Hollister bedbugs

Abercrombie & Fitch's idealized (and expensive) version of perpetual youth has worn thin among cash-strapped consumers, threatening the company's sales, stock price, and prospects.

Bedbugs are back, and they're worse than ever. While pesticides have kept the pests under control for decades, EPA decisions to ban several classes of chemicals have benefited the bugs. And between lawsuits and pricey eradication, the bloodsuckers are biting Americans in the wallet.

Trendy clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch has discovered bedbugs in a second New York City store and closed it Friday. The shuttering of the South Street seaport store follows the closing of A&F's Hollister flagship shop in the city's posh Soho district due to the blood-sucking insects.

Hollister, the popular teen apparel store, has shut its flagship New York store due to a bed bugs infestation. The company, which playfully dubs its male and female customers "dudes" and "bettys", learned of the embarrassing problem earlier this week and shuttered its store at 600 Broadway...

For years, dissatisfied customers have griped that Abercrombie and Fitch bleeds its customers dry; on Wednesday, they were proven literally right when the flagship store of Hollister, the retailer's teen-oriented chain, closed its doors amid evidence of a bedbug infestation.