A&F

So a couple of years ago, Abercrombie & Fitch got their pee-pee shwacked:

In April 2005, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California finalized a  settlement of Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores.  A&F had to pay $40 million to several thousand minority and female plaintiffs who charged the company with discrimination. A&F also had to institute a range of policies and programs to promote diversity among its workforce and to prevent discrimination based on race or gender.  A monitor will regularly evaluate and report on the company's compliance with the provisions of the consent decree.  These provisions include:

• "Benchmarks" for hiring and promotion of women, Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Americans. These benchmarks are goals, rather than quotas, and the company will be required to report on its progress toward these goals at regular intervals;
• A prohibition on targeting fraternities, sororities, or specific colleges for recruitment purposes;
• Advertising of available positions in publications targeting minorities of both genders;
• A new Office and Vice President of Diversity, responsible for reporting to the company's chief executive officer on the company's progress toward fair employment practices;
• The hiring of twenty-five recruiters who will focus on and seek women and minority employees.
• Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Diversity Training for all employees with hiring authority;
• Revision of Performance Evaluations for managers, making progress toward diversity goals a factor in their bonuses and compensation;
• A new internal complaint procedure; and
• The company's marketing materials will reflect diversity by including members of minority racial and ethnic groups.

The info above comes from Wikipedia which means it's absolutely true.  I want to bring something up really important though.  Have you been inside an Abercrombie & Fitch store lately?  What is up with the crazy loud music and the heavy marine layer of cologne and perfume floating in the air?  The only redeeming quality of the overpowering music and cologne is that you could do the crop dusting fart thing in their store for as long and as loud as you'd like and no one would ever notice - not even the worker girl that needs permission from the store manager so you can enter the fitting room.


I do like some of their clothing but dang, the freaking shopping bags they give you are enough to make you stop shopping there.  Or go workout.  What guy wants to walk around holding a shopping bag with a half naked dude on it?  We got this one shopping bag recently that had a picture of a dude fully nuded up.  At least that photo was taken such that none of his twigs or berries were showing.  Very considerate of you A&F.


Now I fully realize that I may have surpassed A&F's target audience (18-22 years old) by a couple of years.  And by "years" I mean "decades."  Maybe that's why they're purposely fumigating me out of their store with that rancid cologne like a dang mosquito spraying truck on a muggy Alabama highway ridding the county of its unofficial state bird.  Carol is usually an enthusiastic shopper and she even refuses to go in their store now because of the massive barrage on her senses.


And so what's my point?  Online shopping is awesome.