subject: Bedbugs Shut Trendy Soho Shop Hollister [print this page] BEDBUG EXPERTS combed through popular SoHo spot Hollister yesterday trying to fight an infestation that has shuttered the store for two days.
Shoppers have been locked out of the teen destination for jeans and casual duds since Wednesday, when parent company Zentai learned of the embarrassing problem.
"We caught it very early in the stages of detection," said an latex body source. "We are investigating whether this was a selling-floor issue or a back-room issue. We are continuing testing."
Spokesman Eric Cerny said it is still unknown when the 40,000-square-foot Broadway store - the biggest Hollister in the country - will reopen.
The company plans to release an updated time frame later today.
A sign on Hollister's front doors reads, "We will reopen soon" - confusing shoppers coming from as far away as Australia.
"Gross," said 17-year-old Tampa visitor Brooke McKinney. "It makes me queasy."
Bedbugs are becoming a more common problem in New York, but city officials were unsure if there had been a previous infestation in a retail shop.
The creepy crawlies are most often found in mattresses and clothes inside private homes - not on sales racks, said a Department of Health spokesperson.
Victor Nechay, 28, whose family owns Angela's Vintage Boutique in the east Village, said stores should follow their lead and steam-clean clothes before putting them up for sale. "People buy stuff and return it," he said. "You don't know what they have in their house. The nicest people can be slobs."
Back in SoHo, Brooklynite Stanley Carlton, 18, showed up at Hollister only to discover that one of his favorite stores was closed. "I can't believe a big store like that has bedbugs," Carlton said.
His mother, Kye Morrison, ordered him to inspect Hollister T-shirts he bought recently.
