STORE WARS: Banana Republic vs. Target
Starting March 19th and running through April 8th, Dappered.com is hosting a bracket based tournament with the purpose of eventually crowning the all around Affordable Men’s Style Retail Champ for 2013. For a full introduction see this post. The bracket on the right will be updated as the tournament progresses. Click on it for the full size. Make a case for your preferred competitor in the comments section, but don’t forget to vote at the bottom of each match up. On with today’s showdown:
Strengths: Last year’s champion and for good reason. You can’t please everyone, but Banana Republic comes awfully close. Almost everyone can walk into a Banana Republic and find something they’d like to wear. Other strengths: Their tailored fit cotton blazers. Their outerwear (both their updated trenches and wool topcoats in the fall). Their tailored fit suits, while fused, are probably the best fused suits for around $300 (with codes of course) on the market. The fabrics and blends that they use like the silk/cotton/cashmere blend for sweaters, and the linen/wool or cotton mix they can use for summer suiting. The Navy, 2-button, Italian wool suit. Their line of soft wash slim fit shirts. The luxe touch polos. The perfect, not too thick, not paper thin line of pima cotton dress socks. They’re incredibly accessible, they offer free shipping at $50 from their website, and returns are free if you drop the item off in store.
Weaknesses: They’ve recently started excluding blazers from almost all of their codes. Most of us have gotten used to playing the code game with the GAP Inc. brands, but the long list of exclusions for their codes has gotten frustrating. Perpetual sales have conditioned most if not all of us to ignore their retail prices. The expensive “Monogram” line of suits… does anyone buy those? Shoe quality can be hit or miss (many would say mostly miss).
How They Got Here: Won decisively over Indochino in round 1.
Strengths: As affordable as it gets this side of a thrift store. One of the places that those who are on a real strict budget actually like to shop at. You could easily assemble an entire, good looking outfit from Target’s merchandise if you had to. Terrific basics like t-shirts and shorts. Their substantial collar, decent enough fitting Ultimate Dress Shirt, which plays extremely well under blazers and sportcoats. The Merona Kensington blazer. Dirt cheap pocket squares. Timex weekenders. Even pieces of furniture for your place if need be. God bless ’em for making the Mossimo Kimono Sleeve Dress.
Weaknesses: Still waiting for them to bring back the Mossimo athletic fit polo. Collaborations can be a let down (see The Shops at Target and the Neiman Marcus collection). While obviously affordable, sometimes the quality of their goods can feel… a little on the wimpy side. Lots of things to be happy with, not necessarily a ton to be thrilled with. You can’t wear a red shirt and khaki chinos to their store (not that you were itching to do so). Fitting room dimensions in some stores are downright coffin like.
How They Got Here: Despite all the new excitement around jcp, Target upset them in round 1.
Your votes determine who goes on to the next round. Cast your ballot below. Voting closes at midnight ET.
UPDATE: And the champ moves on to face the winner of Bonobos vs. J. Crew Factory in the semis.
Store Wars: Banana Republic vs. Target
- Banana Republic (71%, 1,317 Votes)
- Target (29%, 537 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,850
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I know they won’t win, but I can’t live without my Target basics.
Probably a good half of my basic wardrobe utility items (shirts, sweaters, and accessories) are from Target.
If JCP would have won round 1, I would have thought a lot harder about this… BR gets my vote. Going to wear my new tailored fit suit from the recent F&F sale next week for an interview!
I hear ya on the utility goods, but aside from a few items (looking at you, Kensington blazer and you, henleys), most of my Target goods are uw, tees, and socks. That does fill up a major portion of my wardrobe, but still another huge part of it are the (more-visible) main items like pants, shirts, sweaters, blazers, and jackets/coats. So based on that, plus the fact that I voted JCP over Target in round one anyway, my vote goes heavily with BR.
“Despite all the new excitement around jcp . . . .” Hunh? I really don’t get the fascination with JCP on this site. Their offerings top out at average on a few isolated pieces, and their in-store experience sucks. Relative to other retailers, I would rate them as poor at best.
Sure you can walk in to a BR and find something… If you’re under 6’0. As far as suiting goes, I’ve never seen them carry any long sizes in store, which is upsetting if you want to try something on before buying it with a code later.
BR Canada doesn’t stock 36S blazers. They’re not getting my vote.
It is but they’re awfully good about applying in-store discounts to “online only” sizes. Also, with the free shipping and wicked easy return policy, it isn’t so hard to get an idea.
Nonetheless, I agree, it’s a much longer process than just going to the store and trying something on. Makes me wonder why they don’t have at least one sample of every size for the things they make. If you want a different color then they can order it for you. With all the inventory they have on the racks already wouldn’t be hard…
Shouldn’t you be on vacation?
Target’s a favorite of mine and I go there far more often than BR. But BR is just too strong a store to overcome. I wore my tailored dark grey glen plaid suit yesterday–I loved the quality and fact that I caught it on Clearance for around $200. Sorry, Tar-zhey…
I’m in the same boat. I’d probably have gone for JCP over BR, but not Target over BR.
The easiest matchup for me thus far. BR’s “Tailored Fit” Blazers in 38R fit me perfectly. BR gets my vote.
I bought a suit from BR last fall (gray tailored fit). It fits me like a glove, and I’ve never taken it to a tailor. I don’t have a lot from here, but the pieces I do have are some of my nicest. I have a lot of stuff, especially basics from Target and the stupid GAP sales with all their exclusions drive me to madness. Its BR for me in a squeaker.
I’ve never had all of the luck at Target that everyone else seems to have. Very few things in my size, and never any of the cool stuff featured on Dappered. BR for me.
Anyone else starting to feel like BR is going to cruise to a win again this year? Is this really just a battle for second?
If Bonobos would friggin toss out some sales codes every now and then, they would edge BR in my vote. I love them both but it is simply more economical to shop at BR.
Eh, it’s all subjective. If you ain’t feeling it, you ain’t feeling it. For me, last season was a revelation. The JCP poplins and oxfords fit me like a glove, they were a great price at $25 (a steal now at $10) and I thought they filled my closets with just great looking basics. Throw in the JCP basics and we started finding these amazing gems throughout the store like cheap, attractive sports coats, good dress shirts and the amazing $60 Camlin boot. Again, if you ain’t feeling it, fine, but I’m all over it.
Definitely Target. BR goes out of its way to make it hard to like them. Sure, they sell good stuff, but it can be impossible to get good deals on their best things with all their promo exclusions and in-store vs. online technicalities. For example, I really wanted to pick up some blazers during their last F&F sale, but the coupon was limited to in-store use and they don’t carry my size in-store. So rather than offering to somehow order my size from the website and treat it like an in-store transaction, the sales associates basically told me I was SOL. I won’t be visiting that BR store anytime in the foreseeable future.
If you compare not just the price, but the return policy, Bonobos easily wins. I had a pair of Gap jeans recently wear out in 2 months, that’s outside the 45 day return policy that Gap and BR share. They did refund my money, but what I really wanted was an exchange which they apparently can’t do. Compare that to Bonobos return policy where you can return “any time, for any reason” with free return shipping. I think it is easily worth a little extra to buy from a company that stands behind their product so unreservedly.
That “bargain” I got with the 30% off code on those jeans didn’t feel like much of a bargain after they literally fell apart after just 5 washes, and the company acted like they were doing me a favor by giving me a refund. Since Banana Republic is the same company as Gap, with the same return and exchange policies, they’ve lost my business.
Oh, add to that that: I’m still wearing the pair of Bonobos jeans I got around the same time with a 30% off the sale price code. The Bonobos jeans arrived the next day, the Gap jeans took over a week to arrive. I paid $15 more for the Bonobos jeans, but I know if I ever have a problem with them, even a year after purchase Bonobos will make it right. Would BR do that?
BR was not “awfully good” about this in my experience. When I asked if there was a way to get a 36R blazer during the recent F&F 50% discount, the sales associate said she could only order it in from another store in the area. I knew this would be fruitless since 36R appears to be an online-only size. She checked her system and told me that the blazer “isn’t made in 36R.”
I could probably have pushed the issue and showed her the in-stock, 36R blazer on my phone browser, but at that point I was pissed off for being lied to and had lost interest in buying anything from BR. That’s my experience trying to get BR to apply in-store discounts to online only sizes. The end.
I suspect J.Crew or J.Crew Factory will give BR a run for its money.
I think you just got hosed by that one particular sales rep. Sorry to hear that they treated you in such a manner. My experience is completely opposite, as they called their online ordering and got them to match the in-store price.
The bottom line is, a store shouldn’t be set up in a way that enables a single lazy sales associate to act as a roadblock between a willing customer and the company. There are any number of things BR could do to prevent this situation – offering a wider variety of sizes in-store, eliminating disparities between in-store and online discounts, etc.
BR can’t directly control the actions and attitudes of every single sales associate. But it could easily change its policies in a way that make shopping experiences more uniformly pleasant for all shoppers. This is my problem with BR – I had a bad experience and walked away from a sale where I could have easily had a good experience.
So it’s the attitude of the associate or the policies of the brand that you don’t like? Quite frankly it should have been no surprise that they couldn’t get the 36R for you at 50% for F&F. The fine print on the invitations was very specific. The 50% off was in-store only and the online discount was 30% off. I know a manager at one of my local stores and she told me they weren’t even allowed to do sends over the phone from another store. So if another store in your town had it, you had to go over and get it. Now personally that’s not an issue if I like the item and it’s 50% off and it was very clear, fine print or not, that the codes were for a one-time use. On top of that you could combine your BR rewards with the discount codes and cardholders were getting double and triple rewards (10% or 15% back) on all purchases that weekend. Even at 30% off you’re getting a deal. At the end of the day I think BR could do a better job of eliminating disparities between in-store and online discounts, but that’s not the sales associates fault and if the discount is clear going in then it shouldn’t be such an issue. Rather than post on Dappered why don’t you call customer service and share your thoughts with them?
As for the 36R not being available in store, that should be obvious as well. While it’d be nice if they did, it’s all about supply and demand. If they’re putting 36Rs in every blazer in every store, then they’ll want them to sell. It’s not a common size though and so they’ll likely be sitting on the inventory for some time. Not to mention you can easily order a 36R with free shipping and return it to the store no questions asked. In fact that’s what you should have done for F&F. I had my invitation a week ahead of time and could have ordered anything online, returned it to the store and then when F&F came around just went in and bought it. Online returns don’t count against the store’s sales so they don’t care if you return it to the store.
BR’s return policy in-store is 60 days and they are a different division of Gap Inc. While they may look like the same, and they are very similar, there are differences and each brand has it’s own brand President. Of course they have the same CEO, but again they’re different divisions. Also, if they refunded your money, then how did they not stand behind the product?
As for denim, I have been buying BR denim for years and years. I was them after nearly every wear and have never had a single blowout or issue with quality. In fact I have a hard time parting with anything BR because the quality is so good and there’s never anything wrong with the items apart from my tastes changing.
I agree with all of your points as far as far as service. Customer Service wise, GAP/BR is not even in the same class. The most annoying thing I find is that you cannot cancel an order online after you place it. It can literally be 10 seconds and if you change your mind about it. Too late! Bonobos with the free shipping and exchange plus their ninja’s who are fantastic destroys BR That said, I find the quality of clothes to be dead on comparable between Bonobos and BR. GAP is a huge step down from BR, I’ve shopped at both places enough to be certain of that, so I won’t include them in this.
But if you play the waiting game with codes at BR, you can have a very good shirt/pants from BR at about half the cost that Bonobos will sell it to you. Case in point, over the last 50% F&F, I picked up 5 shirts at BR. 2 Linen button downs, 2 Twill shirts, and a gray track jacket. Total cost $150. The quality is fantastic on all of them. The same haul at Bonobos would easily have cost me $400 if not more. Without the occassional code, which they haven’t had since Christmas, Bonobos is simply asking too much for their items at full retail. IMO.
From a clothing perspective, I would not miss Target if they all closed down. I shop there often, as there are multiple stores near me, but outside of their athletic fit T’s, there is no clothing they have I can’t get elsewhere. I think JCP would have given BR a better run for the money, and I work for BR.
The reason I was dissatisfied was because I liked the jeans, the fit was fantastic, and wanted a replacement, but they said they can’t do replacements or exchanges only refunds. You’d think a company would PREFER a replacement to a refund. They missed an opportunity to prove that the shoddy pair was an anomaly. I wanted to give them a second chance. Dealing with their CS was unnecessarily difficult. I never spoke to the same person twice, and each person was clearly writing from a script. No flexibility at all. That’s a shame when you have a customer who loves your products, but is turned off by your CS. Banana republics online retrun policy is exactly the same. I agree that their stuff is usually great quality. Their T-shirts are my absolute favorites and tend to last forever, but I really dislike their CS policies which don’t appear to value customer loyalty at all.
Here’s a solution that I think BR could adapt and still keep inventory low: keep one size of every style (not color) in store. If it sells then you replace the one. Easy.
As a cheap bastard I can definitely appreciate that. I just feel super burned by my last experience with Gaps CS, and don’t much want to deal with them again if I have another problem. I agree BR’s stuff is generally better quality, but with the jeans it was not the quality of the construction, but of the fabric that was at issue, and I would not expect a $90 (list) pair of jeans to be made with such lousy fabric regardless of which brand you screen on them. 3 months ago I was a Gap evangelist, but this experience soured me on the brand in a big way, and unfortunately BR gets the guilt by association. Especially unfortunate as now I have to find somewhere else to get my T-shirts.
Matt, I find your attitude towards your experience to be a bit unreasonable. From what you’ve described, you were not “super burned”. Gap’s customer service may not have been easy to work with, but they did stand by their product by offering you a full refund.
Def love the bonobos jeans too, as much as I cringed at the $145 price, they are fantastic and much better than any jeans I ever bought at GAP. I’ve never tried a pair from BR though, can’t find jeans that fit similarly.
I love BR but I wish they would quit putting functional buttonholes on so many of their blazers and sportcoats. I almost always have to shorten the sleeves on blazers and real buttonholes make that almost impossible. I’d probably have five or six of their blazers if not for that. Also agree that it’s very frustrating that discounts don’t usually apply to blazers.
6’3. I’ve never seen a 42L or 44L on the rack and I’ve visited stores in several states. Don’t get me wrong, I really like their clothing. I’m wearing BR jeans right now, and I voted for them over Target. I just wish they would include bigger guys in the in-person shopping experience.
I really like target. I even got the loafers they’re selling and I wear them almost everyday and they have some great Mossimo Vnecks, they’re selling chinos and they’re even starting tosell some gingham shirts. But they don’t even hold up to BRs selection and style. My vote goes to BR.
True they did give me a full refund, but as I stated, they missed an opportunity by not exchanging them for another pair which would have been my preference. How many other companies can’t handle an exchange if that is the customer’s preference, and why wouldn’t they WANT to keep my money and give me jeans? Customer service was neither friendly, nor helpful. The fact that I exchange so many emails, and never talked to the same CS person twice means there was no continuity. Ultimately I got my money back, but I did not get what I wanted which was a good pair of jeans. If this level of service were standard across the industry, I might feel differently about it, but it was actually in stark contrast to experiences I’ve had with multiple other companies. I seldom need to return something, and honestly I’ve had good experiences with Gap products over the past 30 or so years, but when I do have a problem, I would rather the experience be easy, pleasant, and that the resolution leaves me satisfied. Their resolution was acceptable, but it was neither quick, nor easy, and it left me still in want of a pair of jeans. Since I have so many choices when it comes to purchasing clothing, why would I choose them again? I choose companies that go above and beyond acceptable to make sure I am actually satisfied with what I bought from them, and I see so many companies that currently do a better job in that area. Bonobos clearly does better in that area. My most recent two jeans purchases were from these two companies, and they left me feeling great about one purchase and negative about the other one. Since we happen to be comparing these two companies, why isn’t it reasonable to point out that one has excellent return policy, and other is at best acceptable?
Edited to add: To further contrast the experiences. I was not sure about the fit of the Bonobos, so i called and talked to customer service. I talked to the same guy by both phone and email as he got me measurements, and assured me that i could return them if I wasn’t completely satisfied, in fact I could wash them wear them, dance in them, and even return them a year later if I was not completely satisfied with them. I did not call Gap before ordering them, because I wore their jeans many times before, and never for a moment did I imagine a pair of jeans could wear out in 2 months. It was only after that happened that I bothered to look at their return policies. Lesson learned: check the return policy before purchase. It matters.