A generation or so ago, Abercrombie & Fitch ranked as one of the coolest places for teens and twenty-somethings to shop.
Founded in Manhattan in 1892, it was originally an elite seller of sporting goods and apparel, whose customers included adventurers such as Theodore Roosevelt and admiral Richard Byrd as well as Ernest Hemingway.
In the 1980s, Abercrombie was sold to The Limited, Columbus, Ohio, entrepreneur Les Wexner’s collection of mall-based specialty clothing stores. Wexner set about updating the brand and aiming it at younger consumers. Some critics thought the update went too far, with shirtless models parading at new store openings and seductive photos on its billboards and shopping bags, but for several decades, Abercrombie wear was ubiquitous.
By this century, though, Abercrombie had been eclipsed by other youth-focused brands, and in 2018 it began closing a number of stores in cities and shopping malls across the country. That includes Briarwood, where a longstanding Abercrombie store closed in May.
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Reader Ed Vielmetti reports that Kasoa African Market on Platt Rd. has closed. The market, which specialized in foods and fabrics from West Africa, opened in 2015, moving from a previous location in a warehouse on Trade Center Dr. In August, Vielmetti emailed, it was “completely empty. No sign to say goodbye even but a for-lease sign.”
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