Bedbugs, not beefcake, now greeting Hollister shoppers

Early last year the the iconic-y DKNY ad mural at Broadway and Houston was painted over to make way for what BoweryBoogie described as "the teen-loving mall dwellers Abercrombie & Fitch," who planted their Hollister flagship store here. (Read Curbed's coverage here.)



Anyway, as The Wall Street Journal reported this morning, the store, with the shirtless dude greeters, has closed... due to an infestation of bedbugs. Per the Journal:

Infestations in commercial buildings are typically handled privately and don't need to be reported to the city. A spokeswoman for the city's Department of Health said bedbugs "do not present a health risk or spread disease."

Still, bedbugs aren't something consumers expect to bring home with their new clothes, and an expert on torts law said, hypothetically, consumers who had made recent purchases and then discover bedbugs could have a case.

"Technically it's a breach of warranty of merchantability," said Michael M. Martin, a professor at Fordham University School of Law. "They are defective because they don't meet consumer expectation. The usual remedy for that, first of all you can get price back and, second, you might well be able to recover for the consequential injuries. I'd be willing to take that case."

[Top image via BoweryBoogie]