Description
Hollister Co., often advertised as Hollister or HCo., is a retail brand owned by Abercrombie & Fitch Co, selling apparel, accessories, and fragrances. Goods are available in-store and through the company's online store. Hollister says it was founded in 1922 in Hollister, California; however, it was founded in 2000 in Ohio by Abercrombie.
Stores
Abercrombie & Fitch originally designed Hollister Co. stores to simulate the appearance of vintage beach shacks in an indoor shopping mall. Exterior décor included shuttered windows and light and dark brown pattern walls. A teal boardwalk with three steps leads to the entrance. The interior of the store is mostly concealed from outside view by a wall. Abercrombie & Fitch experimented with shuttered windows when they created Hollister Co. and the concept was eventually expanded to the Abercrombie & Fitch brand.
In November, Abercrombie & Fitch announced plans to redesign Hollister stores. The new design includes front windows and eliminates the California beach shack front porch entrance. The stores are smaller in square footage, but feature a larger merchandise area. as of January, some of the beach shack stores with stairs had been renovated and brand new constructed stores feature the redesign.
Front view of a Hollister store in Leeds. This is the new Hollister store design.
Following the drop in mainstream popularity, stores moved away from the dark environment and loud music, opting for a more customer-friendly experience by turning on the ceiling lights during opening hours and lowering the volume of the music.
Flagship store
The company opened the first flagship store for the Hollister concept 16 July 2009. The flagship was located in SoHo, New York, on Broadway. Four floors of the occupied building provide a retail space of 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2). A company flagship representative commented, "The EPIC store is what Hollister is all about—big waves, surf, sun, and hanging out on the pier. The laidback HCo. vibe is effortlessly cool, and we're bringing the SoCal lifestyle to SoHo." Out of the total capital expenditures for fiscal 2008 of A&F Co. (up to 445 million USD), approximately US$300 million was spent on new store construction and remodeling, including the HCO flagship. The Hollister flagship store in SoHo closed.
