50 to 55 closures this year are a continued part of this plan.
"We remain on track to achieve our goal of closing 350 non-strategic Gap and Banana Republic stores in North America by the end of 2023," she said, adding that the company ended the 2022 fiscal year "having achieved close to 90 percent of that goal."
On its website, Gap says that this ongoing transformation is meant to leave the company with a "smaller and healthier fleet of stores" by the end of this year. "As we adapt to the current market conditions and meet the increase in online demand, we are looking thoughtfully at our real estate to support the best path forward," the company explains.
The site also includes a full list of all the Gap and Banana Republic locations that have already closed since the transformation started at the beginning of 2020.
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The Children's Place is looking to shutter close to 100 stores in 2023.
Gap is not the only clothing company closing a significant number of locations this year. The Children's Place recently revealed its plan for store closures in 2023 during a March 16 earnings call. President and CEO Jane Elfers said during the call that the company is anticipating the closure of approximately 100 locations. The "bulk of those store closures" will occur in 2023, she added.
Elfers did not share any additional information about which locations would be closing, or when the closures would take place. Best Life reached out to The Children's Place to find out more about these planned closures, and we will update this story with their response.
The retailer is also working on an ongoing transformation.
The Children's Place has been paring things down for a few years now as well. According to Elfers, the company has been working on a "fleet optimization initiative" in order to change its overall approach to a digital-first business model.
The Children's Place has already permanently closed 315 of its stores since 2019, representing 34 percent of its entire fleet. With the 100 additional closures coming, the company is planning to enter 2024 with an "optimized fleet" of just around 500 stores.
"By the end of 2023, our fleet optimization strategy will be substantially complete," Elfers said during the call. "Our fleet optimization strategy has been a critical part of our company's structural reset and aligns with our current and future customers' digital shopping preferences. The data is clear. Millennials have a strong preference for online shopping, and this is only projected to continue to increase with Gen Z parents."
