High end fashion retailer Holt Renfrew has fired Tom Hargitai, who was the doorman at their flagship store in downtown Toronto for the past 21 years. The only statement given was that it was "not for performance reasons".
In an interview with the Toronto Star I found it very telling that Hargitai was noting the changing retail landscape of downtown Toronto, where the high end Holt's location is now flanked by lower end stores such as Gap and Zara. Gap is a clothing retailer that offers cheap "fashion" thanks, in part, to their success at employing child slave labour in places like India. Zara, meanwhile, is an industry leader at rapidly knocking off high end fashion with low cost facsimiles.
"It's not what it was." Hargitai is quoted as saying. "Holt's used to stand out. The classy days are gone."
While it may be true that the "classy days" are gone, hopefully the few remaining aficionados of class, and purveyors of class, are merely endangered species.
In the meantime it's sad to say that Hargitai's best job opportunity at this point may be as a greeter at Walmart.
