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Lesson Overview
Featured Article: “Forever 21 Bankruptcy Signals a Shift in Consumer Tastes”
Sears. Payless. Claire’s. And now, Forever 21. This week, the retailer joins other staples of American shopping malls that have filed for bankruptcy and shuttered hundreds of stores in recent years. In this lesson, students will look at the shifting consumer trends that led to this move and propose changes the brand could make to better appeal to young shoppers.
Warm Up
Forever 21 recently announced that it would file for bankruptcy, cease operation in 40 countries and close stores throughout the United States. Do you ever shop at Forever 21? Why or why not?
What are your clothes shopping habits like over all? Consider all the choices you make when you buy clothes. For example:
Where do you get your clothes? Do you mostly shop at stores or online? Do you get your clothes secondhand from consignment shops, online resellers, or friends and siblings? Do you make your own?
How often do you shop? Do you buy new clothes every season to keep up with the latest trends? Or do you have a more pared-down wardrobe with pieces that you tend to keep for a long time?
What do you care about most when you’re choosing what clothes to buy? Style? The label? Affordability? Quality? Sustainability? Something else?
How much do you care about the ethics of the companies you buy from? For example, before you make a purchase, do you consider the company’s values and beliefs, its impact on the environment, whether its workers have safe working conditions, or anything else?
Note to teacher
If you’re a teacher doing this activity in a classroom context, you might “map” students’ responses to see if any patterns emerge. For example, for the first question about where they get their clothes, you might write corresponding categories on the board — “Online,” “Store,” “Secondhand” and “Homemade” — and invite students to place a sticky note or tally under the one that describes their shopping practices best.
Then, have students look at all the sticky notes or tallies and ask: Do they notice any trends? How would they describe their class’s shopping habits and why? What do people their age seem to care about when it comes to buying clothes?
Questions for Writing and Discussion
Read the article, then answer the following questions:
1. The reporter writes that Forever 21 “prided itself on embodying the American dream.” In what ways did the company “embody the American dream”?
2. How did Forever 21’s aggressive expansion contribute to its eventual need to file for bankruptcy?
3. How did Forever 21 use its stores as a marketing vehicle? Why is that strategy not as effective as it once was?
4. What are some reasons consumers no longer want fast fashion? How has this waning interest affected Forever 21’s business?
5. Why might the information set to emerge in Forever 21’s bankruptcy “be of interest” for the retail industry?
6. What is your reaction to Forever 21’s bankruptcy? Do you think the trends that led to it will continue the way they are going? Why or why not?
Going Further
The changing tastes, values and shopping practices of young consumers have all contributed to Forever 21’s bankruptcy filing. What changes could the company make to its brand and business model to keep up with these shifts?
Imagine you could advise Forever 21 on how to rebuild the company so it better appeals to young shoppers like you and your peers. Write a proposal with at least three changes the company could make.
Consider things such as where Forever 21 should sell its clothes, where and how it should advertise, how it should manufacture its items, how it should distribute them, the ethics and values it should communicate to its customers, and anything else you think is important.
To help you come up with ideas, take into account all the information you know about the retailer’s brand and business model from the article, plus the information you gathered about young people’s shopping habits in the warm-up. If you have time, you might conduct additional research online about Forever 21 or Generation Z’s consumer tastes.
