Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) is the latest New York City
business to learn the frustrating resiliency of bedbugs.
The teen retailer has just said earlier Friday that it will
reopen its Epic Hollister store in the Manhattan neighborhood of
SoHo Saturday after exterminating bedbugs there, only to have to
close another shop further downtown because of a "similar
problem."
The company said its Abercrombie & Fitch store located at
the South Street Seaport was temporarily closing its doors to deal
with it called a similar situation.
Bedbugs have become a growing plague in New York and other urban
areas. Commercial buildings aren't required to report bedbug
infestations in New York City, although Abercrombie said Friday it
requested guidance from the office of Mayor Michael Bloomberg on
how businesses should deal with the problem.
The company said its flagship Abercrombie & Fitch store on
Fifth Avenue store has been tested and isn't affected.
The Soho Hollister store closed earlier this week. The
40,000-square-foot store had opened just a year ago.
Abercrombie & Fitch has only recently started to shake poor
quarterly results, another problem it had trouble putting behind
it. In May, the company reported its first-quarter loss had
narrowed as same-store sales inched 1% higher. Its domestic
business suffered severely in the recession, but its international
performance has been stronger.
Shares were down 2% at $31.27 in recent trading. The stock has
risen 30% in the last year.
-By Joan E. Solsman, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2291;
joan.solsman@dowjones.com