Of the 3 related stores (TG, ON, BR), I'll stay with BR
Of the three store brands owned by Gap, Inc., "The Gap," "Banana Republic," and "Old Navy," my own tastes (and need for good work/office pieces) lean toward BR. The Gap, Inc.'s 2006 Annual Report (See:
http://gapinc.com/public/documents/GPS_AR_06.pdf ), reveals that corporate management realizes that the Gap and Old Navy stores need some fixing, although the Gap and Old Navy stores bring in far more revenue for the parent company than Banana Republic (See:
http://gapinc.com/public/documents/GPS_Quarterly_Sales.pdf ), which they apparently believe is on a more solid track.
I personally like the selection at Banana Republic (although the quality of some items from Vietnam last year, was not up to their usual standards). As to the sweatshop problems, ... it may well be that for
any major clothing maker, the entire point of having factories in Asia is to dramatically lower labor costs, which
by definition means tiny wage-scales, no unions, no health plans, sweatshop conditions, "accidental" addition of lead to baby-chewable products, etc. Is there an asian / offshore / 3rd-world factory that is
not a sweatshop?
Eventually, as market economists argue, market momentum globally will push toward higher pay and better conditions in the low labor-cost countries, but "eventually" is how far away?
This thread has a ton of posts, so if the above repeats someone else's analysis of matters corporate, my apologies! (this is my first post in tFS! Yaay!)
