Reader Maggie sent me this question via e-mail a while back:
What considerations do you put into where you shop (other than money, size, and style)? It seems that you prefer to support local businesses or ones with positive social agendas. Is this something you consciously consider when purchasing?
I ask because of the controversies over American Apparel’s business practices and marketing promotions (I know Jezebel has posted about these issues, among other sites). Do you have any particular opinions on companies such as American Apparel? Have you considered the allegations and their marketing? I know you have a few items from them (as most of us do), which could be old or thrifted or brand new, but for some reason today it gave me pause. (Obviously, no opinion is required about AA, and positive conclusions are possible!)
Generally, though, I am curious as to how these sorts of issues weigh in your mind. Are there cases when a company crosses a line, even if not specifically when you interact with them, that causes you to choose to cease to spend your money with them?
I have loads of American Apparel stuff, as most of you know. I started buying from this company seven years ago when they were a tiny baby manufacturer. I wear my AA items constantly and wear them hard, and they are high-quality, durable garments. I’ve bought nearly everything from online resellers for 50% off or more, so once the gross, demeaning ads started emerging I told myself I was sticking it to Dov Charney by circumventing his actual store. And I always rationalized my purchases by returning to the AA “sweatshop free” promise, even when their marketing campaigns made me nauseous and pending lawsuits made gave me pause.
Then I read this. And now I’m done.
When I first wrote back to Maggie, I was able to find ways around all the allegations, shady practices, and appalling imagery that spew forth from that company. But a company that has printed standards of beauty for employees? Oh no. Not a chance. I was fooling myself for ages about American Apparel by focusing on manufacturing practices alone. I’ll continue to wear what I own because the quality is good, and the stuff has already been bought so the damage is done. But I won’t be buying anything new from American Apparel – retail, wholesale, or thrift.
Generally, I do my best to support artisans, spend with local businesses, and shop thrift. I buy a few items from big box stores, but keep that to a minimum. For mass goods, I try to be aware of labor and employment practices, but in this, the age of spin, it can be quite challenging to tell truth from lies. I do think about purchasing practices and my economic support, but am yet to formulate a consistent philosophy that I feel I can both stand behind and live by. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to identify companies whose mass-manufactured products I can purchase guilt-free. Truly guilt-free. It’s one of those massive, multi-leveled monsters that I simply cannot wrap my head around.
But those Gawker articles were the last straw for me and AA. The company stands for everything I stand against. I hope the company goes under, and fast. And I’ll continue to contemplate and formulate until I have a consumption policy that I think will be effective.
Now, over to you: Are there cases when a company’s policies or actions cause you to cease spending your money with them? Do you focus on labor practices, economic or environmental impact, advertising messages, or some combination of those? What are your standards of purchase?
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
American Apparel literally makes me sick, even before I read that article. I see the advertisements and I feel like throwing up. Honestly, I don't feel this adverse to any other brand, EXCEPT for American Apparel. They are just so blatantly… disgusting. I will never buy a single item of clothing, whether retail or thrifted, that comes from that brand.
I really don't feel this much animosity towards any other brand. American Apparel, for some reason, just gets my blood boiling.
I entirely appreciate your position on AA (which I share, more or less), but conditions at sweatshops are unspeakably more violent and, frankly, more dangerous than those at AA. Workers in factories abroad are forced to work through injuries, pregnancies, sickness, assault from managers, etc. Many are just plain indentured.
How do you incorporate an analysis of these realities into your purchases and the way you spend money? For me, I try not to purchase anything made in China, Malaysia or Bangladesh. My system is, of course, imperfect, but I am working it out as I go along.
While I also hate what I have learned about AA, I know that workers in the US (and particularly the AA worker demographic – young, educated, enfranchised) are able to effect their rights through the laws of this country. They can (and have) sued their employer. The same can't be said for workers in other countries, where workers are often entirely unable to appeal to any authorities (if their treatment is even illegal – which in too many places, it is not). In those countries, aside from the issue of workers' often being so disenfranchised as to be entirely unaware that they are being actionably mistreated, they also face the corruption of local governments and legal systems.
Thanks for this post, Sally. It's so important to consider these issues seriously. I hope that you can do a post some day on "where your clothing came from," or something like that, to show your smart readers some of the conditions under which women, men, and children are made to work just to generate a cheap pair of shoes.
What struck me most were the glaring grammitical errors in the AA documents – obviously looks were valued over brains!
I agree 100% with what you said about American Apparel and its increasingly outrageous employment practices and advertising. I don't buy from them anymore. I also don't buy from Walmart, based on their employment practices (check out Costco for a good alternative…they are the anti-Walmart AND they are successful).
I also avoid buying from companies with shady sweatshop sources or sexist/racist/homophobic/otherwise offensive advertising. And I write them letters and emails telling them that. I figure that doing SOMETHING (even if it is ignored or is a drop in the bucket) is better than doing nothing…it makes me feel better to take action and make my voice heard.
I try to buy from local sources as much as possible and from businesses in general with values in line with, or at least not contrary to, mine. There are so many sources to buy stuff that I feel like I can take the time to find the right ones.
Good topic…thanks!
Wow. And in their new collection there are gold lamé spandex mini dresses. On Brand?
Glad I've never owned anything AA. Never will.
I also started shopping at American Apparel about 6 years ago and was really happy with the quality of their items and their no-sweat shop stance but I have become increasingly disgusted with the company over the last three years and decided about six months that I am officially finished. Everything that they seem to be involved lately just makes my stomach turn and I can't, in good conscience, offer them any monetary support anymore. And I'm telling everyone I know the same thing.
Courtney
I touched on this topic in my "Where I Don't Shop" post (including my extreme dislike of AA and Dov), http://interrobangsanon.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/shopping-and-ethics/
and you're right – there are so many possible issues to consider when choosing your clothing. I find Responsible Shopper http://www.greenamericatoday.org/programs/responsibleshopper/learn_hub.cfm to be a good resource when comparing companies. It's also important to decide what standards are most important to you (made in America vs made while paying a living wage vs both, etc.) and make a concerted effort to stick to those standards.
One of the best solutions for me is thrift shopping, but even that isn't without its obstacles. I won't shop at the Salvation Army because of their policies against homosexuality, but that's a choice I was only able to make after researching their corporation policies.
Good article Sally. I live in Canada and the AA issues aren't as widely publicized up here, but that's not to say I haven't heard of them. It's disgusting what big companies get away with and AA is no exception. I try to focus on buying local as often as possible, but we all know it's hard to follow 100% of the time. Koodoo's to you on your efforts!
This is awful, but American Apparel is hardly the only clothing retailer doing this kind of thing. Abercrombie & Fitch loon Mike Jeffries has gone so far as to explicitly say that his company's clothes are not for everybody, implying that you have to fit a certain beauty standard and size standard to be able to shop there. Not work there, shop there. He doesn't want us fat (read: normal-sized) people shopping there, because if people see us in public wearing his clothes it would make his company look "less, like, hip, dude."
Couple that with their incredibly inappropriate ad campaigns and there's no way I'd shop there.
And don't forget GAP's lovely "Wear Pants. Because not everyone can look good in shorts" ad campaign. This kind of body shaming and discrimination goes on in every level of the clothing industry once you get any higher than mass retail stores like Wal-mart and Target, which I'm SURE have their own problems.
This has been something that has been turning over in my head a LOT lately. Particularly in terms of relation to the economy (why do we want to go back to business as usual? business as usual SUCKED for everyone not at the top) and ethical practices.
I'm still sorting out the details, but I feel a blog experiment coming on (oh no) around putting my ideals in to practice and seeing what's possible, but now I have to sort those out. Ideally, I would say USA made, crafted by a person clothes. But what about companies who manufacture overseas but have good practices (living wage, no child workers, etc.)? Where do they fall?
It's a lot to think about. I don't know that I have answers.
I try and avoid buying anything from sweatshops, but sometimes I feel like it just can't be avoided. Still, I do my best to support local craftspeople and shop almost exclusively in thrift shops.
Great post, I completely agree about how hard it is to decide which manufacturers are worth supporting.
I try to patronize locally-owned stores (whether new goods, thrift or second-hand), and I consciously look for Canadian or US-made goods. I never, ever shop big box stores.
I would never ever buy from there now. To be honest though, I stopped before I even had any idea how creepy and discrimnatore he/they are. I only bought things once, via the internet (this was when there were only 2 or so AA shops in the UK). The customer service was shocking and I'm generally not too fussy about customer service at all. Half my order was forgotten about without a reason, emails were not answered for months, apologies were not made at any point. Later when they opened a shop near me I realised that this is probably because staff are hired on the basis of how they look/how 'cool' they are, and that nobody gave a flying monkey about what I, a non-skinny 'boring' person with a real job thought. So I feel like I was a little bit ahead of the curve. I have now sought out other retailers that are also sweat shop free and behave ethically in other ways too (as far as I know). Clothes, wide I do think a lot before buying anything new.
However, when it comes to groceries, I don't think nearly as much as I should. I buy most of my food at tescos (one of the big four UK supermarkets), which has had many ethical scandals. I justify this because the other three aren't any better. I should be buying more from local greengrocers and farmers markets, but I can't afford to shop solely from there and I do like the convenience of a big supermarket.
So yeah, I'm pretty good when it comes to clothes, but I'm not taking the moral high ground at all.
I don't shop at Walmart and haven't for over ten years. Name your reason why: labor practices, killing small businesses, environmental issues, I hate the Waltons, their stuff is crap, and I worked for a regional competitor (Meijer's, for you fellow Midwestern folks) for years.
When your employee is trampled to death in your store and then you fight the teeny-tiny fine for precedent's sake, I don't care how much I'm going to save on my milk or dog kibble. It's not happening.
AA has made me so angry so many times now. And honestly I disagree about the quality and durability of their products. Almost all of my stuff from them gets stretched out or holey really fast. I expect that from F21, but when I'm spending the kind of money for a simple t-shirt that they charge, I call bullshit.
It is such a complicated issue because even though working conditions are abysmal in many Chinese factories, there would probably be even more poverty and prostitution without them. I try to be local and thrift as much as possible, but almost no purchase is consequence free at some point in the line.
For a thought experiment…
What if the company put out a new mission statement? Said they realized the error of their ways and wanted to be more body-positive?
Would you support them again? Would you believe them?
I have three AA pieces that I bought three years ago. I now refuse to even enter their store. I emailed all the articles as they were published to all of my friends, who now no longer shop there either.
I am also not keen on shopping in stores where I know for a fact that sweatshop practices are involved. That rules out many of the big high street names, but personally I find that their designs tend to be a bit too tacky and try-hard anyways, so I guess it works out for the better stylewise!
I have never bought anything directly from AA. I HAVE purchased some AA t-shirts from smaller printers/artists which I think of more as supporting that artist rather than Dov. However, even most of the artist groups I buy from have stopped using AA as I think their quality has gone downhill as their prices have risen so AA isn't an issue for me.
I consciously avoid Guess because of their ties to the mob — they once ordered a hit on a lawyer I worked for because he testified in front of a grand jury against them. Other than that, it's really hard to know where to draw the line. I prefer to shop at Target rather than Walmart but when Walmart is down the street and Target is a good 25 minutes away, you sometimes make the quick choice. I have bought cheap clothes for years due to being broke, but am beginning to avoid that because things really are made so badly I can't justify even the miniscule price tag.
I wonder if the fast fashion people will eventually out-cheap themselves and everyone will go back to buying fewer and better clothes. I suspect that's the real reason that the fashion industry has been in free fall in this economy — what they're selling simply isn't worth buying.
This is a tough one. I wouldn't really say that I have a strict set of standards for where I will and will not purchase things from, and I will admit to blissful ignorance with regards to a lot of places, which is to say that I don't go out of my way to check up on a company's practices, etc, before I buy. However, something like AA, whose egregious practices have been very well publicized and seem to come one on top of another, is definitely on my no-no list. I have to admit, though, that I did not like AA even before I found out about all of their horrible practices – their stores give me headaches, the ads are offensive, the sizing is ridiculous, and I think the price to quality ratio is completely atrocious.
I sometimes feel like there are so many variables, so many points of contention (from fiber sourcing to manufacturing standards to sales policies to worker wages to community involvement to…) that can affect the ethical purchasing of clothing that there is no clear, comfortable choice, except possibly nudity – and that has its own issues!
Whenever possible, I try to buy artisan-made, ethically produced and sold, and locally made (or secondhand, preferably from an organization that uses the proceeds to help the community). The Holy Grail of responsible clothing purchases is all of these, but like any Holy Grail, it may be mythical. I know from personal experience that it's difficult for very small independent clothing designers to pay themselves a living wage, forget about 'luxuries' like health care, etc. It's also nearly impossible to source some materials locally: silk, for example, is not widely produced in the USA, so the designers I know who work in silk import it from Asia.
If the ne plus ultra of ethical clothing is either unavailable or out of my budget (as, when it exists, it often is – you can't have cheap clothes and pay their makers a living wage: the economics just don't work), I look for as many possible variables as I can, or work the other way – figure out which places don't meet my standards and avoid them. H&M might sell an organic line – but their throwaway clothing philosophy, which has extended to destroying overstock in preference to donating it, leads me to avoid the store. Old Navy might sell inexpensive, reliable basics, but their "mannequin" campaign objectified women (literally!) as badly as anything AA ever did, so they get a pass. And so on. I wonder if I shall someday be left with nowhere that I can, in good conscience, shop!
This is a thought provoking conversation. Thanks Sal for starting it and to all for contributing. Fairly broad agreement about avoiding AA. Just wondering how people feel about avoiding their advertising or blogs/publications that are supported by their advertising. For instance, I read (look at?) The Sartorialist pretty much daily, and every time I am there I have to look at an AA ad, which I find pretty distasteful. I like the Sartorialist, but…
Any thoughts?
guh, this is one of those annoying things for me as a screenprinter too… I bought a ton of wholesale American Apparel shirts about 3 years ago, now with what I have in stock and restocked, it would be VERY difficult to switch over shirts to a new brand (On my etsy, I would have to list that while this size in this color is still AA, another size or color are my new brand and the colors and cut won't be EXACTLY the same as AA and when people buy online, they like and are entitled to SPECIFIC specifics…) So while I don't own any AA pieces for myself, I think I'm stuck from an artist's point of view for now…
Shame on AA! I had no idea. They will not be getting my money as I am clearly not beautiful enough to shop there.
I am such a political shopper. In a capitalist system, I believe where you put your money is a better way to have your say than voting.
I don't shop at Urban Outfitters or Anthropologie because the owner, Dick Hayne has been found to be donating large amounts of money to the very conservative Senator Rick Santorum (who once equated gay sex with bestiality and incest). I've done a bit of reading and the here water here seems to have muddied – I might be revising my boycott soon.
I also boycott AA for all the reasons Sally has stated.
Once again, Wal Mart gets a big thumbs down for poor labour practices and monopolisation.
Others on the list include Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic for sweat shop practices.
The downside to all this boycotting (I know I sound like a whining lefty) is that I have to pay a bit more for new clothing. I don't mind if I do as much as I can to know that my dollars are going to profit all the people down the chain of manufacture, not just the company (by getting my money) and me (by getting cheap clothing). It means I buy less, but better quality. You have to ask yourself, how did they make this so cheap? Who pays so that I can save?
Most of this is moot anyway cause I get most of my clothes via thrifting. Totally ethical and much more of a challenge! I don't even mind buying the brands I boycott from a thrift store because I'm keeping it out of landfill and I am turning a negative thing into a more positive thing by supporting a charity. Sounds weird but I don't claim to be consistent, only political!
I support your stance on not buying clothes from a company that enforces policies you can't endorse. While I myself have never purchased anything from American Apparel and am not a fan of the brand, I wanted to draw attention to your comment that you wished the store would go out of business. It doesn't seem like the store being forced to close its doors due to financial issues is doing anyone any good. It certainly isn't going to help any mistreated employees to go from having a job where they are mistreated to having no job at all. It seems fair and responsible to support change, the ending of unfair and discriminatory hiring and promotion practices, and a brand image and ad campaign that are accepting of a wide variety of body types and styles. However, wouldn't it be better for everyone involved if instead of going under, the company revamped it's image, changed it's hiring practices and made a commitment to promoting healthy body image? I realize an ideal world would be full of companies that never did wrong, but in the real world I think it's often our best move as responsible consumers to support those companies that can admit when they are wrong and change their ways. Perhaps hoping for an about-face from American Apparel is as idealistic as hoping for a company that's done no wrong, but it still seems like hoping for change and redemption is a better alternative than simply hoping for foreclosure and bankruptcy.
HGGirl: It would be a "seeing is believing" situation for me. I'd need to see new policies in action for a good long time to believe the company had turned over a new leaf.
academicguide: Good point. I guess my feeling is that the people running the company have been so devil-may-care – almost open and proud – about their wretched policies, that an overhaul seems impossible. And I feel that those folks should experience repercussions for their practices. But the workers themselves have been through enough, and I wouldn't wish joblessness on them, too.
I wonder if AA is a little different here in Canada. We have pretty strict employment laws, and a lot of this stuff would be considered illegal. While employees with less than 3 months experience are still very vulnerable, those who are past the "probation period" have very solid rights, and firing someone for appearance-based reasons would never fly here. Plus, a lot of the kids who work at AA here, while attractive (to a point) probably still wouldn't be found to be "on brand" enough, or whatever that assinine term is.
One question…who would want to sleep with Dov Charney? The guy is the creepiest looking fugger ever! EEEEW!
I worry that continuing to wear AA garments – especially on such an influential site like yours – ultimately adds up to advertising.
A question: if you come across AA stuff, or H&M stuff or other questionable stuff in thrift stores, will you buy it? Do other people buy it because it is thrifted? This question burns on my mind – really it does.
Thanks for the great post, Sal.
I love your blog and read it every morning before I go anywhere while drinking my coffee.
cat
This article is particularly timely for me because I just returned my first AA purchase yesterday. I ordered a tank dress from them, and I ordered a large (the largest size offerred) because the reviews online said their clothes ran small (I am usually a medium, size 8ish.)I got this dress, and I looked like a stuffed sausage in it because it was so small. (The cotton was not very nice, either, BTW.) I figured that they just didn't make clothes for women like me-average.
Now I read this, and I realize that they really DON'T make clothes for women like me, and they probably aren't that interested in having women like me be their customers. To hell with them. There is plenty of cotton jersey out there.
I've never even considered buying clothes from American Apparel, but primarily because I am teh fatz and 48 and therefore completely unworthy of existing (at least, according to the exceedingly vile Dov Charney).
However, I will say that the good the company does in its anti-sweatshop policy is completely canceled out by everything else it stands for. I don't care if its employees have better conditions by virtue of living in a developed nation, and that they can choose to work elsewhere if they object. The corporate culture is evil, and that's all there is to it.
The whole thing with AA was terrible enough for me to never want to shop there.
The sweatshop situation with many bigger manufacturers bothers me, but as LHdM said, it's a complicated issue because if sweatshops were eliminated, there may be more prostitution and poverty in its place. I try to be conscious of what practices certain brands use, and I'm always wary of stores offering cheaply-priced clothes without explaining how they were able to get the costs so low.
Sal: Thanks for responding! I agree; it would be hard to gain trust back. I was just thinking whether I'd rather a company flops or changes their practices. It would probably make a better cautionary tale to other companies if they go under, though!
"I don't shop at Urban Outfitters or Anthropologie because the owner, Dick Hayne has been found to be donating large amounts of money to the very conservative Senator Rick Santorum (who once equated gay sex with bestiality and incest)."
Same here. Even if anthropologie stuff is cute as can be.
I don't purchase leather, fur, or anything that was tested on animals (with the exception of the meds I need to stay alive).
No walmart. No more AA. Try to avoid Target and other big box stores. Admittedly I have a couple of things from the Gap. I try to avoid it though.
I'm not a big shopper. So when I do shop, I keep it mostly to a few high quality locally made pieces. I did just discover http://www.nau.com and like them (sustainable fibers).
I focus on food more than clothing though. I do not buy from Kraft or ConAgra. I avoid Safeway unless there is absolutely no other store in the town I'm in. I don't buy anything with hfcs.
What I'm most interested in is not buying from China. It seems to be almost impossible now a days. Is anyone succeeding with this? How?
-Allie
AA conducts itself abominably and I can't blame anyone for boycotting them. I would choose to avoid them myself solely for their soft-porn advertising.
But the way some people have expressed their decision against AA almost makes it sound like piggishness (or sexism, or "looks-ism," or whatever you'd call it) is a worse offense than slave driving. Which I'm sure isn't what anyone thinks, but…you know?
As for Walmart, their customer experience is so vile that I won't set foot in there even before considering ethical factors.
And as for the question in general, I don't think there's a good answer. Social, economic and environmental justice are each enormous, complex, and paradoxical issues, and trying to *genuinely* do no harm is a game you can't possibly win. I try to focus my energy on Buying Less Stuff, because that's probably just the best idea on a lot of levels (though even that approach isn't without its own philosophical complications).
Very interesting read. A wallet is the most powerful weapon that the average consumer has to levy their opinions against big business.
Unfortunately, my wallet is only a very little wallet.
I simply can't afford the clothes at American Apparel, Gap, American Eagle, or other brand-name stores. I would prefer to get most of my clothes through thrift, but that isn't always predictable enough. When my singular pair of work pants tears a giant, unfixable hole, I always find myself at Target to get a cheap replacement.
When I have enough money to make it talk, I hope to use it to say something valuable. In the mean time, I have to stick with glaring disapproval.
I don't buy from AA anyway. I'm sure they're crying to hear this 45 year old is not buying their clothing, but I have a daughter (who at 9 1/2 years old is probably the ideal shape for the brand) and she won't be shopping there, either. Ever. Not with my money, anyway.
I came to my feelings about the brand more than five years ago when I googled for info about the company for a work project, and read an interview with Dov Charney. YUCK!
I no longer covet Prada shoes and bags after reading about Miuccia Prada's refusal to costume plus size opera singers for the New York Metropolitan Opera. (Was she not agreeing to clothe an OPERA COMPANY? How was this a surprise?)
One other anecdote: for a while it was a big deal to have a 'Made in America' tag in garments, and we were supposed to be willing to pay more for this. A guy who worked for me at the time, whose parents were immigrants, told me his mother took in sewing work at her home, working on high-end designer label dresses. It was piecework, and she was paid by the piece. At the end of the day, she worked long hours and earned far, far less than minimum wag. She was barely able to put food on the table. So despite the label, or any label, it's hard to know whether you're unintentionally supporting sweatshop conditions.
p.s. I agree with Cat, that looking as good as you look in AA garments on your blog amounts to supporting the brand. Maybe you could post an entry where you burn them all.
I won't purchase Steve Madden shoes because he was convicted of insider trading by the SEC and still drew a $700,000-per-year salary as a consultant while in prison. I won't even buy the shoes secondhand because I feel so strongly about that.
Hmmmm my old job had a dress policy because of the type of work we did and there are still companies that do have dress codes, now about them asking for applicants pictures before they are hired, am not sure about that. I think Abercrombie and Fitch used to do that as well.
Now about slave-type manufacturing in other countries, so many companies are doing this (not saying that it is right because we all know how foul and greedy they can be) but you also have to look at the governments that are allowing these big manufacturers and retailers to setup shop in their country and abuse their citizens. Don't think for a second they don't know what's going on. They would not be able to take advantage of their citizens as workers in their companies and abuse every right they have if their gov't did not ALLOW this. Where are the labor laws to protect their citizens. The blatalant corruption in some of these countries sets the stage for out and out abuse of their workers.
I hope they don't think that these big companies are going to police themselves and do the "right thing" by their citizens, because we are know their focus is all about pure unadulterated greed that is the reason why they are over THERE and not employing U.S. worker over HERE!
I buy there infrequently – and increasingly infrequently – as I cannot stand what they stand for. I do think the stuff is interesting (in a 70s way) and quite durable. I also appreciate the no-sweatshop policy, although being demeaned and sexually harassed by one's employer isn't much of an improvement.
BTW, my word ver is "rankled"
This is a really important topic. I have pretty much stopped shopping in "real" clothing stores altogether, and buy mostly second hand. I do this for many reasons, but certainly the impossibility of gathering accurate information about production and marketing processes of clothing companies is one of the most important ones. It disturbs me that there is no information available. "Made in Bangladesh"-labels are always a concern, as are the stories regarding AA. A lot of the stories in this comments section were news to me, like the ones about Anthropologie and Steve Madden. But really, it is tough, because how do you know? Even some second hand stores have questionable policies: Salvation Army & gays, UFF's owners alledgedly having bank accounts in the Cayman islands…
Now that I am taking part in a year-long shopping ban, I hope to create some serious standards for myself for any future buying.
Oh-so complicated…As a jobless teenager, I've never shopped at AA but now I'll certainly avoid it if it's ever anything but a moot point. I am, though, pretty ignorant of any company's sweatshop/employment policies. Or any other policies that don't directly relate to my shopping experience.
But I wouldn't avoid a company based soley on the fact that they run sweatshops, because as has been mentioned sweatshops can actually be news for the dirt poor countries where they're often run. I studied it a bit in school and it's a pretty complicated issue.
I own one secondhand AA item. I've been boycottimg them for almost as long as I've known of their existence.
Ethically and socially responsible shopping has become an increasingly important issue for me. The only problem is the lack of knowledge. I agree with others that buying less and not supporting the brands you do know to be a problem is a good place to start. And of course supporting brands you know to be doing good things. And just hope over time you become more aware.
I'm far from perfect in this. Trying to get better with each purchase. Nestle is one that's been pressing on my mind lately. It's a huge one because of all the sub brands. I'm trying to wrap my brain around that one
VW: winkings
I really like the thoughtful discussion sparked here.
And look, AA is now even closer to going under!
Thanks for this post. It's made me stop and think again. I try to be aware of the ethics of my clothing purchases, buy fairtrade cotton, for example, but I have a very, very long way to go.
Luckily I don't need any new clothes for a long time now that I've bought some stuff for my new job … I think I need to save up, and then start trying to buy from PeopleTree (http://www.peopletree.co.uk/about-us/).
I think that actively seeking out companies like this one who completely stand for ethical production / concern for the environment / workers' rights / etc is the best way to go – because as you've said, with so much spin, can you trust anyone? I think companies like this are the most trustworthy.
Sal,
Thanks for the reply. I tend to agree with you that in this particular case a radical change is unlikely. I just thought it was worth pointing out that lots of agencies that advocate for fair labor practices and human rights shockingly DON'T advocate boycotts. For many, many people the world over a low wage job in terrible conditions is still a step up from no job at all. I certainly don't want to come across as telling people they should shop at American Apparel (I don't) but did want to draw attention to the fact that sometimes these issues are more complicated than they seem up front.
American Apparel disgusts me on so many levels. But so does Abercrombie, Guess, etc. I know sex sells, but these companies cross the line. Unfortunately, I am not in the economic position to buy most of the brands touted in the magazines, or I would boycott most of those too, just based on their hypersexual ads.
I also don't provide free advertising by wearing logo merchandise.
I agree that the sweatshop issue is very complex and am torn as to whether boycotting China, etc. helps or hurts the workers.