Companies to Watch: The Gap and Nordstroms :: essays research papers fc

I chose to research dickens very different c conducthing retail stores. The GAP, Inc. and Nordstrom, Inc. are very interesting companies to me because they deal with something that is very outstanding to me and a lot of people, clothes. Everyone buys and wears clothes, and these are two companies who puzzle succeeded in this venture. They both(prenominal)(prenominal) started out with the similar intentions, to sell apparel through specialty stores, entirely at this point Nordstroms has been more successful.In theory these two companies are very similar because they are trying to accomplish the equal thing. They both sell apparel, shoes and accessories for women, men and children through specialty and dynamic headroom stores. The clearance stores mentioned are Nordstrom Rack and GAP factory outlet stores. They in like manner stress the use of personalized customer service. The GAP and Nordstrom feel that total customer service is the way to accommodate customers happy an d thus keep them loyal. Because of this, they have many employees to serve their customers and spend a lot of duration training these employees.These companies are also set up in the same way. They each have a chairman, president, and a couple of vice presidents. They both operate on the New York Stock Exchange. Another interesting law of similarity is that they both are based out of the west coast, The GAP in San Francisco and Nordstrom in Seattle. But this is where the similarities end.The sizes of these two companies are very different. The GAP is a global retailer with somewhat 3,700 stores and 166,000 employees worldwide. Nordstrom on the other hand has about 77 stores nationwide and 43,000 employees. It does operate one international boutique, Faconnable, mainly in Europe. The GAP has three brands including GAP, Banana Republic and Old Navy, all operate in their own stores. Because of this huge difference in size, the GAP has often higher revenue than Nordstrom, but this d oesnt mean that its a better company.In the news lately, the GAP has been under a lot of scrutiny because its sales have been down so much do their credit rating to lower as well. Investors feel that this is due to the overhasty slowdown in consumer spending, growing competition and series of fashion misses. It has in like manner many stores open to sustain this major hit on sales. They have very little debt, but analysts think that this combination spells a time to come bankruptcy.