Important programming notes:

Less than ONE WEEK until The Simple Year (2) begins.  Make sure you stop by next week to read about Kandice and her upper middle class family as they will redefine “living the American dream”. Over the next year, they will document shedding their swank neighborhood and all the social and material trappings that go along with it in order to live a more “meaningful life”.

Also, I’d like to offer congrats to azgirlstephanie who I drew out of the hat (actually a soup bowl) to win the used book giveaway.

One Year + 20 Days

The CEO at Abercrombie & Fitch did an interview in 2006 and somehow, through the great mystery that is the internet, some comments he made about wanting to sell to only the “cool slender kids” or some other post martini lunch banter, went viral last week.  I noticed a smattering of social media outrage at the time, but a gourdhead CEO being a jackass really isn’t news to me.  Plus, I don’t shop there, nor am I ever likely to, so I didn’t really care.

But then today, I happened to notice a clever little viral video in which the film maker, Greg Karber combed the local thrift stores “douchebag section” for Abercrombie  clothes to donate to the homeless in an attempt to “rebrand” the product.

It was funny, and on one hand, I suppose he was calling attention to the plight of the homeless and their lack of skinny jeans manufactured in Bangladesh.  And, I am a huge fan of finding new life for cast off items.

But, on the other hand, it seems to me that  Garber might be doing the same thing that he is vilifying the retailer for.  Isn’t there some sort of implication that since the homeless are the very antithesis of “the cool kids” that by suddenly being clothed en masse in the initials A & F, the retailer will “get theirs”?

So, let’s review.  Garber thinks Abercrombie & Fitch is a horrible company because, among other things, they are judging a group by their looks or their situation. Yet, he is using the homeless as a group to drive his point home.

Isn’t there some story about a pot and a kettle that applies here?

But, I do think Garber is on the right track with his idea about shopping at charitable thrift stores.  I feel like by shopping there, in lieu of the local mall, I am not only taking the environmental high road, but I’m also ultimately helping a demographic that needs it.  I love a win-win.

If you haven’t seen this viral video about regifting to the homeless, you can check it out here.