Abercrombie & Fitch
Interestingly, jetsetter/CEO Mike Jeffries might have had a hard time figuring out what to do; according to The Wall Street Journal, he sent a letter to New York mayor Michael Bloomberg asking for "leadership and guidance" on the matter. Jeffries is known for making megabucks, and shareholders assumed they were receiving leadership and guidance from him. Ironically, bedbugs are jet-setters, too -- but they prefer hitchhiking when they travel. Watch your shopping bags closely!
Abercrombie's bedbug fiasco only affects those two unfortunate locations, and the company seems to be performing the necessary treatments to quickly return to business as usual. The first store affected was set to reopen on Saturday. Many shoppers, particularly teens, have short attention spans, so I doubt this will leave a lasting impression. And granted, this sort of problem could have happened to any old retailer. Shareholders may be grossed out, but they have bigger problems to fret about, like Abercrombie's overpaid CEO, and the company's struggles to lure teen customers back from rivals like Aeropostale
Over the years, plenty of consumer-facing companies have dealt with highly publicized weirdness in their stores, and come out just fine in the end. Yum! Brands'
Still, the bedbug incident couldn't have happened to a nicer store. For a retailer that's been accused of everything from racial discrimination to rating employees on their faces and banishing "zeroes" to the back ... well, karma sure bites, doesn't it?