Thinking about Old Navy in the ‘90s, as the last attempt I can remember to build a mass brand.
Which, ironically, should have been a warning about the impending collapse of the mall, because that would have been department store territory a generation earlier.
Department stores got big by gathering a complete selection of consumer goods under one roof, then served as the “anchors” that allowed the mall form of non-urban retail, which was replicable enough to allow national chains, then with '90s-level supply chains (computerized tracking and third-world production) they could poach consumer staples from the department anchors
Also the fun, flip, later 90s suburban cool branding was exactly the angle non-mall big box stores were pitching themselves \u2013 you can get the benefits of Wal-Mart without the non-cosmopolitan stigma now! You can pronounce it “Tar-JHAY”!
"}