Click Click Click
I walk down the sidewalk
Only to stumble upon this:
What a sad day.
Banana Republic was founded in 1978 by Mel and Patricia Ziegler. The company was bought by Gap in 1983 and now operates as a division of Gap. They currently have over 450 stores worldwide. The founders started the company based on originality and freedom. They knew nothing about the retail market but wanted to create a company that was one of a kind. Their main idea was to sell vintage military clothing but in a different context. The military clothing already had lots of unseen value due to its high-quality fabrics.
From the military clothing, the brand expanded into tailored casual clothing. However, they never forgot their roots as a company. By hiring other creative personnel, they were able to reinvent stores as a theater with catalogs filled with adventure journals. Each store was unique in its way, with clothing being reviewed by other cultural influencers and displaying their authentic comments in the catalog. With authenticity and influential catalogs, Banana Republic tapped into the unknown potential in the retail clothing market at the time.
This is a Banana Republic catalog from 1983. Notice how all the clothing is military clothing rebranded as regular clothing. Each piece has its description that has its own spin-off story which added a new element to each item.
The biggest challenge Banana Republic faced when starting up was expanding into the women's market. At first, all the clothing was designed for men, but the demand for this style of clothing in the women's market was very high. They had to restyle and redo a lot of the clothing and catalogs which paid off in the long run. This allowed them to grow their business on cash flow instead of outside investments before being acquired by Gap.
Banana Republic is now marketed as a destination for modern clothing designed for life with no boundaries. They pride themselves on using the best mills on earth with the finest materials.
Some materials they use come from all around the world:
Italy
Merino Wool
Japan
Leather Accessories
Turkey
Luxe Traveler Denim
United States
Supima Cotton
However, with all this great history and great clothing, why would Banana Republic Factory close down in Peoria? Many reasons contributed, but the main reason I want to focus on is how it is an outlet store. Banana Republic at Grand Prairie was at first the genuine Banana Republic, but in 2015 they switched it to a factory store which is an outlet store. These outlet stores are great for getting more customers in the door to purchase items, but it damages the overall brand of a company.
Banana Republic is not held as a high standard as it used to be in people's minds since they sell stuff at such a low price. Its brand was built on high-quality clothing that is fashionable and different from other clothing. However, they are getting away from this theme as many of their clothing items are not any different from other retailers like H&M and J.Crew. Materials like Merino are nice and all, but other retailers have the same thing at typically lower prices nowadays. None of their clothes stand out and have that real authentic feel like their real military clothes had back in the day.
It will be interesting to see how other retailers at Grand Prairie fare out, as the closing of Banana Republic could start a domino effect at Grand Prairie Mall.