Photo Credit: Madeline Dutton-Gillett

Urban Outfitters storefront at Stanford Shopping Center.

Earlier this month Urban Outfitters, a hip store popular amongst those fashion-forward few, opened at Stanford Shopping Center with the hope of bringing younger consumers to the mall.

With the exception of a few stores such as Juicy Couture, Abercrombie, and Nordstrom: Brass Plum, the center is geared toward the 30 and up crowd with stores for those with an older taste and a higher paycheck. The common belief is that the shopping center wants to attract a more youthful audience to their doors and become more accessible to a wider range of people, and, one would think, opening an Urban Outfitters would achieve just that.

The common reaction upon hearing of the store’s arrival is excitement, with the occasional impression of impending doom.

“I honestly don’t like the store because of how high the prices are,” said senior Eisa Evans, one of those who dreaded the store’s arrival at the shopping center. “Yes, there are decent things to wear, but because the prices are so high, for a middle class patron, it’s extremely expensive, which is a turn off.”

Fellow senior Hannah Schneider is one of those who is admittedly “really excited about it” and has “been wanting an Urban Outfitters around here, at Stanford, for a really long time.”

Schneider does admit that while she’s excited for the store’s arrival it’s “hard to shop there if they’re not having a good sale or if you just don’t have a lot of money to spend.”

While Urban Outfitters isn’t exactly accessible due to its sometimes jaw dropping prices for seemingly simple clothing, the store does attract a younger generation. It seems to be pulling out all the stops when it comes to getting youth to come check it out.

Word on the street is that many students from M-A are applying to work there. The reason for this is because Urban Outfitters is allowing 16-year-olds and up to apply to work there as opposed to their normal minimum age of 18 years.

While the store says it’s allowing under 18’s to work there, senior Natasha Costa says otherwise. She went to a job fair with friends and decided to apply because “it’s a place [she] likes to purchase clothes and since it’s coming closer to where [she lives, she] thought [she] would apply there and see what would happen.” When asked what she knew about their new age requirement she said, “I was told you have to be 16 and above to apply, and I apply and I’m 18 in 2 months…and they said they would not hire me because I’m not over 18.”

This unexpected twist may cause some students to recoil and reconsider their application to the store and all its glory, but regardless, hopefully this new store will make Stanford Shopping Center what it craves to be: a teen hang out.