If you've ever entered any A&F store, you'll remember how difficult it is to see and breathe in the store.
You must have also noticed the generally aesthetically pleasing staff wearing the A&F line like it's 20 degrees while it's windy, rainy and wet outside.
I have never owned anything from A&F, but what I do know is that the clothes are overpriced. I also know that they clearly pick employees based on their outward appearance... oh and being non-Muslim helps too.
Months ago, A&F CEO Michael Jeffries, 'justified' why A&F is not catering to larger persons. His justification did not come as a surprise to me.
It's not his 'discrimination' that's a problem; every company has their demographics. It's the way he went about explaining it, which is a problem. Mr Jeffries explained this in a very juvenile way and not in a business way that would have let him get away with this 'discrimination'. He associated skinny and beautiful people with popularity, a sweeping and common generalisation held by people younger than my age. This only taps further into the social hierarchies at school, with the 'beautiful' and socials at the top and not so social at the bottom.
Basically if you're not being discriminated against in school or in the work place, you're going to be discriminated against in life because you can't wear certain clothing because you're not good enough.
In all fairness, Mr Jeffries isn't exactly aesthetically pleasing himself. At the same time, we should be kind of pleased that Mr Jeffries isn't making his tacky, overpriced clothing available to all. There are better alternatives out there. Furthermore, it seems like many teens these days aren't even interested in wearing A&F because of the price. So I guess, all of us realise there's everything wrong with the brand.
