According to Women's Wear Daily, GAP Inc.'s new CEO is Glenn Murphy*, a Canadian whose last position was Chairman and CEO of Shoppers Drug Mart (before he was at Shoppers, he was CEO of Loblaw Cos. Ltd (which operates a chain of supermarkets in Canada) and Chapters, a chain of bookstores), the leading drugstore chain in the country. Mr. Murphy is credited for elevating Shoppers from just a drugstore to a higher end drug store (you can find cosmetic brands like Benefit and Smashbox in addition to the usual drugstore offerings of L'Oreal, Covergirl and Maybelline at Shoppers).
So what does this have to do with petite sizes? Mr. Murphy has no fashion experience. But he was hired to turn the brand around, because he's, well, known for doing so. Will the offerings of petite sizes change at Banana and GAP? For better or for worse? J.Crew used to offer petites in its stores, prior to Millard Drexler (a former CEO of GAP, by the way) becoming its CEO. Now, petites are only offered online, and the selection has drastically thinned to just basic work clothes, a few pairs of jeans and some party dresses. But at the same time, Mr. Murphy could also expand the availability, considering that petite sales have, at last check, been doing reasonably well at Banana Republic (well enough to have stand-alone petite stores in a few cities, anyway).
Recently, GAP Inc. stores implemented a new system of online paying. This new system only accepts US billing addresses, which means that anyone outside the States HAVE NO ACCESS to the complete petite (and tall) ranges OR size double zero clothes (Size 00 and 00P are only available at select stores in the US as of July 27, 2007). So will hiring a foreigner give the company more of an international perspective? Who knows? Let's also hope that Mr. Murphy has an understanding of the need for non-standard sizes.
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