Posted on 05/15/2013 7:04:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
Several years ago, I was browsing the racks at Abercrombie & Fitch when a store employee approached me. “Hey, do you want to work here?” she asked, over the store’s notoriously loud (and obnoxious) music.
In case you didn’t know, no one applies to work at Abercrombie. They offer jobs to good-looking, stylish patrons. For a brief moment, I felt anointed.
I shouldn’t have. It turned out the store had dozens of teenaged and twenty-something employees—all of whom could expect to work five hours a week, if that. But there was a catch: in order to secure the job, you had to buy the clothes.
Nice try, Abercrombie. After realizing they were using employees as walking advertisements for the brand, I ditched the “job”—but only after spending more on the prerequisite clothes than I would’ve made there in a summer.
Considering their history of devious marketing ploys, I wasn’t surprised when I read about the latest Abercrombie kerfuffle. During an interview with Salon, CEO Mike Jeffries offered up this gem: “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids…Candidly, we go after the cool kids. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong.”
Robin Lewis, author of The New Rules of Retail, said of Jeffries, “He doesn’t want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people. He doesn’t want his core customers to see people who aren’t as hot as them wearing his clothing.”
Alright, serious question: have we had enough of Abercrombie yet?
Before using snobbery to sell clothes, they used sex. When I was in high school, Abercrombie published a quarterly porno magazine which featured models in various sexual poses—including, but not limited to, group sex. The magazine also ran articles by a ludicrous “sexpert” who encouraged readers to have group sex in motels and oral sex in movie theaters.
Talk about classy! What made it even more disturbing was the fact that Abercrombie caters to the under-18 crowd. (The magazine was later pulled due to public outrage.)
But it didn’t stop there. Around the same time, Abercrombie started selling thong underwear in its Abercrombie Kids stores. Girls as young as 8 could buy panties emblazoned with “eye candy” and “wink wink.” (I know: ew.) In 2005, a group of teens led a “girlcott” of Abercrombie when it started selling shirts that had the message “Who needs brains when you have these?” written across the chest.
Maybe “Lolita chic” doesn’t bother you. Well, what about racism? Abercrombie has come under fire for refusing to hire African-Americans and selling T-shirts that mocked Asian-Americans. They also discriminate against the disabled. An employee with a prosthetic arm sued the company in 2009, saying they forced her to work in the back room when they found out about her disability.
"I [was] bullied out of my job," the employee told The Guardian. "It was the lowest point I had ever been in my life."
Some readers will reply with “if you don’t like it, don’t shop there.” I don’t disagree. In fact, I support everyone’s right to browse Abercrombie’s racks in semi-darkness (being careful not to succumb to the noxious cologne) in order to buy an overpriced, paper-thin cotton shirt. But that doesn’t mean we can’t criticize it.
Since that day many years ago when I was offered a job at Abercrombie, I’ve become a parent. And it’s hard to find a retail company that embraces more of the values I don’t want to teach my daughter. If you have a problem with superficiality, or racism, or using porn to sell clothes, you cannot support this morally bankrupt company.
Don’t shop there.
In fact, the last time I was in the joint was for an appearance by professional hunter Peter Capstick. He signed our books and then we all went out for a beer.
"How are the mighty fallen."
He is going after a defined, high end market. And it seems to be working.
A lot of lines do similar things. My sister worked at a VS once. She was told to turn away any “large” women, as they didn’t look sexy enough.
My sister quit and told them “Fat people want to feel pretty too!”. Yes, my sister has about as much tact as I do.
Old saying, behind every great fortune made, a crime had to be committed. People expouse about great businessmen are, but how many rules and tax laws did they break to make it? You will be surprise.
“...over the store’s notoriously loud (and obnoxious) music.”
Deafening and unpleasant from twenty yards away.
How does this chain of nuisance shops stay in business; are there really that many idiot teens and twenty-somethings in America?
Abercrombie & Fitch is an example of capitalism working. They have created a niche market and are having success with it. It appears that they have incurred the wrath of people with larger body types. The simple solution is - don’t go into A & F if you don’t like it. This is about the free market.
Full disclosure- my 21 year old daughter is a greeter at the 5th Avenue store in NYC. She works hard to pay her way through college, and lest people judge, jobs in her age group are hard to come by, and since A & F is hiring, more power to them, in my opinion.
The last thing we need is to tell clothing stores what sizes they can sell, shut down the niche market, and voila there go more jobs.
Why don’t ask the author for a picture
Does your daughter work more then 5 hours a week there?
Does he demand proof?
“...more than five hours a week?...”
Sh used to work around 12 - 15 hours (2 to 3 greeter shifts) but they are cutting back. The greeters stand in front of the store and it is more of a living mannequin model/Barbie doll type position. They don’t have to buy clothes - they are given to them and they are paid better than the regular rate.
As I recall the story, the suggestion was that the “flight attendants” wear only A&F shirts, A&F underwear, A&F sandals and A&F cologne.
Why ever buy from them?
ANOTHER boycott of A&F? I never realized the previous boycotts had been lifted or that a reason had been offered to recommend shopping there.
Another?
Didn’t the FIRST one work?
Of COURSE!
Where do you think Obama voters come from??
GMTA
Already boycotting - wouldn’t be caught dead in one of their stores. Same with their subsidiary Hollister (if any are still in business) - the perfume that they douse the store down in makes me sick just to walk by.
There is no need for me to boycott them as there are none in my area.
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