Are the racial controversies that have followed Abercrombie & Fitch finally costing it in sales at the cash register?
That’s what blogger Jeff for 8 Asians thinks.
Sales in the last quarter left the clothing chain with a quarterly loss.
The chain’s controversial relationship with Asian Americans goes back to 2002 when it released a t-shirt mocking the English proficiency of some Asian immigrant and taking cultural and religious icons and turning them into caricatures. Then there was the opening of one of its subsidiaries, Hollister, in South Korea where a model hired by the store mocked Koreans.
More recently there was the case of a Muslim woman who sued Abercrombie & Fitch after charging she was fired for wearing a hijab and another woman who said she wasn’t hired for the same reason.
Similar controversies have followed the chain in the African American & Hispanic communities as well as with overweight people.
But can one really make a connection between those incidents and declining sales?
Read Jeff’s blog in 8 Asians and share your thoughts.
