Merchants close stores in US but expand in China

When the sun is about to set in New York, it rises here in Shanghai. Abercrombie & Fitch, founded in the Big Apple, opened its first Chinese flagship store in Shanghai on April 19. That's as the fashion company shut 62 US stores in its fiscal year 2013, according to a statement in February. It's scheduled to close an additional 180 stores there by 2015, Business Insider reported.

Gap Ltd opened a 2,000-square-meter Old Navy store in Shanghai in March, its first in China. The company entered the Chinese market in October 2010 and now has 77 own-name stores and 12 outlets in the country, according to its corporate website.

It, too, shut North American stores, 128 in the fiscal year ending February 2013 and 108 in the following period, its last two annual reports said. Globally, Gap had net openings, driven mainly in Asia, particularly in China and Japan. Net sales saw single-digit annual growth.