Quote Originally Posted by adaniel View Post
A cynical part of me believes they are only now trying to expand in smaller markets as a survival strategy, not out of any respect toward the Tulsa/OKC market.
It may be cynical, but it is accurate. You will see that a lot with national retailers on the back end of their life cycle. To maintain volumes or make up for their decline in their core markets, they have to open more doors just to look viable going forward. That means new markets to avoid saturating the already declining ones. In UO's case, its intended demographic basically views it as "that place my parents used to shop". It also seems that, among that age group, local and independent stores are more of a draw than they used to be, which eats into their market share across the board.