GAP has announced that it will close 21% of its 889 US stores over the next two years, and triple its number of outlets in China by the end of 2012.
With Japanese clothes retailer Uniqlo expanding US stores at the same time, and already strong in Asia this is not a sign of weakness in the US retail apparel industry as a whole.
Rather it is a signal that a) Gap has lost touch with its home markets and b) feels that it needs rapidly to strengthen its strategic position in China, already the second largest apparel market in the world.
The global importance of ’emerging’ economies is that they have already emerged, and are continuing to grow.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6d80ffae-f5e5-11e0-bcc2-00144feab49a.html