The Gap is taking some heat from women who don’t like the decision to close its Forth and Towne stores (www.forthandtowne.com).

No wonder. F&T offers a nice selection of reasonably priced, stylish well-made career clothes, with great service and its hallmark—the biggest dressing rooms around. Big enough to feed a family of four.

Now, I’ve got your attention.

Less dowdy then Talbots, less edgy than its corporate cousin Banana Republic… Forth and Towne found its niche with women 30-40, its intended demographic. The closest store to us is just across the state line in the vast Palisades Center Mall.

And herein lies the problem.

This mega mall is chock-full of super popular, cheaper stores catering to younger women. F&T sits next door to the hugely popular Forever21… and up the escalator from H&M. F&T looks expensive and unexciting by comparison.

Forth and Towne needed to be in New Jersey. We don’t pay sales tax, so we can afford better clothes. We have a vast population of women who skip cheap chic because they can’t bear wearing baby doll tee shirts at age 40. And, more important: it beats Ann Taylor pricing.

“We love this store,” bemoaned one of the sales clerks at the Palisades location. “Everyone loves this store.” Meanwhile, frenzied shoppers scooped up everything in sight, facing a June closing deadline.

The fashion bloggers have started to rumble… www.savethetowne.blogspot.com is fueling the fire.

We say to the Gap bean counters, don’t give up on Forth and Towne. Move it south, about nineteen miles to the Garden State Plaza. Put another store at Short Hills, and in Cherry Hill. If you build it, they will come. If for no other reason, than to see those huge dressing rooms!