Not too long ago, we asked the former Abercrombie & Fitch employees of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us what it was really like to work there in the early '00s. However, there were SO 👏 MANY 👏 SUBMISSIONS 👏 for the first post that we decided we needed to do a whole other one!!! Here's even more of what these former employees had to say...
1. "There was someone assigned during every shift to spritz each individual piece of clothing with the latest cologne once EVERY. 30. MINUTES."
2. "We had all-night inventories that would eventually devolve into some of the staff hooking up on the floor furniture. I seriously hope none of you sat on the couches by the fitting rooms."
3. "My job there was literally to sit in a chair at the entrance, read a magazine, and flirt with a male floor model."
4. "We could never wear sale items on the floor, and most of my income was constantly spent on buying new clothes."
5. "I had to wear flip-flops even in the dead of winter, and I lived in New York. Flip-flops in the snow, y’all. Super 'natural.'"
6. "There were literal diagrams of where we had to spray the cologne. Like 6 inches above the hem of pants, and 8 inches to the inside of a rug."
7. "I worked as a 'model' — what they called their sales associates — folding clothes at the front of the store, and it was my job to greet people who walked in. The only greeting I was allowed to use was 'Hey, how’s it goin'?' because I guess it seemed more 'cool and laid back' or whatever. I literally got yelled at by my manager once for going off-script and saying, 'Hey, welcome to Abercrombie' instead."
8. "They made us sign that we wouldn’t put on a specific amount of weight, like more than 10 pounds, from what you were when hired."
9. "One day my manager walked up to me and said, 'I KNOW your jeans are from Hollister and that’s against dress code. Go home and change.' I would take the bus to work and it was an hour trip one way, so I told her that I wasn’t going to do that. Instead, she gave me a sweater to wear around my waist and said if I did it again, I'd be fired."
10. "There was a required decibel that the music always had to be at (despite people constantly asking for it to be turned down)."
11. "They regularly took photos for ‘HR purposes’ — pretty sure they were checking our weight."
12. "It was my job to only say, 'How’s it going?' or 'What’s up?' at the front of the store. The first time someone asked for help, I was afraid I was going to get in trouble for talking to them!"
13. "We couldn’t wear much jewelry or anything black."
14. "My friend worked there and wasn't allowed to wear ponytails or buns. She even had to wash her hair in the sink once to put it down."
15. "We were required to 'introduce' people to our new fragrances at checkout by asking, 'Have you met Colden and Wakely?' (referring to the names of the colognes and perfumes)."
16. "Besides in the stores, they even had the perfume misters in the corporate offices. My friend worked there and claimed that he went nose blind to it eventually, but it was absolutely nauseating."
17. "At my store, everyone knew that people would bag up trash bags full of clothing, put them in the back, and then sell them on eBay."
18. "A friend of mine got hired there simply because he knew the manager. He didn't fit the 'look,' so he was always scheduled at times when nobody higher up would find out or be visiting."
19. "We had a poster in the back with pictures of what was acceptable to wear. One time, I wore the wrong flip-flops and was told to go home or work the register and stay behind the counter barefoot."
20. And lastly, "I applied to be a manager and was told I was too old...I was 23."
Be sure to follow the BuzzFeed Community on Facebook and Twitter for your chance to be featured in an upcoming post!!!
Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.