Dude, who even knows.
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Thinking about Old Navy in the ‘90s, as the last attempt I can remember to build a mass brand.
Which, ironically, should have been a warning about the impending collapse of the mall, because that would have been department store territory a generation earlier.
Department stores got big by gathering a complete selection of consumer goods under one roof, then served as the “anchors” that allowed the mall form of non-urban retail, which was replicable enough to allow national chains, then with '90s-level supply chains (computerized tracking and third-world production) they could poach consumer staples from the department anchors
Also the fun, flip, later 90s suburban cool branding was exactly the angle non-mall big box stores were pitching themselves – you can get the benefits of Wal-Mart without the non-cosmopolitan stigma now! You can pronounce it “Tar-JHAY”!
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In middle and high school, I was in a youth orchestra with strict clothing requirements (ankle+ length black dress pants...
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lishminstyle said:
tar-ZHAY is real? isaacsapphire said: Oh, that’s really good info! It can be hard to source “things everyone knew” about status and fashion, so a Buffy quote is gold here.
discoursedrome reblogged this from isaacsapphire and added:
Oh yeah, there was a Buffy joke about this where Cordelia inults someone’s clothes (Willow, maybe?) by quipping that...
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midwesternlikeope reblogged this from isaacsapphire Softlines are TEXTILES and include clothing. Walmart calls the entire clothes section softlines, although bedding and...
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kontextmaschine reblogged this from isaacsapphire and added: remember the "come see the softer side of Sears" branding in the early 90s when their advantage in hardware and...
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rosetintedkaleidoscope said:
i had a whole long post about rich people shopping at walmart here but then i realized i was thinking of costco