Pick-A-Day

July 2007
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Acoustically Exhausting

A&F StoreI headed to College Mall today in order to buy some clothing that I wouldn’t be willing to buy used—the types of things I was buying were things I would have picked up at Macy’s, but due to Macy’s abysmal performance in New York City, my lifelong boycott of the chain prevented me from buying the clothing there.

I ended up buying pajamas at Sears—with the kind of sales clerk who is annoying. She told the man in front of me to sign his credit card with a Sharpie: “It’s just like a magic marker but with a point on it; That’s why it’s called a Sharpie.” She tried to sell me a Sears Card and I told her not to try and sell me that shit.

After that I wandered the mall a bit: into Old Navy and out of Old Navy. I also wandered into Abercrombie and Fitch where I looked at the clothing and tried to imagine the college-bound trust-fund freshmen who would have the money to buy lots of their clothing. After A&F stopped publishing their catalogue (thus ignoring the gay market) and started offending the Asians (such a minor part of their target market), they sort of became irrelevant to everybody but rich white teenagers with lots of money.

The thing that amazed me most about the store was the noise: sure they are being hip playing the current tunes, but gosh, do they really need to play the tunes so loudly. It had to be the noisiest store in the mall—pumping out the tunes as if it were the dance floor. I looked at stuff for about five minutes before giving up and exiting the store—and as I did so, I felt sorry for the clerks: to be surrounded by corporate hit radio all day long at work must be exhausting. They must leave the store and run to a silent room so that they can be alone with their thoughts.

A&F was pretty much the lowlight of the mall—other than the punk teen skateboarder who called me a faggot after staring me in the eyes and then called his 3 punk friends on his cell phone to tell them about the fucking faggot.

People really need to learn that they don’t need to shout when using their phones.

11 comments to Acoustically Exhausting

  • Ed

    I’ve never been to A&F I do like to look at the
    pictures as I go by. I still wish they had made a Super Target. Dude, you wear pajamas? Not that there is anything wrong with that.

  • Jul

    Tee hee, you sound like an old man. (I had the exact same reaction to the music the one and only time I walked into a A&F.)

    Now I’m curious – what did they do to offend Asians?

  • With the mood I’ve been in lately I probably would have gotten up in punk boys face and said, “Damn right I’m a faggot!” Then promptly gone all Elliot Ness at the end of The Untouchables on his a$$ by throwing him over the railing.

    Of course, I’d feel much better but probably end up in jail. *shrugs*

  • @ed: I never wear pajamas, but I have need to sleep not nude in the upcoming weeks.

    @jul: There was an A&F Asian T-Shirt incident. See Urban Legends for details.

    @cq: i flipped them off, which was probably something stupid to do. I should have just ignored him. The punk was obviously queer.

  • I think I see a new blog entry for myself regarding sleeping habits and blindness. 🙂 I think Ed will enjoy it, not so sure about TQE.

  • Ed

    I understand a shy penis. I don’t like strangers to see me naked. Now friends are not so bad. If they act shy then I will too.
    Yeah, CQ I like the recent Blog topic.

  • John and I were hunting for a pair of shoes during our visit to Bloomington in early May. We tried a few downtown retailers, including J.L. Waters, but we could not find what we were looking for.

    So we journeyed to the College Mall and found a great pair @ Smith Shoes. The service was friendly and, despite the mall location, we were able to support a local business. 🙂

  • @cq: Nice Entry.

    @Jul: It was a big deal in Bloomington when it happened; otherwise it might never have crossed my radar.

    @ed: I am very modest in the presence of others 🙂

    @Jerry: I shop at Smith Sport and Shoe as well.

  • Sun

    Hi, I’m curious: What did they do to offend Asians?

  • @sun: see the link to Urban Legends in an earlier comment. Basically they made t-shirts that reinforced unwanted stereotypes about Asians.