Once upon a time, I was a loyal shopper at Abercrombie and Fitch. Incredibly loyal.
Of course when you’re 21, and lookin’ to impress no one but the cute boy over in the corner of the campus watering hole, it didn’t matter whether I dressed “professionally” and found myself sporting their cute, low cut, knit tops and flip flops and sweaters religiously. The Ex and I used to shop there and at Hollister near religiously – perhaps we had the “look” that Abercrombie is going for?
I was appalled when I read on Jezebel that a British girl with a prosthetic arm was banished to the stock room because she “didn’t have the look.” The look?! Really? I mean, what is the look? Blonde hair, blue eyed, 100 lbs with a faux tan? No no, the look just doesn’t include a prosthetic arm. She stated:
“A worker from what they call the “visual team”, people who are employed to go round making sure the shop and its staff look up to scratch, came up to me and demanded I take the cardigan off. I told her, yet again, that I had been given special permission to wear it. A few minutes later my manager came over to me and said: “I can’t have you on the shop floor as you are breaking the Look Policy. Go to the stockroom immediately and I’ll get someone to replace you. I pride myself on being quite a confident girl but I had never experienced prejudice like that before and it made me feel utterly worthless. Afterwards I telephoned the company’s head office where a member of staff asked whether I was willing to work in the stockroom until the winter uniform arrived. That was the final straw. I just couldn’t go back.” [via Jezebel]
As Jezebel also points out, this isn’t the first time Abercrombie has gotten a bad rap for questionable employment practices back in 2003 alleging that they discriminate against African American, Hispanic, and Asians by trying to create an “all-white ‘A&F look” by hiring an overwhelmingly majority white employee force. In addition, they were sued back in 2003 for “forcing” employees to purchase their clothing (denied).
Sorry A&F, your days of being “cool” are over (thankfully, I was a loyal shopper at least 5 years ago. Now a days, hauling my lazy ass up to the third floor to shop at them in Cambridgeside just isn’t worth it). Proof is in the sales and a few weeks ago, Jezebel also reported on Abercrombie’s 34% drop in sales – cheaply made, over priced clothes with horrificly obscene logos on them just aren’t cool anymore.
That kind of attitude is the attitude that keeps racism and elitism alive and that? Is not okay.
Thankfully those A&F days are over, and my wardrobe, as I’ve been cleaning it out over the past two years, is 90% A&F free – after all I’m not a size 2 anymore and nor am I in college where wearing A&F was acceptable. I’ll stick with JCrew thankyouverymuch where at least I see a diverse sales force.
Thoughts? Comments? Do you still shop at A&F? Or do you too think it was a fad of the early 2000’s?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I´m never gong to that store again… I used to like the clothes but that is too much, I hate discrimination. “All-white ‘A&F look”?… I´ve always been treated better at Hollister anyways.
They’ve been known to do this king of thing for a while now. They’ve put workers who aren’t skinny white kids in the back. It’s disgusting and I’m proud to say I’ve never bought anything there.
Wow, that is totally disgusting, but unfortunately, I’m not at all surprised. Yet again, A&F has proven that they truly deserve their snobby reputation. So, many young people shop there. Is it not enough to teach them that short skirts and tight shirts with a moose on them will make them cool? I guess they also have to spread the word that anybody who isn’t perfect can just be pushed aside into the background. Definitely not cool. Thanks for sharing this!
A girl I knew in HS worked for them when she was in college and she was seriously skinny at a size 2. They forced her to getting size 0 pants of the free pair they get for working there. She said she could barely fit, but they wanted them to look tight.
Honestly, I was always jealous of everyone who wore it (apparently my size 14 self was too big for their Look.) But after hearing her story- no thanks.
Well, as a teenager, I know people who shop there all the time. But also, as a size 14, could never myself. So I much prefer American Eagle. Clean stores, nice staff who don’t treat you like crap, etc. I do like the way Abercrombie clothes look (I just love mooses!) I don’t enjoy shopping there. The men staff seem to be nicer. I know someone who works there that is maybe a size 8 and has a bit of pudge but is a prized employee. She isn’t drop-dead gorgeous, but shes cute. So Abercrombie isn’t THAT awful to its employees like everyone thinks.
I used to work for Hollister and let me tell you, it was awful there too. I was told to wear a miniskirt in winter- with flip flops- when it was snowing- cause it was “beachy”. They tried to mandate tanning and they didn’t mean spray tans- we had a “fake and bake” deal with a local chain so that we could be crispy brown and look like we just rolled out of SoCal. Also, I was definitely encouraged to shop a size down in shirts since I was one of the few college girls (read: boobs) working there which meant that Hooters tried to recruit me (Seriously. And my bosses encouraged it!!). Add the $6.25 an hour and I quickly moved on (not to Hooters). The bonuses were that there were cute boys everywhere and that the soundtrack rocked. Other than that- bleh.
i agree with all the comments about the discrimination at abercrombie, and iv worked for the company for over two years. i know it happends, and im not a fan of it. Also, to the girl who said she i treated better at Hollister — Hollister is owned by the same company. The same shit goes down in every A&F, abercrombie kids, hollister, rhuel, && gilly hicks store you will ever go into. The rules are the same in every store. So if you against one of the stores, dont patronize the others, cause they are still getting your money.