Making It Even Easier for Chicago Women to Dress Like Midwestern Soccer Moms

By Rachelle Bowden in Miscellaneous on Apr 26, 2005 2:24PM

Gap announced a new store concept that will be catering to the over-35-year-old female market. It's called Forth & Towne, a name that refers to the company's fourth store brand (after Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy) and "Towne" is supposed to convey a sense of community. Um. Ok.

Forth & Towne is aiming for an audience of women who dress "appropriately" and who "need outfits that can go from the office to the kids' soccer fields to dinner out." Yawn. We also read that the stores "will be designed to encourage shoppers to spend time there for more than strictly shopping" and have no idea really what that is supposed to mean. A coffee bar? A partnership with Starbucks? Sounds GREAT.

Get ready - the first 5 test store are opening in September - 4 in Chicago and 1 in New York. No word yet on which suburban malls these stores will be located in.

Snarkmarket points out that Gap's purposefully misspelled both Fourth and Town in the new store's name... and Snark Hunting guesses they decided to use an ampersand instead of spelling out because Forth And Town hit a little too close to describing their target market.