Two Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) store closings happened this month, not because of failed expectations, but because of pest infestation. An Abercrombie store in Manhattan and an Epic Hollister in SoHo were invaded by bedbugs and were closed for business while they got rid of the pesky little bloodsuckers. Reportedly, CEO Mike Jeffries wrote a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg blaming the city of New York for their pest problem. Although bedbugs in commercial spaces are not unheard of in New York City, it's questionable whether these particular bugs had a 212 area code before they wandered past the scantily clad greeter guys into the Abercrombie and Hollister stores.
Isn't it more than a little bit curious that both the infected stores belonged to the same company? In the 324 news reports that I scanned about the Abercrombie bedbugs, isn't it also curious that there are no reports of bug problems at neighboring businesses - not even the ones that share walls and roofs with the Abercrombie stores? Doesn't it stretch the imagination a little bit to believe that a city bug problem was discovered in two locations 1.6 miles apart, but at no points in between?
In this case, logic points to the conclusion that the bugs hitched a ride with Abercrombie onto Manhattan island rather than the other way around.
While Jeffries was quite public about his letter to the mayor, there were no public reports of any proactive measures taken by the infected stores to use their carefully captured customer data to contact customers about the possibility of critter-carrying clothing they may have toted home in their shopping bags. If I had made a pricey purchase at one of those flashy NYC flagship stores, I would want to know that my latest fashion acquisitions might come back to bite me - literally.
Exceptional customer service recovery is always the "cool" thing to do, right Mike?
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