The Death of Clothing

[bettyellen]

72. The industry is collapsing and taking department stores with them. Its been happening for 25 years

now w pressure to keep prices low being a driving factor but now Amazon is where everyone wants to be. Aside from store closings, they’re moving as many corporate HQ jobs to Asia and India as they can. Gap just fired 90% of their designers. They’re all trying to use algorithms and key words culled from online searches customers have made instead. The industry used to be the number one employer in NYC and its disappearing fast. They’re talking about a deal with the city to move headquarters to Brooklyn (ironically in a are where the last cutting rooms and factories were) because they want that real estate between Macy’s and Times Square to give to developers.
There less demand too, but generally the low quality retailers like H&M and Old Navy have been the big winners in the last 15 years. So that’s where they all try to go.