Even recessions have a silver lining. Overpriced and
oversexed teen clothier Abercrombie and Fitch is feeling the pinch in a big way
as teenagers (or their parents) wise up to the fact that it’s just not worth it
to pay $58 for a scarf—even if an impossibly dreamy, half-naked hunk is
plastered over the cash register.
According to MSNBC, “The company is fiercely protecting
its image as a ‘premium’ brand, and, as a result, it's getting snubbed big time
by its once cultlike, ever-loyal fan base.” It’s ironic that “premium” means ripped jeans
and flannel shirts, but, as Abercrombie sadly found out, if you put enough naked
teenagers next to any product, it’ll sell.
That is, until hardly anyone can afford to buy it anymore.
Abercrombie was the biggest retail loser in March, posting a 34 percent drop in
sales. I wonder how those numbers
compare to the drop in teenagers’ self-esteem after looking at an Abercrombie
catalogue.
In case you haven’t
recently had the joy of getting assaulted by club music and cheap
cologne in your local Abercrombie lately, Jezebel
has an anecdote to remind you just how abominable the king of preppy is. Writer
Hortense remembers sharing in a hospital with a young woman who was being
treated for anorexia. She had to be tube-fed around the clock. “The week before
she was hospitalized,” Hortense writes, “she told me, she went to buy clothes
at Abercrombie & Fitch, and the manager pestered her the entire time,
begging her to apply for a job there, because she had ‘the look they wanted.’”
Perhaps the manager was so pushy because of the high
employee turnover.
Photo: abercrombieandfitch.com
