I was there with Michelle and our friend Tim. Tim was buying jeans. A&F sells brand new jeans that look like they’ve had the living hell beat out of them, replete with grass stains and patched holes. You, too, can own such excellent clothing for a mere $70.00. And, what’s more … you can be a walking billboard for A&F by buying a tee shirt for $25! But wait, they’re a real steal on sale for $20! And, for $40, you can buy a pair of ripped up cargo shorts that look like they have been washed, dryed, and left wadded up in your drawer so they’re all wrinkled. Now, imagine shopping in a store run by 19 year olds with house and trance music cranked to eleven over the speakers. I like this kind of music, but not when it’s assulting me in a place whose very existence I find an affront to people’s intelligence.

I was wearing my “SPAM” shirt and got lots of looks and comments from the proto-yuppies in the store. This made me feel good, considering all the clothing on my body cost less than a single pair of their stupid jeans. All I could think about was the fact that some poor schmuck in a third-world “economic development” region assembled this overpriced dreck and barely made the equivalent of 80 cents a day. This is the reality of most mass-produced textiles these days, so my Target or Wal-Mart clothes are not necessarily any worse or better than the A&F, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo, Nautica brands as far as labor is concerned. However, if I’m going to exploit people, I might as well make sure that the middlemen don’t make as much on something as stupid and irrelevant as a “brand identity”.

We live in a free society where people can and will buy stupid things (cf. eBay). This is capitalism in action, for better or for worse. I still think it’s insanity, though. Anyways, Tim is happy with his pants, but even he could have done without the rest of the store. He claims that the jeans fit great and are quite comfortable, almost as if he had already had them for several years already. Fine, I’ll buy that. But are they worth upwards of $50? Not in my estimation.