At Ruehl, which is Abercrombie’s more upscale store for slightly older consumers (and even darker inside), there were no customers at all. But at Hollister, where the prices average 12 to 15 percent lower, the line at the register was seven deep.

To maintain its prestigious image, Abercrombie has stood alone among mall retailers in not blaring its sales  a strategy that Wall Street analysts have blamed for its current decline. The company reported a 34 percent drop in sales for March at stores open at least a year, the worst performance of mall retailers that month. Abercrombie executives did not respond to written questions about whether the brand  as some business columnists suggest  has lost its cool. In the past, the chain has said it doesn’t want to tarnish its image with big discounts, but the risk is that consumers may retain the habit of thriftiness even after the recession ends.

Image Aéropostale at a mall in Paramus, N.J. Credit... Robert Wright for The New York Times

“I’m not sure customers are going to ever go back to shopping the way they once did,” said Betsy McLaughlin, the chief executive of Hot Topic, a competitor for the teen market, which posted a gain of 7.1 percent in March, largely on the strength of licensed products tied to the “Twilight” vampire series. “There’s just so much retail out there. I think the people who will win are the ones who provide something different. It’s not just a price war.”

The styles at Abercrombie & Fitch, which have changed little in the last decade, are similar to those at the company’s Hollister or Ruehl stores, except for the prices and logos. In the same mall, there are plenty of retailers that specialize in Abercrombie-esque casual-collegiate-cum-surfer-dude styles for even less. A new store, WHO.A.U., sells frayed cargo shorts and appliquéd T-shirts that are displayed next to black-and-white portraits of hunky shirtless models, ahem. And behind the register at the Aéropostale store in Paramus is a poster showing a frolicking group of teenagers, like a tamer version of Abercrombie.

Even the clearance items at Abercrombie do not exude the promotional fervor that can be found at American Eagle, which has a sign up front noting its shorts are under $25; or Aéropostale, where banners announce two-for-one bargains. Aéropostale also reported a sales increase last month, up 3 percent, a success that Mindy Meads, the company’s president, attributed to the right combination of product and value.