Chardonee Wright
You are on your way to the Big Apple. You have a pocket full of money, and are ready to shop the day away at SoHo.
You walk into Hollister and decide to try a shirt or some jeans on. To your surprise, there are bugs in the clothes. Yes bugs. Bed bugs.
Hollister is just one of the stores who have had to be closed down back in July of this year due to a bedbug infestation. Recently an Abercrombie and Fitch store in NYC become a victim as well.
Usually when one thinks about bed bugs, you think of them in hotel rooms, beds, hospitals or similar facilities.
When they start to infest clothing stores, HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM.
People may associate bed bugs with dirty living conditions, when, in fact, they can live and thrive in clean environments as well.
Bed bugs are very small, wingless, and brown bugs who are always looking for blood. An adult bed bug get as big as a quarter of an inch.
They use their mouth part otherwise known as a proboscis as a suction to suck the blood in, and can detect the blood from exhaled carbon dioxide.
This is why people often get bitten while they are asleep.
If you ever walked into any Hollister store, you would know that the lights are usually dim, which could have produced a home for the bed bugs because they feed at night.
They thrive in darkness, but leave traces during the day. Bed bugs can leave behind skin, dark spots, or blood marks on surfaces if killed or crushed.
Mattresses, seams, folds and crevices of furniture are where the bugs hide in during the day.
Their life cycle is large, one female bed bug can produce up to 500 offspring. The infestation can get out of hand if not taken care of soon enough.
It can make anyone cringe at the sight or thought of a bug crawling and feeding on your blood while your sleep, and in some cases while you are awake.
No one knows how the bed bugs ended up in the department store, but they usually migrate through luggage and clothing of people who aren’t aware that they are carrying the bugs around.
Elimination is necessary immediately.
Hollister’s management should have taken immediate initiative to solve this problem.
Hollister hires models who pose around the stores or in the windows for marketing purposes.
Employees and models of Hollister in SoHo were bitten and had bed bugs all over the clothes they modeled in, but were forced to still work under these conditions.
Good news is that diseases are usually not transmitted between humans because of the bites. The outcome seems to be more emotional than anything.
Who wouldn’t feel disgusted or sensitive about being bitten?
One employee even found a bed bug skeleton hanging off of the clothes she borrowed.
Some employees even mention that they continually went to the senior management of the store to report the infestation, but were always ignored.
It was absolutely ridiculous for the managers of Hollister to continue to leave the store open when employees working under these conditions.
Pest control methods or full extermination should have been the number one priority of Hollister at this point instead of gaining profits.
Employees argue this point as well. Their well being was at the bottom of the list, while their earnings were at the top.
It is disgusting enough to know that these bugs were living in the store, and measures should have been taken at the report of the first bite.
Makes you wonder about some of the companies you work for.
Are they out for your best interest? Or their own?
