Investigation
How GAP scams small businesses.
Gap used it to dump millions of unwanted plus size garments, then tightened the contract to bury the paper trail. Gap disputes it all.
By The Retail Ledger · September 14, 2026
Investigation
A Gap Package Arrived. Nobody in the House Bought It. Gap Has the Proof to Explain Why.
The order knew the recipient's name, address, and phone number. The household recognized none of the purchase. Gap is sitting on the one record that could settle it.
By The Retail Ledger
Supply chain
21 Percent of Gap's Inventory Vanished From the Books. Somebody Paid for That.
Gap celebrated a cleaner balance sheet. Behind the victory: falling sales, brutal markdowns, and zero public accounting of where every unwanted unit actually went.
By The Retail Ledger
Supply chain
$300 Million Vanished. Then the "Missing" Merchandise Reappeared as a Glut Nobody Wanted.
First Gap blamed empty shelves for lost sales. Months later it was drowning in the same inventory. Nothing vanished. It just arrived after the customers had already moved on.
By The Retail Ledger
Retail
Gap Wants Credit for a Turnaround. Old Navy and Athleta Are Telling a Very Different Story.
The namesake brand surged 10 percent. Gap's biggest brand cratered, Athleta sank 12 percent, and management is asking investors to buy the same reset story again.
By The Retail Ledger
Investigation
Gap Sells Inclusion to the Public. It Quietly Warns Investors It Could Cost Them.
Gap presents inclusion as a corporate value while treating scrutiny of it as a business threat. Nobody outside the boardroom can see what changed once the value got expensive.
By The Retail Ledger
Investigation
Eight Days in May
A newspaper story, a contract amendment, an earnings call and a securities filing. Four events, eight days. Then, three months later, ten million units.
By The Retail Ledger
Investigation
The Boxes Said Regular
What was inside them, according to testimony recorded by the court, was not regular.
By The Retail Ledger
Investigation
The Deal Was 500,000 Pieces
Gap's own negotiator testified to the limit. The purchase orders backed him up. SVES says more than nine million arrived.
By The Retail Ledger
Investigation
Where 25 Percent Came From
Gap's letter said its internal records showed the figure. The man who signed it was never called to testify.
By The Retail Ledger
Investigation
The Customers
SVES names TJ Maxx, Burlington and Ross. It alleges Gap went to them directly while SVES was struggling.
By The Retail Ledger
Investigation
Pay In Full
Gap had known for four months that SVES said the goods were wrong. Its own people had already inspected them.
By The Retail Ledger
Investigation
Gap Asked for Help in 2020. In 2024, It Sued.
A Florida distributor says it spent about $80 million bailing Gap out of the pandemic. It is now a defendant in Gap’s breach of contract case.
By The Retail Ledger
Investigation
What the Judge Left Alone
SVES lost the first phase of the trial. Read closely, the decision is far narrower than the result suggests.
By The Retail Ledger
Retail
Plus Size Assortments Are Shrinking Again
Extended sizing fell sharply at Target and Old Navy over the past year, and Torrid is closing roughly 180 stores.
By The Retail Ledger
Supply chain
Tariffs Are Squeezing Apparel Margins
A Supreme Court ruling eased tariff stacking in 2026, but landed costs are still elevated and most retailers are absorbing the hit.
By The Retail Ledger
Retail
Retailers Brace for a Shorter, More Price Sensitive Holiday Season
Overall spending looks resilient, but the planning window is one of the tightest in years.
By The Retail Ledger
Supply chain
Nearshoring Gets the Headlines. The Numbers Still Favor Asia.
Mexico and Central America remain useful for speed, but apparel sourcing value has kept shifting toward South Asia, not the Americas.
By The Retail Ledger
Retail
Return Fraud Is Now a Hundred Billion Dollar Problem
Roughly 15 percent of returns are fraudulent or abusive, and retailers are quietly rewriting return policies to fight back.
By The Retail Ledger
Retail
Private Label Keeps Taking Share From National Brands
Store brands hit a record unit share in 2026, and most shoppers now say the quality gap with national brands has closed.
By The Retail Ledger
Case file and data
The Gap dispute: case file
Parties, timeline, documents, and what has and has not been decided.
Where the 2022 inventory went
Eight retailers indexed to April 2022. Conventional down, off-price up.
Gap inventory tracker
Twenty quarters of merchandise inventory, from company filings.
What clearing the glut cost Gap
Gross margin fell 5.5 points in the year the glut cleared.
The 2022 glut, dated
The industry-wide sequence, event by event, with sources.
Docket tracker
Procedural history, updated as entries are confirmed.