It looks like there's going to be a lot fewer Gap stores when Black Friday 2019 rolls around. CNBC reports that the company plans to "aggressively" close hundreds of stores in malls around the country. The reason is pretty basic: Sales continue to slump, falling 7% in the third quarter compared to the previous year. Gap Inc. says it has 775 Gap-brand stores worldwide, and CEO Art Peck said he plans to close many of them "with urgency."
"There are hundreds of other stores that likely don't fit our vision for the future of Gap brand specialty store, whether in terms of profitability, customer experience, traffic trends," Peck told analysts. "The range from the very best to the very worst stores is extremely broad." Gap Inc. also owns Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta, notes Fortune, and those brands were not expected to face cuts. (More The Gap stories.)