Apparently, even college kids don’t want to dress like college kids:
Urban Outfitters president Stephen Murray is leaving the company to pursue another job in London. He’s getting out at what may be a good time for him and is certainly a bad time for Urban: The company’s comparable retail sales for the first quarter were “low-single-digit negative,” it reported last week. Analysts continue to accuse the store of being out of sync with fashion trends and carrying a bland, passé selection of merchandise. They are predicting low single-digit decreases in same-store sales for the month of March.
Among the factors the company blames for recent losses are “unruly weather conditions” and its own “fashion missteps.” Since the company admitted its clothes have been kind of bad lately, analysts can see improvement in the second half of the year. But really, when was the last time you bought something at Urban or were excited about the store? They were great maybe a year-ish ago and before that when, like, Hole was touring, but now? Everyone seems to have grown up and moved on to flat-front khakis from J.Crew or something.
A trend we can celebrate: young people wanting to dress like grown ups.