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Posted Aug 5, 2009, 5:33 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Canada
Posts: 1,060
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A good, entertaining read from the Selvedge Yard and a few other publications, which bring up plenty of reasons why I also have also outgrown such things since elementary school.
http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com...l-at-the-mall/
Abercrombie & Fitch | Losing their Pants & Cool at the Mall
April 23 2009
Seems that Abercrombie & Fitch isn’t recession-proof either, as kids (and parents) are turning to ‘like’ brands at a price, and newer streetwear & fashion brands for more up-to-date looks. The Bruce Weber homoerotic photography and overpowering scents pumped through the store may have finally played itself out too. The store environment was so overdone it felt like a gay club, and Jeffries was stuck on an aesthetic that never evolved– it seems to have finally stagnated.
In terms of product & presentation, A&F is the epitome of a one trick pony with little innovation in product or presentation over the years– and the pony ride just might be over. Someone I knew used to say– “when you’re coasting, you’re actually going downhill,” and this seems to be the case with A&F–they’ve coasted for too long. American Eagle, Aeropostale, etc. are now eating their lunch as the kid who fell in love with A&F years ago has moved on, and the new kid has either traded down or is more forward.
Either way, they’re failing to see what all the fuss is about. Ironically, Hollister may also have added to the downfall through cannibalization– as the two brands are fairly interchangeable, with Hollister being sharper on price. A good recession exposes all your weaknesses, and A&F is feeling it hard.
...and from the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/fa...=2&ref=fashion
Quote:
Losing Its Cool at the Mall
April 22 2009
At the entrance to almost every shopping mall in the country, you will find a directory that, if you are spatially coordinated, will give you an approximate lay of the land. You can gauge the distance from Abercrombie & Fitch to its younger-skewing cousin, Hollister, or its older cousin, Ruehl, and find the way to their closest competitors in the teenager and young adult category, Aéropostale and American Eagle Outfitters.
But you will be no closer to discerning what drives the modern youth from one store to the next; what differentiates one’s frayed cargo shorts from another’s; or why one of them, Abercrombie, is facing a consumer revolt, while others are paradoxically upbeat. A clue: It has to do with price.
This spring, spending by teenagers, a closely studied but rarely understood segment of the population, is off by 14 percent, a direct reflection of the economy, according to a report this month by the investment bank Piper Jaffray. And that is having a profound effect on an already unraveling mall culture, where deep discounters and stores known for heavy promotions are suddenly the popular destinations and aspirational brands are struggling to fit in.
Teenagers are noticing. “Labels are becoming less and less of a priority for people throughout my school,” said Chelsea Orcutt, 17, a senior at the Mount Saint Mary Academy near Buffalo, where the Walden Galleria shopping center includes all of the above-mentioned stores, plus many more options for teenagers who favor a sunny West Coast surfer style or those who prefer a goth ensemble to highlight their black nail polish and lipstick. Ms. Orcutt, a bit less casual in her personal style, favors Macy’s, Old Navy and American Eagle, which, she pointed out, keep teen budgets in mind.
“Labels and designer purses — I’m not seeing them as frequently,” said Ms. Orcutt, who had participated in a survey on teen spending for the Hearst Magazines network of Web sites and was approached to speak about the subject for this article. When asked why that might be, she replied, without hesitation, “because of the crisis.”
During years of rampant consumerism, where teenagers shopped was often more closely tied to what was happening in the pages of US Weekly or InStyle than their families’ financial circumstances. Empires like Abercrombie & Fitch were built on the premise that their products, even $80 jeans and $30 T-shirts with provocative graphics, would be perceived as luxury items if they were sold in the right way. But as teenagers’ priorities rapidly shift away from brands they now perceive as too expensive, the pecking order of mall stores has changed.
At Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., on a Friday afternoon, Abercrombie & Fitch was nearly empty. As two young men walked out of the dimly lighted store, past a photograph of a shirtless man with his hand submerged beneath the waistband of his jeans, one of them, trailing the eye-watering scent of the store’s perfume, said, “This stuff is too expensive.”
At Ruehl, which is Abercrombie’s more upscale store for slightly older consumers (and even darker inside), there were no customers at all. But at Hollister, where the prices average 12 to 15 percent lower, the line at the register was seven deep.
To maintain its prestigious image, Abercrombie has stood alone among mall retailers in not blaring its sales — a strategy that Wall Street analysts have blamed for its current decline. The company reported a 34 percent drop in sales for March at stores open at least a year, the worst performance of mall retailers that month. Abercrombie executives did not respond to written questions about whether the brand — as some business columnists suggest — has lost its cool. In the past, the chain has said it doesn’t want to tarnish its image with big discounts, but the risk is that consumers may retain the habit of thriftiness even after the recession ends.
“I’m not sure customers are going to ever go back to shopping the way they once did,” said Betsy McLaughlin, the chief executive of Hot Topic, a competitor for the teen market, which posted a gain of 7.1 percent in March, largely on the strength of licensed products tied to the “Twilight” vampire series. “There’s just so much retail out there. I think the people who will win are the ones who provide something different. It’s not just a price war.”
The styles at Abercrombie & Fitch, which have changed little in the last decade, are similar to those at the company’s Hollister or Ruehl stores, except for the prices and logos. In the same mall, there are plenty of retailers that specialize in Abercrombie-esque casual-collegiate-cum-surfer-dude styles for even less. A new store, WHO.A.U., sells frayed cargo shorts and appliquéd T-shirts that are displayed next to black-and-white portraits of hunky shirtless models, ahem. And behind the register at the Aéropostale store in Paramus is a poster showing a frolicking group of teenagers, like a tamer version of Abercrombie.
Even the clearance items at Abercrombie do not exude the promotional fervor that can be found at American Eagle, which has a sign up front noting its shorts are under $25; or Aéropostale, where banners announce two-for-one bargains. Aéropostale also reported a sales increase last month, up 3 percent, a success that Mindy Meads, the company’s president, attributed to the right combination of product and value.
“We get the right looks,” she said. “At the same time, we’re very mom-friendly when it comes to the wallet.”
So you may see a $30 T-shirt from Abercrombie & Fitch with its logo printed up the side and a nearly identical style from Aéropostale for $19.50. And, given the companies’ recent performances, you may wonder if one is now cooler than the other and, for that matter, whether tomorrow’s teenagers will even recognize the difference.
“I’m interested in kids who are growing up now and who are going to come into their years of spending during the recession,” Ms. McLaughlin of Hot Topic said. “What does that mean for how they will spend when they become teenagers? That’s the question.”
It is fairly clear that Hot Topic, which sells an assortment of studded black vests, Hello Kitty hoodies and body jewelry and colored hair extensions, does not compete for the same customer as Abercrombie & Fitch. Its most popular items right now are tutus and swimsuits. But Buckle, another mall store, has been doing even better with teenagers, gaining ground with a broad assortment of labels and styles, including Lucky Brand, Betsey Johnson, Diesel and Roxy. Its sales were up 14.7 percent last month.
Buckle, based in Kearney, Neb., has largely distinguished itself with customer service and styles that change significantly each season. Its salesclerks are trained to assist customers in putting together a complete outfit by showing which pair of jeans would look best with a top or work best with a particular style of shoes. The hot styles this spring? Gladiator sandals and light knit tops for women, and flip-flops and patterned shorts for men.
“Even if something sells very well for us, we are apt not to go back to that,” said Pat Whistler, the vice president for women’s merchandising. “The brands are important, but the fashion part is equally important.”
Speaking about their attitudes toward shopping last week, several high school students said they liked to shop at Abercrombie & Fitch and thought the brand was still cool, despite the comparatively high prices, while others thought it was too expensive and didn’t like the hyper-sexualized atmosphere of the stores. But almost all said they were spending less on clothes.
Ms. Orcutt recently spent $160 on a hot pink prom dress — the most expensive dress she had ever bought.
“I’m definitely feeling a little guilty,” she said.
Several other students contacted through Hearst are saving money for college expenses, choosing to buy their books or laptops instead of clothing or asking their parents for money. They said they might be more likely to shop for cute, inexpensive things at stores like Forever 21 than to buy designer jeans, as did Stefani Graf, 17, from Annapolis, Md., and Abby Toraason, 18, from Peru, Ind., who said she has to travel an hour or more to a decent mall.
“It’s not very expensive, and yet the clothes are still cute,” Ms. Toraason said.
Good news for retailers is that about the only area where the teenagers said they were unlikely to economize was their prom dress. Anecdotally, though, things don’t look so promising for limousine rentals.
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...and MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30155521/
Quote:
How Abercrombie & Fitch is losing its cool
As recession rages, sexy ads may not be enough for trendy retailer
April 11 2009
To the dismay of the Abercrombie & Fitch empire, teenagers whose parents have cut back on their allowances may be coming to a recessionary revelation: Paying $90 for torn jeans isn't that cool anymore.
While other retailers are responding to the downturn with red-lined price tags and tempting promotions, upscale Abercrombie & Fitch isn't budging on its price points. This scarf, for example, will still cost you $58. The company is fiercely protecting its image as a "premium" brand, and, as a result, it's getting snubbed big time by its once cultlike, ever-loyal fan base.
Abercrombie & Fitch just posted a 34 percent drop in same-store sales from last year — the worst among retailers in March.
Teens who haven't abandoned the shopping mall altogether are buying their clothes at stores like American Eagle and Aeropostale, which are increasingly positioning themselves as budget-friendly. Both stores are currently pushing promotions online, like buy-one, get-one free deals. Check out Abercrombie's Web site, though, and while you won't find any such online promotions on the latest season's items, you will find (warning!) a model with his hand down his pants.
There was a time when Abercrombie's sexy ad campaigns and half-dressed salespeople were irresistible to teens. A time when an endless line outside the flagship Fifth Avenue store curled around the block each morning. A time when the store effortlessly convinced young people that wearing two expensive polo shirts was infinitely more stylish than wearing just one. And the teens followed like lambs.
There were days when A&F stock topped $80 per share, but those days have passed. Now, shares have sunk to less than one-third of that, and it seems that the embroidered Moose logo may be losing its cachet.
The company thinks not. A&F is still moving forward with international expansion plans and, unlike other retailers, didn't significantly reduce inventory for the year. CEO Michael Jeffries is daringly optimistic and perhaps emboldened by the way he handled the 2001 recession. Bucking conventional wisdom at the time, he raised prices instead of succumbing to pressure to slash them.
"The important thing is that I didn't overreact," he told the New York Times in 2004. "When things start to go down, many retailers kill themselves; they throw out the baby with the bath water."
Now he's applying the same formula to the current meltdown. "We hear your concerns," Jeffries said in an earnings call with analysts in November, but "promotions are a short-term solution with dreadful long-term effects."
Luxury purveyors fear that cutting prices will cheapen and irreparably damage their brands, besides hurting margins. But are denim discounts really more dreadful than this? Analysts are skeptical that A&F can sustain their let's-pretend-the-economy-hasn't-collapsed strategy for much longer. While the 2001 recession lasted only eight months, we've been in this one for more than a year now, and retail isn't expected to rebound until August of 2010.
And when you're in the business of being trendy and catering to fickle teens, that's enough time to become passé if no one's buying your stuff. And that's especially true if a new sect of young consumers get used to shopping for cheaper clothes somewhere else.
Not to fear, though. Jeffries himself, who frequently refers to employees as "dudes" and is mysteriously tan for living in Ohio, still thinks that Abercrombie's clothes are too cool to resist. But then again, he's over 60 years old. Not exactly the target demographic.
Mr. Jeffries, dude, hate to break it to you, but it looks like the wave you're riding is about to crash.
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Just for the heck of it... people have nothing better to do! That was one of the reasons I hated living in the suburbs and decided to move downtown.
). My theory is that the younger generations are not polluted with the old-fashion "loser" attitude that was so common in Ottawa until about 15-20 years ago. One way or another, there definitely is a need for more. And more will come. The first ones to spot the need and profit from it will be the ones smiling wider. 
God forbid someone wore a A&F shirt that didn't have Abercrombie & Fitch written on it... I will never forget when they started selling Abercrombie "reversible" shorts at "Zelleres" (inside was crossed off with a big fat black marker, so they were able to only wear the white side haha)... One guy spread the news in the gym, and next day all the guys at the "football" practice wore the exact same blue & white shorts 
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