Retail sales numbers from October finally arrived. They showed spending didn’t move much that month, another sign that consumers are feeling uneasy about the economy. One retailer feeling more confident over the last year or so, though: the Gap. Analysts have been upgrading its rating, and its stock price is rising.

Back in the 1960s, shopping malls were more like suburban community centers with department stores, grocers and a post office. When the first Gap store opened in 1969, it sold mostly jeans and music albums, classic Americana.  

Jay Sole, an analyst at UBS, said Gap eventually grew out of its niche to sell wardrobe staples. But in pursuit of growth, its vision got watered down. By the early aughts, Gap and its brands Old Navy and Banana Republic became a sea of discounted sweaters. Sole said Gap needed to regain its sparkle. 

“There’s not a playbook. There’s not a textbook. You know, you can’t go to college and take retail turnaround 101,” he said.

Well, that’s not entirely true. You actually can take retail turnaround 101, or something like it. Kathryn Harrigan teaches a class on turnaround management at Columbia. 

“I actually have my students trained so that I can say, ‘What’s the first order of a turnaround?’ They all yell, ‘Stop the bleeding,’” Harrigan said.

For Gap, stop the bleeding meant closing thousands of stores and narrowing its product offerings. No more sea of discounted sweaters. 

“They just decided to be more prudent,” Harrigan said.

Gap also raised its cool factor through collaborations with musical artists KATSEYE, Tyla and Troye Sivan. And it has a buzzy creative director: Zac Posen. 

“He’s made it culturally relevant,” said Shawn Grain Carter at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

She said Gap is getting back on track. It beat sales expectations last quarter, which made traders happy. But she doesn’t deem Gap a comeback success story yet. 

“The turnaround strategy, yes, you can look at the earnings per share, you can look at the stock. But you also have to look at: will this customer stay with them?” Carter said.

She said Gen Z shoppers just aren’t as loyal as the mall rats of yesteryear.