Wandering in a local mall, I looked around at what I percieve to be poor quality clothing. And I asked myself, what would be the smarter thing to do; buy a lot of cheap clothing that will get wrecked after so many wears, or buying something a little more expensive but that will last me (almost)forever?

I do think about my purchases, so it’s not just about coupons and buying cheap meats. That to me is the most important part.

Outside of student debt for some, young people don’t have the 800 pound gorillas to worry about (at least they don’t start out that way). They are throwing frugality out the door completely and are turning to consumption at an alarming rate. Their need for instant gratification is translating into massive credit card debt, and hence their own personal 800 pound gorillas.

So your comment about the mindset of frugality is alot more significant than you may think. Because there’s trouble in them there [debt] hills and younger peope just don’t seem to see it.

1. On the GAP closing 200-500 stores and redeploying their staff: The GAP isn’t the US Army. If I’m a GAP employee and management tells me that they’re closing my store and the nearest one is 50 miles away, I’m going to probably take a job at the pretzel peddler rather than make the 50 mile commute just to maintain my $9 an hour.

2. While I agree that nickel and diming is not always the answer, it’s very easy to “armchair CEO” it and say “Based on my 20 minutes I spent at the GAP this month, they should close 500 stores and not 50!” Wow. Let’s not forget that Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy (and Piperlime) are all part of the same company and just because their middle of the road clothing store isn’t getting it done in Seth’s mind doesn’t mean Gap’s executive management is clueless.

3. On the other hand, I can’t remember the last time I bought clothes at Gap. Not because the service was bad, just because I didn’t care for the selection. There is quite a bit of overlap in the products and I prefer their dressier clothes from Banana Republic and more casual clothes from Old Navy.

I completely like your site. It is extremely informative and I intend to go through it further. I’ve referred five more people to it.

Years ago I worked for Joann Fabrics & Crafts. We were only given enough payroll hours to have two people working in the store at any given time. Those two people were expected to unload and put away 50+ cases of inventory weekly, perform customer service and sales duties, clean the store, run the cash registers, and keep an eye on both store entrances. The district only gave us enough hours to have people working during the times the store was open. So no working before or after business hours. Needless to say, that store is now out of business along with other Joann stores.

Home Depot has been lambasted lately also about their staff reductions. But they kept raising the pay for the CEO while their stock prices kept dropping.

I know that payroll costs are a large part of doing business. But in a retail environment, your business simply will not prosper unless you provide good customer service with live human employees. Maybe GAP will be able to turn their business around.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

-Albert Einstein