If you've hit up a J.Crew Factory location recently, you may have heard or seen the term "Mercantile" being tossed around a bit. Bloomberg reports that J.Crew has imminent plans to launch a new offshoot called J.Crew Mercantile later this month at a mall location in Dallas.
This is being compared to the prongs of Gap Inc.'s empire, equated with Old Navy as a more affordable and budget-friendly option to some of the higher prices that J.Crew has become somewhat disliked for. Naturally, it was Mickey Drexler who came up with the idea of Old Navy back in 1994 when he was running Gap, so it only makes sense for the current J.Crew CEO to apply the same lessons learned, no? After all, Old Navy is now the bright spot of the struggling Gap operation even if they do think all bloggers dress the same.
After the recent layoffs and reports that Drexler might be the company's undercover problem, this looks like a way to get some of those customers that have turned their backs on the brand to get their asses back into stores. J.Crew Factory and Mercantile go hand-in-hand currently as Factory is the "Home of Mercantile" as it stands right now, but the new Mercantile locations will be their own standalone operations and there will be more coming after the initial opening in Dallas. Maybe Mickey has some tricks up his sleeve after all, albeit 20-year-old ones.
