Astley & Fitch

A few weeks ago at a mall beyond my usual realm, I walked into an Abercrombie store to see what they had these days. Guess they've dropped the "Fitch", I thought to myself. There was a lot of faux-wear, seams on the outside, and plaids that didn't interest me among the clothes. The shortness and skinniness of the pants and shirts didn't strike me as unusual since I'm forever wandering into petite sections by mistake.

As I walked further in, scanning the clothes laid out on tables and the promotional posters of sexy half-naked men and women, I thought, Damn, these clothes are all really small. Maybe they've changed their target audience to the 0 to 4 crowd. Then I finally saw a sign that read: Abercrombie Kids. Really? Are you fucking kidding me? Damn. I walked out.

Around a corner and across the hall about fifty feet away, I spotted Abercrombie & Fitch. I went in and it had the same sexy posters and the same clothes, just larger.

A couple weeks after that, I was on another shopping adventure in a different cardinal direction. I spotted another Abercrombie store and was reasonably certain it was the kid's store. I poked my head in briefly to confirm my thought because I didn't want to have to walk back if I had misremembered which was which.

Further down the hall, I walked into Abercrombie & Fitch. They were not playing Christmas music which was a glorious reprieve. I looked at sweaters and scarves and soaked in the familiar pop tune. The really familiar pop tune. They were playing Rick Astley's "Together Forever." It wasn't "Never Gonna Give You Up," but I still stopped and looked around waiting for someone to tell me I'd been Rickrolled. I wandered through the rest of the store thinking what an odd music choice that was for their store soundtrack. The moment I crossed the store's threshold, the music switched from "Together Forever" to a recent pop tune. Weird.

I'm not paranoid though. much.


3 years ago on TTaT: 46. East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North