It’s taken forever, but Abercrombie & Fitch has begun to see some (of the many…) errors of their ways. Or at least, they are pretending to see the light. And by that I mean that they have actually agreed to let light into their stores. Say bye bye to those blinds and hello to window displays. Woah. Who knew that customers liked to be able to see the clothes they were about to purchase? This is revolutionary, people. Along with the ability to see, Abercrombie decided that they would stop taxing our other senses, like hearing and smelling. But is Abercrombie still Abercrombie without mood lighting, overwhelming aromas, and loud music that you can barely talk over? These are the philosophical questions that I ask myself.
An image of the now old store.
After years of negative press due to their treatment of both customers and employees, is a shop makeover arriving a little too late? At this point, these changes are not laudable because as many news sources have pointed out, they all sound like basic Retail 101. Sure, changing the space is a start, but this is also all coming from their CEO Mike Jeffries, who has reportedly stated that he only wants good-looking people wearing his clothing. I just really do not like this guy and his business model at all, and removing large scale images of abs and “introducing black garments” is not enough to sway me. Wait, black clothes at Abercrombie & Fitch OMG, clothes can come in such a color? Oh I just put it together. They wanted to add black clothes to their line but realized no one would be able to see it in the dark! What could Abercrombie do, if anything, to get you to shop there? I don’t know if my imagination is big enough to answer this question.
Images courtesy of Tumblr and Bloomberg
