Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Gap to close all 81 stores in UK and Ireland

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 139 posts

Re: Gap to close all 81 stores in UK and Ireland

#61

Post by jakub_g »

himinlomax wrote: post #39
globular-toast wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also the water consumption. One cotton t-shirt uses more than 2000 litres of water. That's about a month's worth of daily showers. It wouldn't be too bad if the garment would last 10+ years, but they don't. Unfortunately the people (mostly women) who drive this are addicted to the churn of clothes. It's not about a basic need to be warm and protected. It's about maintaining a constant source of novelty by bu…

> There is also the water consumption. One cotton t-shirt uses more than 2000 litres of water. That's about a month's worth of daily showers. It wouldn't be too bad if the garment would last 10+ years, but they don't. What does that even mean? Does the water just disappear?

At Aral Sea, it literally disappeared, yeah (due to poor engineering in Soviet times to irrigate cotton fields)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea

Re: Gap to close all 81 stores in UK and Ireland

#62

Post by Chris2048 »

nly wrote: post #9
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #5

The UK high street was struggling before Covid came along. I suspect it's going to be decimated when we come out of furlough.

Primark will never die

a lot of the cheapest Primark tee-shirts are made of this thin, slightly stretchy material, Funnily enough, it's been v hot recently and this is now ideal - thicker tees get too hot. Only problem is, if I do sweat* it sticks to me like glue..

Re: Gap to close all 81 stores in UK and Ireland

#63

Post by twobitshifter »

Looking at old navy versus gap - gap no longer has any point of differentiation from their sister store. Why would I want to spend more at the gap for the same cheap quality as at old navy? The clothes are generic, and there’s not anything that the Gap has that makes them cooler, better designed, or a better value than something anywhere else. Looking broader Uniqlo at least has some points of differentiation with their sizing and styling, and primark beats the gap and everyone else on price.

Re: Gap to close all 81 stores in UK and Ireland

#64

Post by bgeeek »

an_opabinia wrote: post #2

From a former Gap exec: > How did your time at The Gap shape your thinking about what you do at Herman Miller? > I interviewed a guy who became my head of digital. He had worked in retail, and he said, “Do you know what excites me most about coming to this industry? I feel like I’m going from making landfill to making heirlooms.” The fashion industry is the landfill industry.

For me that depends on the position in the market. I doubt some of the major clothes designers feel quite the same way.

Re: Gap to close all 81 stores in UK and Ireland

#65

Post by tonyedgecombe »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #52
rich_sasha wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of May, around 11.5m jobs are on furlough [1] with total labour force size of 35m [2]. This is slightly apples-to-oranges as one person can hold 2 jobs and be furloughed on both, but at face value it is about 1/3 of UK working population. I heard an interview with Angela Leadsom that it is very difficult to take people off furlough. Many people found another job while also getting furlough pay and are resisting go…

"employer needs to accommodate employee needs with regards to health and safety." Back when I was young, we'd loose a finger or three on occasional workshift and never complained! Just plaster over them and get back to work! That's after walking 13 miles to the factory, in a blizzard, uphill, both ways!

I have little doubt that a lot of people are abusing furlough, both employees and employers. It was a good idea but it needs to end.

Re: Gap to close all 81 stores in UK and Ireland

#66

Post by lucideer »

durnygbur wrote: post #43

My dream is not paying 100-200 EUR for clothing which cost 1-10 EUR to produce. Don't care about your lifestyle, philosophy, trends, influencers, brand and logo. I want it vulgar - cash for good quality clothes.

Does your dream trend toward paying less for clothing which cost 1-10 EUR to produce or paying 100-200 EUR for clothing for which people were paid reasonably to produce?

There's plenty of the latter out there if you're looking for it[0].

[0] https://www.fairwear.org/programmes/living-wage

Re: Gap to close all 81 stores in UK and Ireland

#68

Post by durnygbur »

lucideer wrote: post #66
durnygbur wrote: post #43

My dream is not paying 100-200 EUR for clothing which cost 1-10 EUR to produce. Don't care about your lifestyle, philosophy, trends, influencers, brand and logo. I want it vulgar - cash for good quality clothes.

Does your dream trend toward paying less for clothing which cost 1-10 EUR to produce or paying 100-200 EUR for clothing for which people were paid reasonably to produce? There's plenty of the latter out there if you're looking for it[0]. [0] https://www.fairwear.org/programmes/living-wage

Dunno... maybe 2-3x markup at most? Obviously removing the child and quasi slave labour from the production process.

Re: Gap to close all 81 stores in UK and Ireland

#69

Post by bencollier49 »

karlward wrote: post #17
Reason077 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Judging by all the signs up in windows, many retailers (and pubs/restaurants) seem to be struggling to find staff right now, at least in London. There can’t be that many retail workers still on the furlough scheme?

That is partially (probably mostly) due to brexit - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/17/uk-faces-la... which is mostly being felt in hospitality and retail.

Interesting problem - we're going to have to downgrade people's aspirations if we're not going to import people to do base-level jobs. Will cause social unrest.

Re: Gap to close all 81 stores in UK and Ireland

#70

Post by esyir »

lucideer wrote: post #66
durnygbur wrote: post #43

My dream is not paying 100-200 EUR for clothing which cost 1-10 EUR to produce. Don't care about your lifestyle, philosophy, trends, influencers, brand and logo. I want it vulgar - cash for good quality clothes.

Does your dream trend toward paying less for clothing which cost 1-10 EUR to produce or paying 100-200 EUR for clothing for which people were paid reasonably to produce? There's plenty of the latter out there if you're looking for it[0]. [0] https://www.fairwear.org/programmes/living-wage

I read his comment as "I hate the 1000% markup on clothing"
Post reply on HN