Abercrombie and Fitch smells like a Bath and Body Works on overdrive, it sounds like the worst pop station played at My Bloody Valentine decibels, it's filled with the kind of teenage jerks that are into ripped bods and the brand. There are perks to my own job, like shopping, but sometimes I have to get stuff at Abercrombie, which is a definite drawback. It's simply the worst place on earth.
Not only is the store experience a truly, truly, absolutely terrible one, the clothes are dull and purposely cut only for the very thin – they manufacture thongs for children! They make racist tee shirts: “Two Wongs Don't Make a Right”; they discriminate against hiring minorities and unattractives, as owner and notorious weirdo Mike Jeffries has stated:
“We hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that.”
And:
'In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,' he says. 'Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either.'
What a douche!
For the record though, I am okay with their manalog by Bruce Weber, made for the gay man in your life this Christmas.
But what do you think?