American Apparel

Panic in the Streets of London.
The American Apparel Rummage sale causes riots and police as only 30 people are allowed in.



You may have heard about the event on facebook,which currently has 28,711 attending, where American Apparel decided to hold a rummage sale in Brick Lane market with up to 85% off and some items selling for just £1. Knowing the quality of AA and how all their garments are made in America, this was no Primark sale. I wasn't surprised by the amount of people that would have shown up, but it's interesting to see how it turned out. You almost would have expected women pulling each others hair like in Confessions of a Shopaholic, but this went beyond a tug of war. As only 30 people were let into the venue, queues meant restless people, in the cold and rain I might add, who just weren't happy.
The police shut down the event site and demanded everyone leave the Brick Lane premises for their own safety. American Apparel are attempting to re-open for the Easter weekend, and in the meantime have offered discount codes on the website.

There's no telling what this will do to the label. Although AA have managed rummage sales across the globe, the definitely didn't anticipate the British public as well as they could have. We are all rioters at heart, just look at the days and nights of the football.
In terms of the brand, it could go one of two ways. 1st, the public hate them for letting them stay out in the cold and rain and risk their safety. 2nd, and more likely after how much AA are trying to make this up to their facebook fans, is that they'll be even more covetable, and this will just be something to publicise them better. If anything, it might make people realise that they won't have a rummage sale in the UK ever again, and so they might as well find a store and buy the full priced one.
So that's really the question, is any publicity in the end good publicity?

P.S., discount codes are:

AALNDN10 gets you 15% off our UK webstore for the next 10 days! (redeem code at checkout).

Please Take 25% OFF anything in our UK site (use code LNDNRMG25) or print this for 25% off at our UK retail shops... (exp 1 wk, not valid w/ other offers)