Abercrombie And Fitch Dude 2

In Abercrombie And Finals, we observed:

Over the past few weeks, FuelMix wandered into the Abercrombie & Fitch store here in Very Rich Megacity to buy (yeah....the admittedly overpriced) stuff.  He was puzzled to notice that not only was the shop virtually empty in the afternoons and evenings, but the usual assortment of cute staff guys was nowhere to be seen.  In fact, on the main floor there were only 2 dudes on shift. The 2 guys that usually stand at the door to greet customers were absent.  Even the shirtless muscle guy wasn't around.

And now we discover that this huge Abercrombie And Fitch store in Central is going to shut down by the middle of 2017:

US fashion chain Abercrombie & Fitch will close its four-storey ­flagship store in Central as early as next year amid the economic downturn and a slump in shoppers from the mainland.

The 25,600 sq ft store on ­Pedder Street opened in 2011, paying HK$7 million in rent per month, double that of previous tenant Shanghai Tang.

It has initiated an early exit ­before its lease expires in 2019.

“The company exercised a lease kick-out option for its A&F flagship store in Hong Kong,” the retailer said on Friday. It claimed the move was “part of the ­company’s ongoing strategic review” and “was expected to drive economic benefit over time”.

The closure of the store should be “substantially complete” by the end of the second quarter of fiscal year 2017.

The move would trigger a “lease termination charge” of ­approximately US$16 million in the next quarter, it said.

There would be no Abercrombie & Fitch branded store in the city after, but the company intended to add five stores on the mainland by the end of January.

-----"Abercrombie & Fitch to shut Hong Kong store in wake of economic downturn" South China Morning Post, 19 November 2016

Purely unscientifically, we think A&F went downhill sometime ago - when they stopped hiring the muscle boys and jocks and switched to a kinder, gentler image of cute college boys.  We noticed an immediate drop in customer foot traffic and what used to be gay gawkers trying to cruise the muscle boys.

Anyone else noticed that  in 2016 gay boy venues here in Very Rich Megacity are shutting down..?

• Abercrombie & Fitch
• Alexander Sauna
• ABC Sauna
• California Fitness
• and.....??

 © Copyright 2006-2016 FuelMix All Rights Reserved