WTF! BEDBUGS CAUSED ABERCROMBIE & FITCH TO CLOSE IT'S DOORS AT THE SOUTH STREET SEAPORT STORE!

Bedbugs are becoming quite fashionable.
The bloodsuckers shut down an Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store in the South Street Seaport Friday - two days after an infestation forced a sister shop in SoHo to close its doors.

The trendy spot at the tip of lower Manhattan was boarded up with a sign apologizing to customers. An Abercrombie & Fitch company spokesman said the store would stay closed indefinitely until the outbreak was eradicated.

"We are still working through it at South Street Seaport," spokesman Eric Cerny said.

The store's bedbug problem sent shivers through locked-out customers, who had hoped to get in some shopping before the start of the holiday weekend.

Staten Island resident Rosemarie Beepath, 41, said she's crossing the store off her shopping list.

"I'm not buying their clothes anymore," said Beepath, who had hoped to pick up items for herself and her children. "I feel itchy now. I'll go somewhere else."

Jersey City resident Vishal Jindal, 24, said he went to the South Street Seaport spot to buy a navy blue T-shirt. He waited 30 minutes yesterday in hopes it would reopen.

"I'm a bit annoyed that it's closed," Jindal said, adding that the outbreak didn't bother him. "I would just remove all the bedbugs from my shirt."

Hollister, a popular teen clothing line whose parent company is Abercrombie & Fitch, shuttered its 40,000-square-foot flagship shop on Broadway on Wednesday because of the creepy critters.

Cerny said that the shop has been fumigated and will reopen today at 10 a.m. Customers will be allowed to return clothes so long as they have receipts, Cerny said.

"We are highly confident in [Hollister] that there were no products with bedbugs sold to customers," he said.

The spokesman added the Abercrombie & Fitch store on Fifth Ave. has not been touched by bedbugs.

"It's isolated to lower Manhattan," Cerny said.

The company also griped to City Hall about bedbugs yesterday.

In an open letter to Mayor Bloomberg, it wrote, "We think it is a serious subject and look to you for leadership and guidance on how best to respond to this problem."

The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said yesterday it has provided guidance, but ultimately the problem lies with the clothing company.

"It is the responsibility of companies to proactively treat bedbug problems on their own," the city agency said.