Gap store in US (archives)
Photo: AP
Gap's 1st Israel store to open Monday
Clothing retailer's branch on Jerusalem's Mamilla Avenue to offer at least 20,000 items for sale
Gap's first store in Israel,
which will open Monday on Jerusalem's Mamilla Avenue, will offer at least 20,000 items for sale and will include clothing departments for women, men, children and babies.
The store will have a large number of salespersons and cashiers, as well as spaced dressing rooms with huge mirrors. The collection which will be launched with the opening will be the 2009 fall collection.
Global Gap's vice president is expected to arrive in Israel for the opening ceremony of the chain's first store in the Holy Land, which stretched over 900 square meters (9,687 square feet). He may be joined by global Gap's Jewish American founders, Doris and Donald Fisher.
Global gap's sales turnover in 2008 totaled about $14.5 billion. Another Gap store, which will include men's, women's and children's departments, is scheduled to open in February 2010 in Herzliya's Arena Mall and will measure 1,000 square meters in size (10,763 square feet).
The store's opening ceremony will include a dinner at the nearby Mamilla Hotel and a performance by the Idan Raichel Project. Immediately after the meal, guests will be invited to a cocktail on the hotel's roof, overlooking the lighted up walls of Jerusalem. The lists of guests will include President Shimon Peres, heads of Israel's banks and owners of the biggest companies in the Israeli economy.
Earlier this week, some 110,000 families in Jerusalem and its surroundings received blue Gap bags placed overnight on their doorsteps, which included an invitation to the opening of the store to the broad public. Gap's Israeli campaign was also launched this week under the slogan "Hello Jerusalem".
