The Real Abercrombie & Fitch. Anybody Else Here Remember Them?

[OregonJohnny]

I wish it was still like the old original A&F, same with Eddie Bauer. I actually worked at both Abercrombie and Eddie Bauer when I was a teenager. Of the two, EB is closer to it's origins than A&F, and MUCH more into customer service. (A&F actually discourages it's employees from speaking to customers unless spoken to.)

The stories I've read in this thread regarding the treatment received at the old original A&F reminds me of the Holland & Holland store in NYC that I visited as a wide-eyed 18-year-old on vacation. I was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, and they took me up in the elevator to the gun room. There I was asked what kind of hunting I was interested in. When I said I thought it would be cool to go on a lion safari one day, I was quickly told the order in which you are to hunt in Africa, with lion being the final quarry. They then opened up the "used" gun cabinet and let me handle a used H&H over-under shotgun. I got a look at the price tag hanging off of it. I seem to remember it read $80,000. I quickly yet carefully handed it back to the gentleman and said, "Thank you."

 

[paintballdude902]

my great aunt and uncle used to shop there alot

my father went in from time to time to get a shirt or something as a gift to himself

my dad has my great uncle normans fly rod, we did some research on it and found out that it was made by orvis and sold thru a&f in like 1950

 

[CoRoMo]

Remember the movie "Man's Favorite Sport" (1964) with Rock Hudson?

In that movie, Rock Hudson worked for A&F as an 'expert' fisherman.

 

[solvability]

Talking about Holland and Holland - my Dad took me to H&H in London to see what it was like (no, we could not afford it even then when they were just 40k per gun and you were expected to buy a pair). It was really wonderful, amazingly small shop and very polite - smelled great - I actually bought a cleaning kit there - it was pretty expensive even then, but I like it. I made a habit of wandering in to gun stores wherever I am in the world - only place I was treated rudely was in Austria - generally had good gun conversations with nice folks who were interested in shooting sports and their counterparts in the rest of the world.

 

[scarr25]

Abercrombie & Fitch

I sold fishing tackle at A&F in 1976 before they went Chap 11. It was an amazing place. The 7th floor had the fishing on one side and guns on the other. In the thread a gentleman who bought a 30-06 when he was a young man recalled the salesman's name, Joe Marchica. Joe was a really great guy and had a wealth of knowledge about guns.

One Saturday afternoon it was particularly quiet when Lee Marvin came strolling in to buy something for his son. My (and everyone else) jaw must hit the floor. He sat down on the desk and just talked to us for about 45 minutes.

I still have a couple of rods I bought while working there and a box of beautiful salmon flies. It was truly a great place to experience.

 

[solvability]

Joe was particularly concerned that I would care for the rifle and went over waxing the stock and keeping the gun in nice condition - the gun remains in excellent condition but with the honest wear of hunting it.

The shotgun I purchased at A&F SFO was purchased from a fellow named Norman Dutt - helpful but less colorful to me than Marchica.

I loved the stores but NYC was far and away the best - I stopped in at one in Dallas at one point it was rather haughty and modern - disappointed, but that may have been after the changeover.

 

[Sol]

The Dicks in my area is slowly becoming a future A&F. You could get all sorts of ammo and long guns.

Now the stock is spotty at best and the ammo is slim pickens. If you want some yoga pants, shoes or a crappy kayak go to Dicks.

 

[CoRoMo]

Six years exactly to the day?

One of the more oddly (precisely?) timed thread resurrections that I've seen here.

scarr25... welcome to THR.

Man's Favorite Sport (1964) was a great movie. Gonna have to watch that one again now.

 

[Jim Watson]

On a smaller scale, I once shopped at Jaeger's when a business trip to Philadelphia took me to the area. It was a fine place. I later checked out the rump organization at Dunn's in Tennessee and was not much impressed.

 

[Lycidas Janwor]

Wow, I never knew this about A&F. Sounds like it was a fantastic store back in the day. Too bad it's now a fashion store that caters to the teenage mall crowd.

 

[tactikel]

As a teenager back in the '60s me and my buddy would visit the A&F in Chicago, weekdays, mid afternoon. We could shoulder a Griffen & Howe, gawk at Winchester 21s, peruse a case full of Lugers, Pythons, Walters, S&W 29s, and Hi-Powers!! We were in heaven, after 20-30 min the salesman would shoo us out. Those were the days!!

 

[HankB]

As a youngster, my Dad once took me to "The Gun Room" at the downtown Chicago Abercrombie & Fitch. (Guessing this was in the '60s and I was still in grammar school.)

I was too young - by only a couple of years - to really know the details about what I was looking at, but I remember all the racks and counters of guns as being impressive.

I also remember there were only two other people in The Gun Room at the time - one salesman and one customer - and the air of hostility coming off of them was palpable. Even as a youngster, I knew where I was unwanted - their glares were obvious. And let me hasten to add, if I were misbehaving in the least, my father would have set me straight right then and there.

No - Dad explained that something was going on that they didn't want anyone else around to see or hear; to this day, I've no idea what. But after only a short stay, we left, never to return.

Never had that sort of experience from any other gun shop.

 

[CLP]

Wow, I never knew this about A&F. Sounds like it was a fantastic store back in the day. Too bad it's now a fashion store that caters to the teenage mall crowd.

Well, it's not the original A&F. The brand was bought and a new A&F reincarnated. Sorta like Armalite. Except the latter puts out good quality sporting rifles and the former makes thong underwear for nine year olds.

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

NYC used to be home of a lot of sportsman-gun emporiums. Although not exactly in the same vein as A&F, I would have loved to see Bannermans.

 

[Legionnaire]

Nice thread resurrection.

Their clientele has shifted from Teddy Roosevelt to Barney Frank.

That made me laugh!

To a lesser extent, same thing happened to Banana Republic. I was a big fan of their hand drawn catalogs back in the early 1980s, and ordered many safari style shirts from them. The brand died when the company was bought by the Gap.

 

[Sav .250]

Along came the internet and stores like A/F and other mail order legends got pushed to the back of the bus. Life goes on.

 

[g.willikers]

Memories.
I visited their NY store during a trip to the World's Fair in 1964.
That world is long gone.
Too bad.

 

[Acera]

I remember being in their Houston store in the 80s when a cab dropped off a roughneck just off the gulf rigs, still in his coveralls and carrying a duffel bag.

The salesman I knew and I were talking and he said I bet he is wanting a vacation. Me being a poor college kid had time to watch the sales crew go to work on him.

By the time that man left the store (by town car they had arraigned), they had him in a completely new set of clothes+ extras, new rifle, new luggage, etc. and all he needed to leave that day for an African safari. Said he went straight to the airport from there.

This thread resurrection from many years ago reminds me I still need to dig up that AC&F scope, LOL.

 

[natman]

Along came the internet and stores like A/F and other mail order legends got pushed to the back of the bus. Life goes on.

I get your point, but the original Abercrombie & Fitch went bankrupt in 1977. I doubt the internet had much to do with it.

 

[Cee Zee]

In that movie, Rock Hudson worked for A&F as an 'expert' fisherman.

That movie made A&F something we all knew about if only vaguely. I knew they sold quality outdoor equipment. That's about it. There was also some mention of the store on an episode of MASH. Snooty Charles, the doctor I can't remember his complete name, ordered stuff from them for winter. He got a parka and gloves I believe and maybe some insulated underwear. I know they portrayed the store as being high class.

We didn't have the major league stores like that in eastern KY. But we had gunsmiths who could order lots of stuff and fit you for a shotgun and do it well. The other stuff, like parkas etc., started becoming available around the country after the really bad winters of the late 1970's. They may have been around before that. The fact you could buy stuff like that in other places may have done in the mail order business for A&F. It pretty much did in the whole "wish book" orders people used to make not that long ago. I remember my parents pouring over the Sears catalog when it came out and they ordered stuff from that catalog too. Then big box department stores became big in the late 60's and early 70's. My guess is that had more to do with their demise than anything.

 

[cpt-t]

It was 1968 and I was headed to Viet Nam again and the plane broke down at Travis AFB. The Air Force told all of us to come back the next day. I went in to San Francisco, and rode the Cable Cars and ate lunch at Fisher`s Wharf. And then just as a fluk I took a Taxi to the Abercombie & Fitch gun store that I had always heard so much about. The Salesmens were all dressed in very formal dark suits and so were all the customers. And I was dressed in my TW`s the Armys Summer Uniform and I felt sorta of out of place for I had never been in such a Grand Gun Store befor. A saleman asked if he could help me and I just told him right up front loud enough that every one could hear. That I was just a US ARMY INFANTRY SOLDIER that was on my way to Viet Nam. And I doughted, I could afford to buy any thing in their store but I had heard about it, and just wanted to see it for my self. At that time another store staff member came forth and said to me just as loudly. It would be his pleasure to show me any thing in the store and started off by handing me the most beautifully engraved Double Rifle. I had ever seen, much less held in my hands. I must have handled 15 or 20 Rifles and Shotguns all the same quality and price range as the first Double Rifle I was shown. And I acutally got to hold a real Patterson Colt in my hands. The Staff could not have been nicer to me, and all of the real Customers that were there that day were the same way. They all shook my hand and wished me well. When I was leaving, a couple in their sevenity wearing Cowboy Hats and Levis from Fort Worth TX stoped me. And the Lady Gave me a hug and a kiss on my cheek and told me to for Gods sakes be carefull. The Old Cowboy shook my hand and told me to also be carefull, but he left something in my hand and with a wink He said to have a good last night here in the USA on them. I thanked them both and when I had walked out to the elevators, I opened my hand and there were four one hundred dollar bills folded up laying there looking back at me. I had a great last night, stayed at the Hilton I belive, and I ate the best steak the hotel had to offer. Then I went to a place call the North Beach section of town to meet some of my friends, they were having a large Prayer Meeting there that night. It was nothing like anything I had ever been to back home in Oklahoma. I didn`t meet the same type of people at the San Francisco Airport coming back from Viet Nam.
ken

 

[FLIGHT762]

I owned a Franchi M 48 12 ga. 3" magnum shotgun in the 1970's. Stamped into the barrel along with all of the pertinent information was "Abercrombie & Fitch New York".

 

[StrawHat]

I still have a couple of fly rods I bought, one from A&F and one from Eddie Bauer. Neither gets used as much as they used to but I still keep them

Kevin

 

[Cee Zee]

Great story Ken. Just great. Thanks for your service too BTW.

 

[burk]

Yep, used to be one in Houston. They were selling high end outdoors stuff - actually had fly fishing stuff when the only folks who fly fished in Houston were those who vacationed in Colorado, etc., while Academy was just a one-shop military surplus store with stupid commercials on the UHF stations. I think it rather indisputable that if transformation is a must, Academy's has been much better.

I use to be the Hardy Fly Reel rep in the MW and we held a "Hardy Days" promotion where Fisherman would bring in there old reels and we would clean them and date them (Hardy has been making fly reels in the UK since the late 1800's). A man came in and said I have my Fathers old Hardys, and opened a reel case with Eight assorted Hardy Perfects, LRH's, and Featherweights. They were all in A & F proprietary leather reel pouches from the 40's and 50's. His father was John Voelker, who wrote with the pen name Robert Traver, and published some great fishing books, and the novel "Anatomy of a Murder" which was made into a movie.

Much of the same can be said about Eddie Bauers, a store founded by a hunting guide that is now a big contributor to the Animal Rights movement. I worked at one of their stores in college that had a great hunting clothing and Fly Fishing dept.