Kevin Marshall's America » Business http://www.kevinmarshallonline.com/blog Musing & misadventures of a writer, comedian, and local treasure Thu, 13 Nov 2014 00:17:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 Businesses their own worst enemy, here and downstate http://www.kevinmarshallonline.com/blog/2011/09/12/businesses-their-own-worst-enemy-here-and-downstate/ http://www.kevinmarshallonline.com/blog/2011/09/12/businesses-their-own-worst-enemy-here-and-downstate/#comments Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:35:35 +0000 http://blog.timesunion.com/marshall/?p=6064 I often harp on a point that many local businesses are their own worst enemy and that their efforts to portray themselves as victims in need of rescue is not only ridiculous but often indicative of their inherent problems: in particular, they don’t know what a business is and don’t know [...]]]> I often harp on a point that many local businesses are their own worst enemy and that their efforts to portray themselves as victims in need of rescue is not only ridiculous but often indicative of their inherent problems: in particular, they don’t know what a business is and don’t know how to run it.

Well, even the big city’s got this special brand of blues, as evidenced by the petition to have the St. Mark Bookshop’s rent lowered from its previously agreed to price they signed off on in a lease agreement with their landlord. More from Choire Sicha (who is seriously one of my favorite people that I don’t know personally) of The Awl:

“I encourage you petition-signers to go to your own landlords—during the first quarter of the lease that you just signed—and ask for a rent reduction. See how that goes. Yeah. If the bookstore wants to become a non-profit bookstore, let’s file that paperwork and do this thing. (I’ll help!) But this odd public-private partnership “public good” conception of a commercial business is giving me the willies a little.”

Agreed. It’s nice and sweet to get all wistful about stuff like books, but business is still business.

Though I will say that all this is not nearly as frustrating and unintentionally hilarious as all the pining for Border’s, the big corporate chain that shuttered more local businesses than it opened and then became a victim of its own mismanagement.

RELATED: AOA recently had an interesting interview with Susan Novotny, owner of The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza and Market Block Books in downtown Troy, about what local indie book stores could, should, and/or aren’t doing to survive.

]]> http://www.kevinmarshallonline.com/blog/2011/09/12/businesses-their-own-worst-enemy-here-and-downstate/feed/ 22 Abercrombie & Fitch sells push-up bikini tops for eight-year-olds http://www.kevinmarshallonline.com/blog/2011/03/28/abercrombie-fitch-makes-padded-bras-for-eight-year-olds/ http://www.kevinmarshallonline.com/blog/2011/03/28/abercrombie-fitch-makes-padded-bras-for-eight-year-olds/#comments Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:00:21 +0000 http://blog.timesunion.com/marshall/?p=4669 Girls, ever wish you had more cleavage to show off? Want that sexy look on the beach? Looking for a bikini top that will emphasize your bust?

Also, are you eight years old?

Before you get upset, I’m every bit as grossed out as you are, and I’m not the one positing these questions.

Perennial [...]]]>

A&F's controversial "Triangle" (formerly push-up) for 8-year-olds.

Girls, ever wish you had more cleavage to show off? Want that sexy look on the beach? Looking for a bikini top that will emphasize your bust?

Also, are you eight years old?

Before you get upset, I’m every bit as grossed out as you are, and I’m not the one positing these questions.

Perennial d-bag clothing company and LFO lyric Abercrombie and Fitch recently unveiled a new item in their Abercrombie Kids catalogue: padded bikini tops for girls as young as 7 and 8 years old. The tops were originally labeled “push-up,” but have since been re-branded as “triangle tops” after numerous complaints and publicy outcry over the company’s attempt to cash in on the sexualization of children that nearly qualify as toddlers.

I can’t emphasize enough that the company’s only reaction was to simply re-name the top rather than take it off the market.

It’s one thing to market sex to teens. Sex has been marketed to teenagers in both subtle and brazen means for decades. There’s a line, however, where questionable marketing descends into pedophilia. That line is well above the age of eight. The fact that such a product so ethically despicable – borderline pedophilia, some would say – could go from conception all the way to the shelf speaks to a culture within the company itself that is, to put it kindly, completely braindead and devoid of rationale.

The only response from the company so far has been to re-name the tops. I’d love to hear from them, so I’ll pose this question both to them and to Kevin Marshall’s Americans (my readers), who can feel free to climb into the heads of A&F execs to answer the following question:

Abercrombie & Fitch: what the Hell are you thinking?

UPDATE 10:14am – reader HomeTown Girl was kind enough to get us the A&F CEO’s contact info:

Mr. Michael S. Jeffries
CEO
Abercrombie & Fitch
6301 Fitch Path
New Albany, OH 43054
United States
Phone: 614-283-6500

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