Retail Reality

There has been some recent retail news that is fairly disturbing, as follows:

First, there was a recent interview with Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, where he shared his thoughts about the type of customer his store is coveting - white, cool, and thin.

As far as Jeffries is concerned, America’s unattractive, overweight or otherwise undesirable teens can shop elsewhere. “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he says. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.”

Mike Jeffries.....60 year old wishing he was 15 again

In 2004 A&F paid $40 million to settle a class-action suit brought by minority employees who said they were either denied employment or forced to work in back rooms, where they wouldn’t be seen by customers. While A&F denied any wrongdoing, Jeffries said the suit taught him a lesson: “I don’t think we were in any sense guilty of racism, but I think we just didn’t work hard enough as a company to create more balance and diversity. And we have, and I think that’s made us a better company. We have minority recruiters. And if you go into our stores you see great-looking kids of all races.”

In another recent settlement involving another junior's clothing store, fashion retailer Wet Seal Inc. agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a Pennsylvania resident who claimed the retailer discriminated against African-American employees because they did not fit the company's brand image.  In a three-year investigation, the commission found evidence that Wet Seal corporate managers openly stated that to be profitable the retailer had to retain workers with "the Armani look" — meaning thin, blond and blue-eyed.  One high-level executive sent an email to underlings in 2009 pointing out that the dominance of African American workers was a "huge issue." "Managers were instructed to make employment decisions based on race," the agency said in documents made public Monday.

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I'm happy to see that Wet Seal is getting hurt in its pocketbook and that A&F stores are being boycotted by customers due to the CEO's outlandish statements. The days of thinking your customer is "thin and white" are long gone; people want to be embraced based upon whether or not they can pay for your clothing, not based on their size or ethnicity.