I can't complain but sometimes I still do
This is a very fascinating story about the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch, Mike Jeffries, that confirms just about every evil theory you might have about the retail chain. See, there's a reason why I shop at Target.
posted by Steve Hyden @ 10:49 AM
I can't complain but sometimes I still do
My name is Steve and I'm a newspaper reporter and writer living in northeast Wisconsin, which is just below the armpit created by the bulk of the state and the peninsula. I don't live in the actual armpit, which is Green Bay, which is a place where fat people sit on their porches and watch traffic go by when the Packers aren't in season. I live in Appleton, a place where slightly less fat people do slightly more interesting things, like watch NASCAR, which is traffic with better camera work. I like living here 79 percent of the time. I fancy myself a deep thinker, an iconoclast, a man who can enjoy both high and low culture. Think Chuck Klosterman with a dose of Jack Nicholson from "Five Easy Pieces." However, I suspect I am not nearly as cool as I think I am. I may in fact be a dork. For example, look at how I described myself a few sentences earlier. What can I say? I'm the guy who started listening to the Clash when he was 13 not because he was reacting against the repressive Republican regime he had lived under most of his life, but because John Cusack wore a Clash T-shirt in "Say Anything..."
12 Comments:
That is the creepiest looking CEO I have ever seen.
He's a cross between Dolph Lundgren and Sloth from "Goonies."
thomas... you nailed it.
He generates the kind of comic uneasiness only approached by "Leprechaun 2"
Steve, no offense, but the quote you highlighted from the article applies to your own column, doesn't it?Simply substitute movies, music, television, or other cultural constructs that are important to you in that quote. The only thing really shocking about the article is its painful honesty.
Yikes! I hope that's not true. When it comes to the stuff I write, it's not a matter of "don't" belong for most people, it's "don't want to" belong. I'd love if more people dug what I dug, because I think it's the best stuff out there. Otherwise I wouldn't write about it. I'd keep it to myself.
I doubt Steve is sitting there saying, "If you own a Michael Bolton CD, you can't possibly hang with me and my Robert Pollard loving crew." Even if he's elitist, he's not exclusionary in a human sense because of what he perceives to be good or bad as a tastemaker. But AFCO dude is basically saying, "You ain't pretty, you shouldn't be wearing my clothes," and the residual effects of that within the high school caste system can be pretty damning. That's more or less what I find alarming, not his marketing campaign. I won't dispute it's damn brilliant.
so robert pollard is playing in sf in about a month. stoked.
Here's the difference between me and Abercrombie and Fitch: No 14-year-old girl on the planet is starving herself in order to become a fan of Robert Altman movies or Guided by Voices albums. Because liking that stuff won't make you cool. It might make you cool about other pop culture geeks, but we're talking about (at best) 2 percent of the population. Most of the time you can't find anybody who knows what the hell you are talking about.
As far as 98 percent of the population goes, what I like and write about is irrelevant. Now, I happen to think 98 percent of the population is wrong. And they think I'm either a dork or an elitist. But I would never exclude somebody from joining "my club" or whatever. I so rarely find people who like what I like that I practically break down in tears (or, in the case of girls, marriage proposals) when I do.
I'd shop there over walmart. at least this guy lays it all out there on the table/gurnee/bed.
i tend to think this CEO isn't much different from other CEO's..
actually the difference is that this CEO actually tells us his horrible inner thoughts things flat out...
opps. i still need an editor.
.and congrats. this blog seems to have over taken "turd" as the most commented...
Steve, thanks for really allowing my day to fly by. I posted the AF link at the WOXY boards I frequent and it's been a field day ever since. Oh, and I got a little bit of work done ... I think.
Sloth.. love.. Chunk.
That guy is no one I'd like to see in real life.
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