Once upon a time, not so long ago…I used to shop at the Gap. A lot.

Tshirts, pants, jackets, that puffy vest which got me through several winters…some hats, a few scarfs, I think there was also a bag or two in there.

So why do I do a cursorary glance/saunter through the store now and come up empty?

I don’t think it’s that the store has changed much – well, the Gap closest to me switched locations and swapped the male/female sides at one time. The colors are about the same. The quality of the clothes is still decent. And the prices are, well..still about at the same not great but liveable (mostly) level.

Today I travelled downtown with Court to do a little apartment shopping and oogle the fabulous clothing at Urban Outfitters. The experience of walking through this store sits in stark contrast to the predictability of perusing one of the many, many Gap locations. Here, there is stuff everywhere, colors  and fabrics, hats, jewlery, etc, etc, etc…you could slowly walk around the store twenty times and still discover something new each time.

Why is this important?

Well, on several other levels the clothes are about the same. Yeah, yeah…die hard fans of either store might not agree. But the prices are similar (you want me to pay how much for a t-shirt?), the quality is about on par, and the target age market is, or at least used to be, pretty much the same.

It’s the experience, and in that the "image" that is being sold. The Gap will put out a handful of sweaters each year. So, if I purchase one of those distinctly identifiable solid colored knit sweaters (or you could insert any number of other garments..), I’m wearing The Gap, not me. With Urban Outfitters, I am wearing their brand, but it’s much more subtle. By setting up the store sort of like a flea market, I have to hunt a little. I have to notice that there’s a stack of t-shirts down on the bottom shelf, only one of a certain bag on that high up shelf, and a bucket of wallets shoved to one side.

So, in a way, I’m allowed to believe on a certain level that I’m wearing something at least mildly original, made for me and my personal style. It’s not, I know that. But it at least feels that way, which makes it somehow okay to drop thirty dollars on a hat. Yeah, that’s a lot. But I had over twenty hats in various colors to choose from to find *the right* hat. Not one of five colors of a single style that has been labelled by the company as "The Winter Hat".

I’m not saying one is better than the other, only that one is doing very well while the other is lost, floundering. One offers piles of clothing and accessories for you to figure out how to pair it all up for you. The other offers cookie cutter outfits and an unfortunate sense of predictability each time you walk in the door. One has a website that shows average faces, if any faces at all. The other also once used average girls and boys for a very, very successful ad campaign. However now, they employ spokespeople instead, and try to obscure the fact that they are uninspired by hiding behind the images of celebrities. Hopefully the Gap with catch on and catch up, but for now my time and money is happily being spent elsewhere.