My oldest son, the marketing major and fashionista, said that Aeropostale decided to change their line and target pre-teens, but they didn’t market the new look effectively.
Well when you rent expensive mall retail space, and put s couple of small tables of merchandise, which is so flimsy it feels like it will dissolve in the washing machine, what do you expect?
They are lucky to have cashed in while they could. I hope they socked away some of it. Hollister is next, and for the same reasons.
(Although I must say my daughter got a nice, extremely well made, fleece-lined hoodie jacket there - I wish they had it in real MAN sizes - I need a 3XL and the biggest one there is like a medium on me)
If I don’t know how to pronounce the name of your store....
Their clientele grew up, and they never adjusted to the new clientele.
The first I ever heard of this store was 3 maybe 4 years ago one night the week of Christmas my husband and I went mall crawling to see how many people were actually shopping. We happened upon this store neither of us could pronounce and went in. OH MY GOD. It looked like a tornado just went through there.
Since I’m not hip cool or trendy, neither am I young, I didn’t see the appeal. The sales lady told us it was 75% off, the only appeal. The store was in trouble then but I guess hanging on ?
I thank God I never had girls. Just saying.
Having teens as your target market is a ticking timebomb. Every few years you’ve got to get a whole new set of customers, and the one thing you know about them is they DON’T want to be like the last set.
They overplayed the use of their logo. Seriously, how many t-shirts does one need that all say Aeropostale.
For retailers that can’t keep up with fast changing trends, assign someone to watch Korean dramas. I see fashions there that turn up 6-12 months later in the mall.
I always thought that they and Tommy H and all the others who expect us to PAY to wear their billboard advertising were ridiculous.
Just like the buses around town that are so emblazoned with advertising should give much cheaper fares for having to ride in their mobile billboards. In this case, though, I suspect my taxes pay for almost all the bus riders’ rides.
That’s because the teens are 10 years older now and not teens anymore. :-)
Surprised there are any malls still in operation.
They are mall centric, and most malls are dying. Perhaps they could pick up some Sports Authority locations.
The Feds should subsidize Aero to keep them alive.
Maybe they should just change their style every 10 years and follow the demographic. In the 60 years they could be Aero-old-geezer.
Maybe they shouldn’t of named their brand after a Soviet airline.
I am very much more of an Gap and American eagle and old navy person myself.