Bedbugs Do SoHo: Infestation at America’s Trendiest Hollister Store

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Man, those bedbugs have terrible fashion sense.

A Hollister store located in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood is closed due to a massive bedbug infestation. The store, trademarked for its beachy teen wear and shirtless doormen, shut its doors Wednesday, nearly three weeks after employees first reported seeing the bugs, one employee told The Gothamist. The disgruntled employee went fumed in an email to the web site saying,  “On Tuesday the 29th, an employee found that she had been bitten, and also found a live bedbug and an exoskeleton on her borrowed Hollister outfit. All of the employees were forced to continue working even though more and more bugs were being discovered.”

The store wasn’t officially closed until the next day, when Hollister’s shirtless greeters stood at their post only to turn customers away, reassuring them the store would open again in a few days.

Bedbugs, tiny, nocturnal parasites that feed on human blood are most comfortable in homes and places where they’re assured a meal (though they can live up to one year feeding.) Most often carried in fabric, (clothes, bags, etc) bedbug are tough to kill, and usually detected by bite marks left on your skin while you sleep.

But what could this mean for Hollister? The Wall Street Journal speculates that the Abercrombie-owned company could have one hefty class action lawsuit in its future for selling defective and harmful merchandise to customers. Now, if only they could be sued for truly heinous fashion…