By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Employees and patrons of American Apparel may have cause for concern.
The retail clothing chain with 16 locations in Manhattan experienced a 92 percent drop in net income from 2008 to 2009, according to the company's year-end financial report, released last week.
One reason for the downturn, analysts tell the Los Angeles Times, is the store's resistance to discounting goods in response to the recession.
An American Apparel T-shirt costs between $14 and $30 on the company's Web site.
Adrian Kowalewski, CFO of American Apparel, also pointed to a "cannibalization effect," in which new stores stole business from older ones, according to the Times.
American Apparel added 21 stores in 2009 for a total of 281, according to a recent statement.
"There are a lot of things we learned from this year," Dov Charney, the store's founder, told the Times. "It's a very sophisticated business model, but it's in its infancy. There's probably another five years of work here before we can say that we've landed the plane."