New York's Abercrombie Bucks The Retail Blues

America may be in a recession — but you wouldn't know it from the lines of customers that form around the Abercrombie & Fitch store on New York's Fifth Avenue.

Every morning, a line that often exceeds 200 people forms at the store, in good weather and bad. And on at least one recent morning, the crowd was composed largely of foreign tourists — a survey of around 2 dozen people turned up visitors from Europe or Latin America; England and Ireland; along with Russia, Brazil, and Spain.

The draw, many said, was two-fold: a wider selection that what they could find at home — and prices as much as $30 lower for a single shirt.