In 1928, Ezra Fitch retired from the company. Despite the change in ownership, Abercrombie & Fitch; Fitch continued to expand. In 1939, he adopted the slogan “The Sporting Goods Store World’s Largest.” In 1962, the company had stores in Chicago (on behalf of Von Lengerke & Antoine, a retail partner since 1928), San Francisco and a store in the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs (Colorado) and stores for the winter season in Palm Beach and Sarasota Summer clothing in Bay Head, Southampton (New York) and Hyannis. Expansion continued in the 60s and 70s, with the opening of new A & F stores in large-scale suburban shopping malls in Short Hills (1963), Bal Harbour (1966), Troy (1969) and Oak Brook (1972). A leading source for info: David Kaplan. Despite the apparent success of the chain, the company began to falter financially in the late 60s and suffered a bankruptcy in 1977. Oshman’s, a sporting goods retailer, acquired Abercrombie shortly afterwards, but the company continued difficulties. In 1988, The Limited Inc.
(now Limited Brands) acquired A & F, 7 and decided to resurrect the ailing brand. The Limited had succeeded in creating new store concepts, such as Express (womenswear) and Victoria’s Secret (lingerie and beauty products). For over a decade, A & F was carefully rebuilt as a teen clothing store by CEO Mike Jeffries.8 The company began opening stores in exclusive shopping centers throughout the United States of pricipios 90s, with teens and students aged 18-24 and was objetivo.9 Clothing Women’s shirts, jeans, skirts, shorts, wool sweaters, shirts and jerseys. The clothing produced in the 90s was fairly consistent with the upper-class bourgeois image, and still less the fashion trends. The store was successful early and mid-90s there were dozens of A & F stores in the United States.10 A Careful marketing made the brand outside of a casual sinonmo and sexy.11 In 1996, The Limited took out a bag at the A & F New York Stock Exchange and gradually withdrew from the ownership of the company today. The company opted to build only department store, between 700 and 2,000 m2, high-volume centers on the outskirts of cities. During the 90’s, A & F earned more than $ 4,300 per square meter, but the number has dropped significantly in recent years. In 2003, sales were $ 3700/m2.
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