Millennial Mercedes Wallace returns to Abercrombie & Fitch
Columbus Dispatch reporter Sheridan Hendrix talks to Mercedes Wallace, a millennial from Columbus, about her feelings about Abercrombie & Fitch.
Abercrombie & Fitch will open a new store at Jordan Creek Town Center, nine years after closing a previous store at the West Des Moines mall.
The Columbus, Ohio-based clothing chain plans to open in late fall, said Ali Phillips, a spokesman for Jordan Creek owner Brookfield Properties. The new store will be located on the mall’s ground floor across from the Apple Store, between the mall’s center and Dillard’s.
Annabella Williams, a spokeswoman for Abercrombie & Fitch, said there will be an Abercrombie Kids department in the store and that more details will be announced closer to the opening date.
Jordan Creek Town Center celebrated its 20th anniversary on August 4. Abercrombie & Fitch was one of the original tenants and had a store in a prime location on the upper floor near the center of the mall. But in January 2015, Abercrombie & Fitch and a neighboring Abercrombie Kids store closed when the company closed 60 low-revenue stores. The company also later closed a store in the Iowa City area at Coral Ridge Mall in 2019.
A Hollister youth clothing store, also owned by Abercrombie, will remain open in Jordan Creek.
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Abercrombie & Fitch became known in the 1990s and early 2000s for its upscale teen fashions, the scent of cologne that wafted through its stores, its dim lighting and its shirtless male greeters, and the company was associated with the stylish and popular teen romantic drama Dawson’s Creek.
But over time, the company was increasingly criticized for sexualizing teenagers and young adults and shunning potential customers who didn’t fit its elite image, according to a 2017 Forbes article titled “How Abercrombie & Fitch Went From Up-and-Coming to Out-of-touch.”
The brand fell into obscurity and closed hundreds of stores, but over the past three years the company has been in the midst of a turnaround as it now sells higher-quality clothing aimed at millennials, an age group in their late 20s to early 40s.
“The brand back then was a company that made casual jeans and T-shirts and really targeted a very specific youthful customer base,” Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Fran Horowitz told the Columbus Dispatch in an interview for a February article. “We’ve done a 180-degree turn from there.”
Philip Joens covers retail and real estate for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at 515-284-8184, [email protected] or on Twitter at @Philip_Joens.
