mi hollister

Hollister, my favourite former employer, has recently opened three stores in Spain, including one here in Valencia. And out of morbid curiosity, I took a visit today to see what it was like.

It was exactly the same, except the Dude's and Betty's side were flipped, and those two oh-so-never-used words were missing. Instead of a live feed from Hunnington Beach, where it would currently be pitch black, they had a taped feed loop from it with waves crashing almost audible over the bland pop punk music that was stale in 2004. And they were more or less the exact same clothes I spent eight months folding every night from 9 p.m. until 2 a.m. more or less. Nothing ever changes.

Somehow they managed to find the three Spaniards over six feet tall to work there, and the models, what Hollister refers to their sales associates, had the same vapid looks as they do in the States. They greeted me at the door in Spanish, where I had heard that they are supposed to greet in English, so I COULD call corporate on them. However, I ended up buying a hoodie, and the girl who rang me up said in the worst accent and not at all from a script "Hey what's up dude?" She thankfully changed back to Spanish after I blankly said.....¿Cómo?. Ohhh, hola qué tal?. (What's up is technically ¿qué pasa? and dude would be tio, chaval, chico, hombre, whatever.

The clothes were ridiculously expensive. Whereas in the States Hollister is actually somewhat reasonably priced as Abercrombie's little sister, in Spain, a t-shirt was 22 Euro, which is easily over $30 even on days where the dollar is somewhat strong. I won't even repeat the price of a hoodie as it's almost as shocking as Beyonce having a career despite her lack of talent. The hoodie I found was on clearance for 15,90. A definite "ganga" as it's usually over 60.

I worked at Hollister for 8 months, making it the longest I've been employed. And I grew a lot at that job. It's the job that motivated me to go back to school which lead me to Spain. I complained a LOT those 8 months, October 2006-May 2007, but looking back, it was a good experience and beat being unemployed.

Still, some of the Hollister policies are out there.

Especially English greetings in Spain.