Foster Business Library
Databases:
The Foster Business Library offers an extensive collection of business databases on its homepage; see under Business Databases. For more information on the three dozen Foster business databases, click here.
For more information on which of the three dozen Foster business databases to use, click here.
For more information on accessing Foster databases from off campus, click here.
For information about responsible database usage, click here.
See the company fact sheet and overview for The Gap, Inc.;
see
also the link to Products/Operations and Financials.
See also their Competitors and, especially, the valuable Competitive Landscape, comparing the company with its top three competitors, its industry, and the market, across a variety of metrics.
In addition, see the industry fact sheet for Apparel & Accessories Retail
and the related Industry
Overview.
A company search for the ticker symbol GPS produced a list of over 1,800
reports. An industry search for the Retailing industry produced over 31,000 reports.
This database includes over ninety SEC 10-K filings (or parts of filings) for The Gap, back to 1994, with references to the scope of their business and the risks involved in their industry.
Go to the tab Market Sector to view reports by industry, and then to Retail, for over 500 reports, including a nine-page report on Clothing Retailers in the USA, dated June 2004 (which refers to The Gap). A search for Gap produced two reports on the company, the most recent dated November 2003 (in 17 PDF pages).
A search for reports in the Retail Industry retrieved over 350 reports; a search for the Gap retrieved over 600 reports, all with the word Gap in them.
The Gap is included in this database, with extensive information.
The Gap is included in this database, along with the Retail (Special Lines) industry, which includes over sixty companies.
CD-ROM database:
Demographics of purchasers of various clothing may be found under
Apparel. Try searching under company name. The word Apparel sometimes seems to crash this database.
See Clothing Expenditures on pages 390 and 402 to 403; Clothing Retailers, on pages
427 and 430; Clothing Retail Sales, on page 446.
See index page 976 for tables on Apparel Goods.
See Clothing on pages 280 and 287; Clothing Expenditures, pages 240 to 243 and 252
to 253; and Clothing Retail Sales, page 319.
See the industry survey for Retailing: Specialty
in volume three; highlighted companies, in the Comparative Company Analysis, include The Gap
under Apparel Retail.
See The Gap on pages 40 to 42.
See Apparel on pages 970 to 977, including references to The Gap.
See The Gap in
volume five,
pages 60 to 62; volume 18, pages 191 to 194; and volume 55, pages 152 to 157.
See The Gap in table 491 on page 120 and on page 347 in SIC code 56--Apparel, in
tables 1483 and 1485.
See Apparel on pages 39 to 71.
See Fashion Clothing demographics on pages 748 to 751.
See The Gap on pages 29 and 255; retail industry major trends, on pages 7 to 15; retail
industry statistics, pages 18 to 32, and online retailing, pages 53 to 57.
See SIC codes 5651 and 5699 on pages 920 to 925.
See page 136 and 137 for SIC code 56.
See pages 226 for NAICS code 448000.
See The Gap on page 305
in the same volume.
See The Gap, on page 549.
See The Gap in book I, pages 360 to 361.
See the section on the Retail--Specialty Stores industry, on pages 403 to 408, in the August 2004—January 2005 edition.
Foster Business Library
Books:
Circulation status is indicated on the right of each online catalog record, on the right. Available indicates that the book should be on the shelves under that call number and available for you to check out. Due and a date indicates that the book is already checked out to someone and is due back on the date indicated. You can have the Request/Place Hold feature to recall the book for your use.
The Foster general stacks collection is located south of the main part of the Foster Business Library, through the two pass-throughs into the basement of Balmer. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).
A keyword search for The Gap retrieved
numerous records with the word Gap in them but almost none about the retail
company.
A subject search for GAP, Inc retrieved just the company's
annual report. Repeating this search in Summit (whose books can be requested
to be sent to the Foster Business Library for you) produced just one title:
The subject term for the apparel industry is Clothing Trade. A search on this
term, limited to
the Foster Business Library, retrieved a list of 42
records. The subject term for The Gap's type of retail stores is
Department Stores--United States; a subject search for
this term, limited to the Foster Business Library, retrieved a list of 31
records.
Unlike library databases, these Web resources are available wherever
you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the UW Connectivity Kit or the UW Libraries Proxy Server for authentication. When using web resources, be sure to
evaluate the credibility of these resources. For a subject index to web resources, see Business Resources on the Web on the Foster Business Library homepage.
Foster
Business
Library Reference Collection:
The Foster Reference Collection is located behind the Reference Desk in Foster.
Demographic trends and forecasts, economic indicators, labor force, trade,
energy, environment, consumer expenditures and market size, and retailing
information for the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania; companion volume
to European marketing data and statistics.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA42 .I56. 2003.
Information about many industries as well as demographic information;
check index for references to tables. The sources for each table are
often a valuable source of additional information.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA202 .U56 2003.
Demographic trends and forecasts, economic indicators, labor force, trade,
energy, environment, consumer expenditures and market size, and retailing
information for European countries.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA1107 .E87 2003.
This three-volume set provides 30-page profiles on 52 industries
with a focus
on the current economic environment, trends, regulation and outlook for
each industry.
Major companies in each industry are profiled, with references to sources
of additional industry information.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC106.6 .S74 (Quarterly)
This slim paperback covers 50 companies from a brand perspective, with
three to six page essays on each company.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD69 .B7 .C722 2003.
Twelve-page descriptions of 125 global industries, with background and
development
information, current conditions, industry leaders and further reading.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2324 .E53 2003.
Studying the history of leading companies in an industry is a good
way to learn more about the history of an industry. This
set of more than forty volumes covers over 5,600 company histories worldwide, with each
history running just two to four pages; check the company index in the latest volume
to locate a specific company history or update as well as any other
references to that company in other company histories. There is also
an index by industry.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2721 .I57
Annual compilation of U.S., Canadian and Mexican market share data for companies, products and
services, arranged by SIC code, and with indexes by product, company and
topic.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5410 .M35 2003.
This large volume provides an overview and projections for 400 significant industries and
their component products or services, arranged alphabetically by industry name. For each
product or service, there is a brief indication of the value of the U.S. market in 1998 and
the compound U.S. market growth rate from 1993 to 1998 as well as a graph depicting market
value in dollars and the growth rate. There is also a brief analysis of the market sectors
for the product or service and a description of the market segmentation by volume for 1997,
plus U.S. market share and market forecast information.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5415.1 .U8 2001.
Market analysis information including demographic, geographic and lifestyle
information to identify who customers are, where they live, how they spend their
time and money and how to reach them.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5415.33 .U6 .L54 2003.
This almanac offers information about major industry trends, industry
statistics, industry information, major companies in the industry, with
indexes by state, country, region, etc. The major part of the almanac
provides one-page profiles of companies in the industry, with directory
information, growth plans and special features, contacts, brief
financials, brief salary and benefits data, and women officer-director and
advancement information.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5428 .P558 2003.
Norms and ratios for many industries and sizes of business, itemized by asset
size, and
categorized by four digit SIC code.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5681 .B2 .R6 2003-2004.
Key business ratios for 800 S.I.C industry categories, a publication of
Dun & Bradstreet.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5681 .R25 .I525
2002-2003.
This annual publication, edited by Leo Troy, offers a different take on
ratios than the title above.
The arrangement of more than 190 industries is by NAICS code.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5681 .R25 .T68 2004.
This two-volume work reports paid advertising expenditures in major media
categories for companies and
brands in America.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5801 .A18 January-December 2001.
This annual two-volume publication is the most comprehensive source for information on
the advertising practices of 24,000 U.S. and Canadian companies spending a minimum of
$200,000 on national and regional advertising.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5805 .S7 2004 (v. 1)
This two-volume work reports and itemizes all paid advertising space and expenditures
in ten major media
categories for
companies and
brands in America, in several hundred consumer and Sunday magazines, in newspapers,
outdoor advertising, television,
and radio.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5813 .U6 .C68 2001.
Statistical data on 3,000 companies in 137 industries, with ranking, key
financial information, operating data and ratios.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4961 .M68 (Quarterly)
The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on
all business topics. To identify relevant books, go to the UW Libraries Catalog on the Foster Business Library homepage (under Business Databases). Try searching by keyword; use the Modify Search feature to restrict your list of books to the
Foster Business Library and in order from newest book to oldest. To do so, use the pulldown menu under Location to specify Foster Business Library. Clicking on the titles in the
resulting list will bring up the full catalog record, indicating which Foster area
has the book (general stacks, reference, reserve, etc.), the call number and the
circulation status.
Foster Business Library Corporate Annual Reports:
The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of several thousand annual reports for hundreds of U.S. and foreign companies. These reports are filed in lateral filing cabinets near the Foster Reference desk under the sign Corporate Annual Reports. Annual reports for companies in an industry can be a valuable source of information about the industry itself. For a list of all the companies in the Corporate Annual Reports collection, click here. For an index to corporate annual reports in the collection by industry sector, click here. For an index to companies in the collection with headquarters outside the U.S., click here.
The collection includes annual reports for The Gap , as well as other companies in the Retail Industry.
Foster Business Library Articles:
Of these three main sources, all but Factiva are available from any computer on the campus network (as well as from home) via the UW Connectivity Kit or via the Libraries' proxy server. The easiest of these databases to use is ABI/Inform Global. For more information about accessing Foster Business Library databases from off campus, click here. For more information about business databases, click here.
This database offers full text articles for over 800 journals. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box. ABI/Inform Global includes journals but not national or Washington state newspapers (though the Wall Street Journal is included). It also does not include valuable trade and industry and other periodicals. Your searches will span the widest possible array of publications by expanding your search to all databases in ABI/Inform. To expand your search to include all collections in this database, click on Select multiple databases, to the right of the search box. Click on all of the databases.
Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article. For tips on searching this database, click here.
For example, a search for CO(Gap Inc.), in all databases, produced a list of
more than
1,800 articles, including twelve articles in scholarly journals, over 150 articles in magazines, over 500 articles in trade and industry publications, and over 1,000 articles in newspapers. A search for CO(Gap Inc.) and SUB(Retailing Industry) produced over 400 articles; for CO(Gap Inc.) and SUB(Retail Stores), over
430
articles; for CO(Gap Inc) and Strategy, over 100
articles.
A search for the broader topic of SUB(Retail Stores) produced over 75,000 articles; for SUB(Retailing Industry), over 61,000 articles.
For research guides on a wide variety of industries, products, companies, issues and topics, see the Team Librarian Consultation archives.