Abercrombie and Fitch in Ireland

Owen · 27-12-2006 11:37pm

I give up ... best of luck on that moral crusade buddy!

meanpeoplesuck · 28-12-2006 12:11am

JC 2K3 wrote:

But if we didn't crave material items so much then we'd be as happy without having to pour our money into greedy and largely unethical companies. It's all a perception.

Agreed. It's a discussion for a different topic, but it has been proven countless times throughout history that money/stuff does not equal happiness. Money/stuff can provide ephermal positive sensations - nothing more.

Blut · 28-12-2006 1:48am

ned78 wrote:

Blut, that's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. Do you genuinely think a main street franchise such as Gasoline would be selling counterfeit goods and risking their entire chain?

Ive seen a number of chain stores in the city centre of Dublin selling counterfeit A&F so it wouldnt surprise me no. If shops are selling 185e combats (when they generally cost $80 or so over there) then theyre presumably ordering online and reselling, if they get caught doing this A&F will take action against them - there is a corporate policy of not reselling old stock, it keeps it out of places like TK MAXX and improves the brand image.

On their expansion - the last I heard on it was a flagship store opening in Dundrum in Q1 2007, that was about a year ago though and I've yet to see any space being earmarked for them up there though so I'd presume its not going to happen any time soon.

JC 2K3 is one of those "rage against the machine corporate consumerism is evil rarrrgh" trolls, you'd do best to ignore his posts.

Sangre · 28-12-2006 3:09am

http://bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=1736151595

lol, check out its its other half.

Creamy Goodness · 28-12-2006 3:16am

ahaha dundrum town centre has a bebo page.

just when you think you've seen it all. i'd seriously doubt it's authenticity though.

it pains me to read the comments on those profiles esp. abercombie's

padi89 · 28-12-2006 10:40am

*Tripper* wrote:

Origin in Galway city (which is now gone i think!) did sell counterfit AF goods. The sizes were completly ****ed up!

Sizing is ****ed up on most brands, authentic and fake.Diesel has one of the worst sizing measurements i have ever tried,they are way off, pretty pathetic for 180 euro jeans.

JC 2K3 · 28-12-2006 12:43pm

Blut wrote:

JC 2K3 is one of those "rage against the machine corporate consumerism is evil rarrrgh" trolls, you'd do best to ignore his posts.

Sigh, I suppose you know no better....

Someday people will care....

And even if not, then I still think I should be allowed to voice my opinion without simply being dismissed as a troll.... My views aren't even that radical....

Sure I could dismiss all you guys as "conform to the machine, corporate consumerism rocks, rarrrrgh" trolls, but I prefer to argue my point rather than resorting to insults.

Nehpets · 29-12-2006 2:47am

ned78 wrote:

I give up ... best of luck on that moral crusade buddy!

Thankfully, as to be honest, you were talking nonsense. JK (which doesn't stand for jesus christ - I read it in another thread) is completely right.

"Are disgusted by brands perceived as exclusive, or prestigous"

I agree with his opnion on this. It sets lots of standards for young people - the people who think it SHOULD be important and those that think they SHOULD care.

"Feel companies shouldn't be allowed to use their brand name on their clothes"

I'm surprised this ever took off. Smart for companies (free advertising) but stupid for people. I don't see why people would want to wear advertisement. But that's just me I guess.

"Believe having good looking sales people is wrong"

I don't agree with this point. From a marketing point of view it makes sense.

Do they use slave-labour? Is there any website that can show what shops do and do not use slave-labour to make the clothes?

Owen · 29-12-2006 2:56am

Nehpets wrote:

I'm surprised this ever took off. Smart for companies (free advertising) but stupid for people. I don't see why people would want to wear advertisement. But that's just me I guess.

Righto. I'll just go pull the badges off my girlfriend's Toyota, and my MINI. We wouldn't want to be advertising the products we use ... the buying motives for expensive clothing are not to become walking adverts for the companies represented. The long and the short of it is that people, young professionals especially, who feel they are making it in life, like to announce to the general public that they don't want to wear St. Bernard or Michael Guineys, or Hectograys, it's about being individual. Unfortunately, it backfires, because if I'm wearing Abercrombie, and you're wearing Abercrombie, then we're no longer unique and it looks like that scene from The Life of Brian ... "We're all Individuals, we can all think for ourselves"

It's also a form of social classing. You can recognise affluent people in a social environment by the way they carry themsleves, and the clothes they wear. While it's a not a big deal for me, I know people who wouldn't associate with the Celtic Football Jersey wearers - they're stereotyped before they open their respective mouths. Likewise, with a higher profile brand such as Abercrombie (And lets be honest here - Tommy, Ralph, D&G - they're all the same, so let's not just tar A&F), it's possible to stereotype the people before you engage them in conversation by examining their choice of clothes, and how they carry themselves amongst others, and 90% of the time, you'll be right.

cotwold · 29-12-2006 11:15am

Cremo wrote:

you won't find any in ireland at all, you're best bet is to order online at their store and suffer tax and customs.

Actually there's a store in Blackrock that sells Abercrombie and Fitch clothes but its mens only.

Sangre · 29-12-2006 4:42pm

cotwold wrote:

Actually there's a store in Blackrock that sells Abercrombie and Fitch clothes but its mens only.

90% chance they're either fake or order by the stoes online and therefore very expensive.

Killaqueen!!! · 29-12-2006 4:51pm

Well this thread gave me a good laugh. I just hope JC2K3 doesn't go into advertising...

JC 2K3 · 29-12-2006 5:40pm

Nehpets wrote:

"Believe having good looking sales people is wrong"

I don't agree with this point. From a marketing point of view it makes sense.

Well everything I'm arguing against essentially makes sense from a marketing point of view. They have a discriminative hiring policy, that's really all I was getting at.

Nehpets wrote:

Do they use slave-labour? Is there any website that can show what shops do and do not use slave-labour to make the clothes?

Unfortunately not, since these companies like to keep information about how their clothes are manufactured as secretive as possible.

In 2000 Abercrombie was named on the Saipan lawsuit. Saipan is one of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. It is owned by the US, but exempt from federal regulation(the Republicans' excuse is that they are preserving pure capitalism there or something), therefore Abercrombie and a load of other major brands(Ralph Lauren, Levi Strauss, Calvin Klein to name a few) were able to use sweatshop labour and have "Made In USA" tags on their clothes. Abercrombie paid a $2m settlement in December 2002 as part of the Saipan lawsuit, but reports by certain charities such as Oxfam say that they are indeed still using sweatshop labour elsewhere.

cotwold · 29-12-2006 6:20pm

Sangre wrote:

90% chance they're either fake or order by the stoes online and therefore very expensive.

er 100% chance there real and like most shops im Blackrock, yes theyre expensive.

Rb · 29-12-2006 6:48pm

Sangre wrote:

http://bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=1736151595

lol, check out its its other half.

Lol, "UR SHOPPING CENTRE IS DA BEST I ESPECIALLY LURV HARVY NICKOLS"

Bebo manages to highlight the sheer amount of retards there are using the internet like no other site.

Pythia · 29-12-2006 6:57pm

rb_ie wrote:

Lol, "UR SHOPPING CENTRE IS DA BEST I ESPECIALLY LURV HARVY NICKOLS"

Bebo manages to highlight the sheer amount of retards there are using the internet like no other site.

The world is full of retards full stop!

JC 2K3 · 29-12-2006 6:58pm

rb_ie wrote:

Lol, "UR SHOPPING CENTRE IS DA BEST I ESPECIALLY LURV HARVY NICKOLS"

Bebo manages to highlight the sheer amount of retards there are using the internet like no other site.

Luckily they are usually confined to that one site.

Ya-Boy-Ya · 30-12-2006 2:45am

cotwold wrote:

Actually there's a store in Blackrock that sells Abercrombie and Fitch clothes but its mens only.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hellooooooooooooooooooo would u please name the store and where is it ??????

ulc84 · 30-12-2006 10:24am

Abercrombie is an ok label but it isn't so exclusive. I have one polo shirt and it is nice and lasts well. Decent value. It would be along lines of hilfiger and RL. Not top end stuff really. I prefer other labels.

Rb · 30-12-2006 9:05pm

Pythia wrote:

The world is full of retards full stop!

Aye, it is indeed. Luckily, as JC 2K3, the Irish retards seem to congregate on Bebo and for the most part leave good sites like and others alone!

It's actually came to the point where nothing on Bebo surprises me.

Schlemm · 30-12-2006 10:28pm

metaoblivia wrote:

I used to manage a A&F store in Miami. I worked for them for 5 years. About 2 years ago, they had a national conference in which they announced their plans to finally go abroad. Tokoyo, Paris, and London were the first cities mentioned in the plan. I left the company shortly afterwards, so I don't know if that's still in action. But it's probably easiest to just go to the US if you reallly want Abercrombie clothes.
Bit of gos about A&F - yes they do only hire 'good-looking' people. Managers are told to scout for recruits, and it's not unusual for the store manager to take one day a week to go to a local college campus looking for suitable candidates. They have large group interviews once a week, and during the interview several employees will take a good look at the interviewees and then dicuss with the manager later on who the most attractive ones were.
A big part of manager's job is their ability to recruit employees with the 'abercrombie' look. A&F isn't so concerned with actual managing ability as they are with image. I had a wonderful assistant manager working under me, and was told point blank they would never become a store manager because they didn't fit the image properly.
The people who work night shift or stock don't have to be as good looking as the people on the floor. They are kept off the floor at all costs, in fact. They do get paid more, however.
Someone mentioned how the night crew would take out rulers and boards to fold. That's completely true. A&F is anal about the way the floor looks. Lighting, the dressing of the forms, the set up of the tables and walls - it all has to be exact. We would get write ups at least once a week outlining where everything should go, how much of each size should be out, the order it needed to be in, which folding board to use, how it should be lighted. We use to have to fold the jeans and then give them crinkles in just the right places for presentation. As a manager, I put in 65-70 hour weeks regularly. And if someone important was coming that week - forget it. One night we didn't leave until 10am the following morning. It was hell. I'm so glad I don't work there anymore

Used to work at American Eagle myself and it was unreal. We had this cheesy group interview (I really turned on the charm...I needed the money bad!!!) and once u got offered the job they made you do quizzes about their jeans and stuff...learn about asking 'open ended questions' (this included role play situations)....coached in countless ways to harass the customers....inform the customers about 'layering' (ie, sell them more clothes to get more money off them), etc etc.

It was HELL. I'll never forget all these posters that they had hanging up in the back room only, informing the staff about AE's 'target' customer (ie white middle class rich kid) and all these buzz words about what AE is and isn't (ie, AE is laid back, easy going, all-American, vs. AE is not stuffy, European, etc). I had to work on the sales floor and you have to wear this headset and once you help somebody buy something, you'd have to 'call your sale' and the more sales u called the more hours you could work. They used to call out little 'league tables' over the headsets, ranking the staff in order of the amount of money they had gotten off customers. Bleh it was bleedin horrible. They used to play the music at full tilt and would never turn it down even if ppl complained. The amount of ass-kissing of the staff from the employees would make u sick. Try doing this on a hangover, let alone a normal day! It's all image and brainwashing. Worst job I've ever had.

That said, they do nice of jeans and hoddies and tees, which are all really hard to get in Ireland at reasonable prices, jeans especially.

And as for Dundrum on Bebo...oh lord. ''OMFG I LIK LURVE DD !!!''
/vomits

Nehpets · 31-12-2006 5:20pm

ned78 wrote:

Righto. I'll just go pull the badges off my girlfriend's Toyota, and my MINI. We wouldn't want to be advertising the products we use ...

Go ahead, if you feel you must. I don't see why someone needs a reason to advertise a product they use.

UNLESS it helps a community. For example, charity shops, Firefox, etc.

JC 2K3 · 31-12-2006 6:15pm

I personally try and remove logos from items/clothing if I can't avoid buying it.

Bateman · 31-12-2006 7:01pm

JC 2K3 wrote:

I personally try and remove logos from items/clothing if I can't avoid buying it.

Why's that? If it wasn't for them, you wouldn't have it.

zstar43 · 04-01-2007 3:34am

Everyone is saying you can get a&f all over Ireland you can't get it anywhere except america!!all the rest are fakes obviously the first a&f store outside america will be in dundrum town centre rumoured feb/march?? and people here saying they got jeans in ireland a&f 180?? even the REAL abercrombie isn't that bad!! i've got loadsa stuff directly from the site and when my friend went over to the fifth avenue branch in NY A&f nd AE rok!!!

JC 2K3 · 04-01-2007 11:22am

Bateman wrote:

Why's that? If it wasn't for them, you wouldn't have it.

What's your point?

I pay my hard earned money for products. I don't believe displaying a logo is a sign of prestige or an indicator of absolutely anything about me and by displaying the logo I'm giving the company free advertising, so fúck that.

Umaro · 04-01-2007 1:00pm

I pay my hard earned money for products. I don't believe displaying a logo is a sign of prestige or an indicator of absolutely anything about me and by displaying the logo I'm giving the company free advertising, so fúck that.

Never mind the fact that a group of investors put more "hard earned money" than you'll ever see at risk to set up their company? Maybe you should go look for some capital so you can make your own clothes?

Everyone is saying you can get a&f all over Ireland you can't get it anywhere except america!!all the rest are fakes obviously the first a&f store outside america will be in dundrum town centre rumoured feb/march??

Eh obviously not, the London store is opening in spring, they have it built and they're recruiting as we speak. I don't expect to see a store in Ireland til 2009.

and people here saying they got jeans in ireland a&f 180?? even the REAL abercrombie isn't that bad!!

Jeez - you ever heard of a mark-up?

A&f nd AE rok!!!

Go back to Bebo.

Owen · 04-01-2007 1:08pm

zstar43 wrote:

Everyone is saying you can get a&f all over Ireland you can't get it anywhere except america!!all the rest are fakes obviously the first a&f store outside america will be in dundrum town centre rumoured feb/march?? and people here saying they got jeans in ireland a&f 180?? even the REAL abercrombie isn't that bad!! i've got loadsa stuff directly from the site and when my friend went over to the fifth avenue branch in NY A&f nd AE rok!!!

Congrats on being an idiot. There are plenty of stores, selling a limited amount of genuine A&F stock. BTW, I bought a pair of A&F jeans on 5th avenue for 140 dollars, so it would stand to reason they'd be 140 Euro upwards if they were imported. T shirts in A&F 50 dollars, Hoodie was 160 Dollars.

JC 2K3 · 04-01-2007 1:46pm

Umaro wrote:

Never mind the fact that a group of investors put more "hard earned money" than you'll ever see at risk to set up their company? Maybe you should go look for some capital so you can make your own clothes?

How the hell does that mean that I should give them free advertising? Just because they risked money to set up a company doesn't mean I should advertise for them. If part of the payment for the clothes included you having to advertise the name on the clothes you bought then fair enough(I probably wouldn't buy these clothes personally), but considering the prices of clothing made by these "prestigious brands" I don't think it's at all fair for them to expect you to advertise for them also.

If the product was good quality, didn't use their logo on their clothing, didn't use sweatshop labour to make them and was reasonably priced then I might consider buying if I liked a particular item. Unfortunately, Abercrombie does not fulfill the last 3 of these conditions and therefore I will not and would urge people not to, but it's up to them in the end.

seth_dakota · 04-01-2007 5:27pm

ned78 wrote:

Blut, that's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. Do you genuinely think a main street franchise such as Gasoline would be selling counterfeit goods and risking their entire chain?

Blut's right, Ned...

A&F doesn't license, franchise, or sell-off excess stock into Ireland (or Europe for that matter); these shops (Gasoline, etc.) are selling A&F product illegally (at best) and are more than likely selling counterfeit A&F (whether they know it or not), because there is no way they have authorization from A&F. A&F will be opening a store in London in March '07... That flagship store and the company's own websites are the only source (other than the US and Canada stores) for guaranteed A&F product.

And please don't even consider eBay- that is one way to pretty much ensure that you are purchasing counterfeit product... and eBay won't help you because they make their money from the sales regardless of authenticity. They will direct you to A&F for a letter or verification, but A&F cannot possibly focus enough resources to accommodate every sucker who's been duped on eBay.

Abercrombie and Fitch in Ireland

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