If anyone has had a fun summer, it’s the bedbugs who have pranced through apartment buildings, offices, and retail establishments across this city, laying their eggs, throwing wild parties in panties, and whatever else they do in the walls when we’re not looking. If anyone has had an un-fun summer, it’s the retail-PR people who have had to go head-to-head with them in the press and prove to leery shoppers that their stores aren’t gross, scary bastions of infestation. The bedbugs’ summer of rapidly multiplying fun isn’t over! They’ve most recently attacked (well, to public knowledge) the Niketown on 57th Street and Fifth Avenue — a pretty classy intersection for them!
The store’s walls were covered in brown paper over the weekend with a sign that said the store was “temporarily closed until further notice.” Nike announced the problem in a statement.
“Our primary concern is the well-being of our consumers and sales associates,” Nike said. “We are taking all proper steps to eradicate the problem, and we expect the store to reopen shortly.”
It’s unclear when the 95,000-square-foot store will reopen. Experts have told us that with major infestations in spaces like that, seven to ten days of treatment is recommended to make sure the store is completely rid of the vermin. Even so, aside from the press coverage of the incident, the store is not telling customers on the signs or in their phone answering message that they have a bedbug infestation.
Bedbugs Bite Niketown [WWD]
Bedbugs close down flagship Nike store, Niketown New York, in Manhattan [NYDN]
Related: Video: Meet the People Who Risked Mingling With Bedbugs to Shop at Abercrombie and Hollister
