A Proposal To Help Abercrombie & Fitch.

[MineralMan]

A fund could be set up that people can donate to by an organization familiar with the needs of disadvantaged people. From that fund, gift cards for A&F could be purchased and handed out to homeless people, single moms, and other disadvantaged people. That would let them go to the A&F nearest them and pick out nice, new clothing that suited their needs and tastes. The employees there could use their keen sense of style and sizes to help each gift card holder to find suitable clothing from the A&F inventory.

It's a win-win thing. Generous people could donate, the disadvantaged would be able to purchase nice clothing that would help them in their search for jobs or other needs, and the employees at A&F would have the noble privilege of assisting those nice people in making their selections.

The only difficulty I can see is getting the people who are given the gift cards to the A&F stores. Bus passes or subway passes would make that easier in most areas where A&F does business.

Doesn't that sound like a great solution? The more gift cards, the better A&F would be able to serve people, I think.

[MineralMan]

1. Each gift card should be large enough for

a complete outfit, of course.

[KamaAina]

2. Awesome! Tweet it to them!

#FitchTheHomeless

In many cities, the transportation issue can be solved through use of bus tokens or day passes. In others, prepaid smart cards such as NYC's MetroCard would work.

Then again, in places like NYC and SF, A&F does business within walking distance of large populations of homeless people.

[dballance]

3. Screw A&F. Why would you want to give them more business?

I fail to see how buying gift cards from such a reprehensible person as the A&F CEO and thereby increasing his business is the proper reward for his arrogance. Buy all the gift cards you want to donate to people in need. Just not A&F cards.

[MineralMan]

4. Yes, but they'd get to serve all of those people.

It seems appropriate, I think, given their attitude in general.

[vankuria]

6. I agree, it's an awful idea

As the CEO of A&F has stated, they cater to the style needs of a very small segment of the population (young, hip, thin, etc.,at least for woman anyways). Do you think there will be plenty of single mom's under size 10 that want to dress like teenagers to go on job interviews? Also, from what I've heard the clothing is very expensive so unless the gifts cards are very generous, how much do you think a disadvantaged family of 4 could get at A&F? And do they even sell kid's clothing? As for the A&F employees doing something good for the disadvantaged by helping them select clothing, I have a feeling that anyone who works there is not going to be to emphatic to people down on their luck and this could be a horrible experience for the shoppers.

A better idea is giving folks gift cards to Walmart or any store with good prices (I know Walmart is hated here at DU, please don't throw me off, but there are great bargains and the clothes come in a variety of styles, sizes, etc. for every occassion). A $100 gift card to Walmart is going to be more practical and go a lot further than that same amount at A&F.

And why would anyone want to give business to A&F, after what that stupid CEO said is his companies philosophy? I personally would love to see them go out of business.

[KamaAina]

8. He's being sarcastic about the employees

they take a dim view of anyone who doesn't fit "the look" violating the sacred ground of their sales floor. So an influx of scraggly street people would ruin their whole day. Which is the point.

[vankuria]

9. If that's the point

it's even worse. You're talking about a group of people that are already marginalized by society, so to send them to a place where they will be treated badly, laughed at and made to feel even worse about themselves is reprehensible. The whole idea for this is to teach A&F a lesson, but we shouldn't do it by exploiting poor people.

[KamaAina]

7. KurtNYC's Photoshop challenge

Shame A&F by 'Shopping the most uncool people on the planet, like Darth Cheney and Kim Jong Boo Boo, into their clothes.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022845895