China's Rocking Though

Gap leaving a gap, closing 21 percent of its stores: Will local spots be on thehit list?

Gap will be downsizing by 21 percent in North America over the next three years—going from 889 stores to 700 by 2013.

Simultaneously, the brand will expand its outlet stores and its market abroad. Especially in Asia, where Gap will triple its storefronts in China from 15 to 45 by the end of 2012.

Arthur Peck, president of Gap's North American business, blames the company's decline on the individual stores, some of which are "tired and worn out."

"I’ll be the first to say that our stores have not been executing with the consistency that they need to execute at in order to deliver the kind of brand experience that we are committed to delivering," Peck said at the company’s investor conference on Thursday.

The company's release claims that Gap "is making progress on its goal of reducing square footage in North America and is on track to achieve a 10-percent reduction in overall store square footage by fiscal year 2012." This idea of "improving productivity" in company real estate seems to put a positive spin on a grim financial outlook.

After Gap'slogo fiasco in October of last year, and many seasons of used styles and unflattering fits, I have given up on everything but their denim. But the release promises that the company recognizes its recent failures: "Customers will see product improvements starting in spring with more color, emotion and clearer points of view."

The company says that will look "store by store" over the next 26 months to see which ones are performing and which will be closed.

Are you concerned that your neighborhood store may be on the nix list?

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More Foraging

Free 'food forest' in East Austin expands with thousands of new plants

Angelina Alanis at Festival Beach Food Forest

Photo courtesy of KVUE

Angelina Alanis gives a tour of the garden, which is open to anyone.

In East Austin, there is an edible forest garden called Festival Beach Food Forest where anyone can walk around and harvest free produce, nuts, medicinal plant leaves and herbs. And over the summer, it grew to several times its size.

The forest has fig trees, peach trees, grapevines, asparagus and more that's not in season right now. You can grab passionfruit and plants like yaupon holly, with leaves that can make a caffeinated tea, rosemary and lemon balm.

"[Lemon balm] is part of the mint family," said Angelina Alanis, communication and partnership coordinator for Festival Beach Food Forest. "It has a lemony taste but it's good for a nervous stomach. I'm prone to anxiety so I always grab a hunk."

The food forest is located right next to Interstate 35 and Lady Bird Lake on 29 Waller St., near a part of town that's known for being a food desert, lacking grocery stores.

"There's as much as a 20-year life expectancy difference between parts of East and West Austin, and a lot of that comes down to food access, health care access and also access to nature."

Alanis said for the past nine years, the volunteer-based grassroots project been helping with the issue and just recently expanded in the summer from two-thirds of an acre of city parkland to over 3.5 acres.

"We're going to have hundreds of new trees," said Alanis. "We've already planted 150 new trees in the area and then thousands of plants on the ground."

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They also plan to add a community kitchen and a pavilion to do things like cooking classes or informational sessions.

Read the full story at KVUE.com.

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