But the Girl back in 1988. And it's only 11 o'clock on a Thursday. There's no music playing, and the decor would suit a supermarket. The place is hardly empty, but there's no waiting at the checkout. Now chief executive Luc Vandevelde, the Belgian turnaround artist brought in as chairman last year, has announced a dramatic restructuring that also is an embarrassing repudiation of the company's much ballyhooed expansion efforts of just four years ago.
Pricing is a problem, too.
But consumer attitudes couldn't be more different today. With an array of affordable choices on the high street, where you shop has become a shorthand for who you are. The news has been a p.r. Value investors have taken to the company in part because of its vast real-estate holdings. If that works, even a small improvement in sales could have a big bottom-line impact.