Posted on 12/04/2014 7:31:59 AM PST by C19fan
Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF) is showing its age. The once too-cool-for-school brand continues to struggle with teen shoppers. The retailer’s third quarter results were just the latest in a string of disappointments for investors. Profits were down on slowing mall traffic and weakening demand. Sales fell 12%. The company also cut its outlook for the year.
“The same thing has been wrong with this company for years and years and years,” says Yahoo Finance’s Jeff Macke. “It illustrates the real problem with retail in America right now.” That problem is keeping up with the so-called fast fashion brands.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Happy to say none of my kids nor me ever owned any of their rags.
They use crappy fabric. Went to a consignment shop and nearly all A&F shirts were horrible looking now that they had been washed. Other expensive brands looked petty good. Major eye opener for sure.
I refused to buy that crap for my kids. It felt like it was made of tissue paper and would fall apart in the first wash.
And I pointed out that retail space in The Mall was expensive- having all your goods on a few tables within a large space was VERY inefficient, so the profit margin must be huge.
I think the fashions they pushed for guys helped effeminate some of 20 something men in our culture. Just sayin’.
Give me blue jeans any day. They help guys look and feel like guys! Oh yes, they look great on females too! ;-)
A & F used to be THE BEST outfitter in the world.
Rags now.
I keep telling my teenage daughters that they can find everything they need at LLBean, but somehow it doesn’t seem to sink in ....
I remember when every kid on campus wore A&F. It was like a uniform.
Now it is girls in yoga pants. Required.
lol, i tell my wife the same thing, it’s a hard sell.
I feel for the workers that ultimately will lose their jobs. It was a wonderful company but it was fadish. It is hard to keep up when you are a one-trick pony. The owner has enough money to survive. The workers? Not so much.
“that they can find everything they need at LLBean”
Seriously, I used to do that. Then Bean yielded to “fashion” and changed all of the women’s pants to having about a 12 inch rise and I can’t keep them up any more. When they brought back the “classic” fit, the fabric was shabby after a few washings. I have some 15 year old Bean pants in the closet that were made with good fabric that look better than the new ones after two washes.
I’m finished with Bean now, but the fact is that most if not all manufacturers use cheap Chinese made crap fabic now.
Walk by that store at the mall and you get blasted by very loud music/noise. There is always a large poster of some shirtless guy looking at you thru the store entrance.
Wait... “teens”.
That doesn’t mean what it means when describing criminal behavior, does it?
You must be young.
I remember when A&F and Eddie Bauer sold real things for real men. I still own two Bauer down bags with deerskin liners rated to -30, made in USA.
How times have changed...
Faculty on a college campus
Or a pair of Levis. A new pair of Levis now is like a heavy weight paper.
I sell vintage clothes and I come across stuff that is light years better, 20 years old, than anything today. I recently sold a sweater from the 80s (Camp Beverly Hills--ha!) that joker weighed in at just over 4 pounds. Many of the newer "sweaters" I can ship First Class, meaning under 13 ounces.
And it's too bad, because the outfitting biz is now pretty hot - Cabelas, anyone? New York metrosexuals wearing tacti-cool gear. Don't expect it to last, but it's happening.
A&F / Hollister stuff is poorly made and way overpriced. Trendy or not, parents expect a $30 t-shirt to last through more than 2 or 3 wash/wear cycles. And the perfume they soak everything with in the Hollister stores gives me a splitting headache when I walk by - have to hold my breath.
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