Why Abercrombie & Fitch Is Pulling Out Of Hong Kong
U.S. clothing brand Abercrombie & Fitch will call time on its flagship store in Hong Kong two years before the end of its lease, which expires in 2019. The closure, announced Friday, is expected to be “substantially complete” by the second quarter of 2017 and will leave no remaining Abercrombie & Fitch-branded stores in Hong Kong. It follows the shuttering of some 50 U.S. stores in 2016 and a 14% decline in the company’s comparable sales from August to October compared with the same period last year. The announcement comes at an interesting time for Hong Kong’s retail landscape. A survey published by Bloomberg on Friday shows that commercial rents are dropping in some of the world’s premier shopping spots—with prices in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay undergoing the biggest fall. Meanwhile, Abercrombie is paying HK$7 million ($0.9 million) in monthly rent for its store in the nearby Central district—reportedly double the rate of the previous tenant there, Shanghai Tang. The company says its decision will lead to a “lease termination charge” of approximately US$16 million in the next quarter. Read more at Fortune.
When they took over Shanghai Tang’s building, they gutted mosaic tile and other features that were almost 100 years old and then fitted it out in the tackiest “American’s interpretation of Hong Kong colonial kitsch”. They used to have these VAPID door models, male and female, that were an insult to intelligence. Then of course, that wretched odour that they call perfume that was pumped out of their building onto the streets, gagging everyone that passed by with their air pollution. Their fashions haven’t ever changed: 1980’s american locker room sweat pants for $100 usd. NEXT! good bye and get out of Hong Kong, you had nothing to do here in the first place. Good Riddance.