Question

1) Assume you were just hired for an office position at a Fortune 500 firm. You have $500 to spend on your work clothes. Your shopping choices are limited to Old Navy ,The Gap or Banana Republic. How do you spend your money and why? Be sure to provide a reference with your response.

Answer 1

Before going to the actual answer, let me tell you one important thing about these companies.

The Gap Inc. is one of the largest clothing retailers in the US, and third largest in the world, based in San Francisco, United States of America. The brands, Old Navy and Banana Republic are subsidiaries of Gap Inc., that is these two companies are divisions of the Gap Inc.

Now coming to the actual answer, since I am hired for an office position at a Fortune 500 firm and I am given $500 to spend on my work clothes, with shopping choices limited to Old Navy, The Gap, and Banana Republic, I would spend my money very cautiously and I would try to maximize my utility from these brands of clothes, by buying the apparel which suits the best for an office position at a Fortune 500 firm. Let me explain this in detail.

We can divide these brands into three segments as:

Old Navy can be categorized as the lower-end division, Gap can be categorized mid-range division and the Banana Republic can be categorized as the high-end division.

Old Navy is mainly meant for families, children and teens which can be bought at lower prices with little bargaining, but the quality of the fabric, designs are relatively low, compared to Gap Inc. and Banana Republic. Most of the apparel in Old Navy cannot be used for the office.

Gap Inc. offers better quality apparel compared to Old Navy, however, the prices are little higher compared to Old Navy. The items in Gap Inc. are more fashionable with more stylish look than Old Navy.

Banana Republic offers the apparel with highest quality of fabric and more fashionable and stylish collections. The styles in Banana Republic are clean cut and excellent. However, these are meant for high-end customers, that is who can afford to pay higher amounts for their apparel.

Since I am given $500, I would use it to buy my work clothes from Gap Inc., because, it gives me what I needed with my budget constraint. I cannot buy from Banana Republic, because of budget constraint. Although the apparel in Old Navy is affordable, I would not go to Old Navy, because of the quality of fabric.

For reference, we can look into the respective websites of these companies and the customers’ reviews and feedback in website of e-commerce company Amazon.