Sigh. Old Navy.

So the big news this week is that Old Navy has decided to stop carrying plus sizes in their stores and will only be carrying the line on their website. Several bloggers have posted about it (Big Fat Deal, Half of Me) and the official scoop is here. Quote:

This is the last summer that Old Navy will carry larger plus-size clothing in its stores. Instead, the company will sell the fashions exclusively online.

The final shipments of apparel in sizes 22, 24 and 26 will be sent out during the next few weeks.

"We really wanted to showcase the Plus collection and felt the best place to do that effectively was online," said Gap spokeswoman Robin Carr. While plus sizes have been carried since 2004 in only 175 of Old Navy's 950 North American stores, "online is everywhere," she said.

Old Navy stores will continue to carry women's sizes 16 to 20 as part of their regular collection, said Carr.

A lot of people are wondering if it's purely a business/money issue or if Old Navy is blatantly hating on the fat ladies. I haven't really come to terms with this whole mess yet and I'm not sure I will. I know that sounds like a very emotional reaction to have to such news but I've been buying clothes from ON regularly since the plus size line launched and I've grown quite attached. Not because it's really great quality (it's not) but because it's inexpensive and sometimes, I just need some cotton camis without blowing a bunch of cash.

I really believe that if Old Navy hasn't made a bunch of profit off their plus size line, it's their own damn fault. It was never marketed in any visible way. There were no commercials, no big ads anywhere that said "HEY WE HAVE PLUS SIZED CLOTHES NOW," nothing. The only reason I knew about it to begin with is because finding plus size clothes is practically my second job.

I've only been to one actual store that has the line (downtown Chicago) and while it wasn't shoved way into the back of the store the way it is in some locations, it was cramped and not very orderly. And considering that MOST stores didn't have the line at all, I'm not sure how Old Navy was expecting a lot of people to shop anywhere BUT online.

And to say that "online is everywhere" is just an insult. Here's a big newsflash: not everyone has internet access! Not everyone has credit cards!

I don't like to toss the "ist" words around but this smacks of classism to me. Old Navy's clothes are affordable, right? And a lot of people who shop there are young or have kids or they're struggling to make ends meet or whatever the case may be and basically can't afford to spend a lot of money on clothes, yeah? So why are they assuming that those SAME people can afford computers and online access just whenever? See the lack of logic there?

I don't know if Old Navy is just flat out being unfair to fat people. It does seem to me that they're not making as much profit as they'd like and cutting the plus size line is an easy tactic. It's smaller than any of the other lines (except maybe the maternity selection) and is easy to remove from the stores because it was never in a lot of stores to begin with. They can cut the overhead of stocking it in several locations and just ship online orders from one warehouse. People who buy straight sizes will never notice and since they never marketed to plus size customers, they probably won't LOSE that many customers.

Now we all have a decision to make. Do we stop shopping with Old Navy completely because of this? Do we resign ourselves to shopping online? I'm not sure what I'll do, really. I've only ever shopped their store online so pulling it from stores doesn't affect me directly. But if I do continue to shop with them, I'm just supporting their half-assed business sense and obvious disrespect for customers who WANT to give them money.

My guess is that eventually, the plus size line will disappear completely and I won't have to decide.

I can go on about this but it doesn't really make a difference. They've been pretty clear that this is a firm decision and me getting upset isn't going to do a damn thing.

The upside is that this is one more opportunity for us to support retailers who not only cater exclusively to plus size customers, they actually respect and value those customers. Unfortunately, that comes with a price tag, literally.

It just boggles my mind that people are getting fatter and fatter but retailers are carrying LESS and less plus size clothes. It's never made sense to me.

Comments

[thewritechick]

i really hate to hear this. i have a whole diatribe about the "other-fication" of thick girls in stores. they want our money but they'd rather we not be SEEN. i honestly think that's it. it's why Seven jeans fought so hard to get their brand out of LB -- skinny girls aren't willing to pay $200 for jeans if girls with real butts can wear them too. There's no cache in that.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/227311/the_thick_girls_ultimate_online_shopping.html

[gabrielle]

i was a size 16-18 in high school. the only place my mom could take me was layne bryant...which was a mess in the early 90's. it seems as though fat people have tons of options now compared to back in the day. from what i can tell, they have a huge plus size department at bloomindale's, loehman's carries plus sizes now, and a high-end store called maria rinaldi on madison avenue. we didn't have the internet, either. as for old navy, maybe it was poor marketing on their part, who knows, or cares. here in manhattan, we don't have a market for plus size stores...they are mostly in the suburbs, up in harlem, and lower income areas.

[The SF Insider]

I work in San Francisco at another fabulous plus company that you always like and I commute with many Gap Inc. employees. Many work in the high ups and many days I get to hear their after work gripes and scandals. I can say in general most of Gap Inc. employees have probably never been plus in there life and have a negative dress size. Those who are plus that work there are treated poorly. I have one friend that works there that has been driven to tears more than once about her curves by fellow co-workers. Most of those designers wouldn’t know good plus clothing if it bit them in the you know what. Back when they were deciding to open Forth & Towne they also had thought about opening a plus store instead, but decided they wanted money from straight size, white, rich, over 40 women instead. Funny how they are now closing all their Forth & Towne stores now. Like we really needed another Talbots, J.Jill, or Coldwater Creek. Not to knock those stores. Sometimes they have some cute things that are a little younger or trendier, but that market group is well taken care of.

From what I hear Gap Inc. is suffering in all their divisions except one, which is blowing everything out of the water – Old Navy Outlet! Now just for those of you who don’t know the Outlet stores are not castaways from the other stores, they have their own design and production. Most of the time they take styles from the other divisions like Banana or Gap then redo them for Old Navy Outlet in a cheaper fabric to keep cost. So if you’re a size 20 that likes a top at Banana, give it a couple months and you will be able to find it at an Old Navy Outlet for half the price, in your size and in a fabric you can actually machine wash.

Basically, the customer they are most popular with, which can be seen by their own sales numbers is the same customer they are trying to alienate. They aren’t listening to there customers or their own sales numbers. They make the choice to open a store that flopped and cut the whole plus section out of another. Also to say that they can do more justice with it online is a total insult! Have you seen their online site? Most of the time it isn’t even working. For about four month last year their site wasn’t even up. Right now if you go look at the plus size tops they have one page with 15 tops. If you go to the straight size side it has 3 pages full of tops. Heck even the maternity has more tops than plus. I mean what percentage of the US is pregnant right now and what percentage is plus size? We all know the answer to the plus – 53% of American women are plus. What about the plus maternity? They don’t even think about that.

I know this is a bit of a rant, but seriously! I’m not going to feel bad about them cutting the plus. If they don’t want me then they aren’t getting my money. There are plenty of other companies that worship the plus size women in all our curvy splendor. They get my money now!

[Cougar]

After the first of the year I read a bunch of business articles about Gap, Inc. According to the Wall St. Journal, They had an incredibly disasterous Xmas season with all of their stores-- Gap, Banana Rep. and Old Navy. As you may well know, most retail business don't start turning profits annually until after the holiday season.
Anyway, Gap Inc. seems to have lost touch with their customers completely. The company is family-owned, but from what I gathered they are considering extreme cost-cutting measures like closing stores or even selling off some of their chains entirely. I think it's a bonehead move to limit opportunities to sell to plus-sized customers since they make up a large part (if not a majority) of the apparel-buying public. In fact, Torrid stores are what keeps Hot Topic Inc. afloat financially. However another school of thought would be for Gap to go back to basics and concentrate on their original business focus instead of diversifying their brand, which spreads them a little thin. Anyway, the shuttering of Old Navy's plus size departments sucks all the same.

[Amanda]

I am just as mad about this. I mean come on! Honestly if you think about it they would make a ton of money especially considering that there are not alot of choices for plus size woman unless you are willing to spend alot of money. Plus what plus size woman doesnt have to try her clothes on first. Get real Old Navy! Your losing money. I would buy if the clothing was in stores, but since it isnt I DONT buy from ya'll anymore!