Friday, December 01, 2006

Maybe the Gap should stop pretending there’s no Christmas:

Yesterday retail sale numbers came out for the month of November and Gap continued to see its problems get worse. Sales for November and the start of the holiday season declined 8%, with every division seeing a drop. As the Gap watches its competitor’s sales increase I have a crazy suggestion for the company, how about recognizing Christmas.

For several years now the Gap has implemented a policy that bans any holiday decorations from its stores. The holiday spirit is not alive and well in the Gap as it may as well be July. Only recently employees were even allowed to wish people a happy holiday and that was only after employees and customers complained.

Though now there allowed to wish you a happy holiday the company still doesn’t want anything resembling the holiday tainting their stores. I know a number of people, myself included, that refuse to patronize the store during the holidays because of their policy. Why should you spend your Christmas dollars in a store that is embarrassed to embrace it?

Maybe if the Gap stopped worrying about the few who find a Christmas tree offensive, traffic in their stores during the Holiday would pick up.