Earlier tonight I came across this fantastic post over on Little Ocean Annie. In it, she discusses her reasons for not shopping at Forever 21 and American Apparel. An excerpt:
I used to LOVE shopping at Forever 21. My best friend and I had a little tradition of meeting up on Fridays and perusing the biggest (yet somehow least crowded) Forever 21 in Portland. We’d each find a few things to buy each week, but at an average of $40/visit it wasn’t a bank-breaking habit. I started purchasing huge amounts of clothing and accessories there, falling in lust with each piece. I would rarely try things on, and when I got home to find they didn’t fit like I’d like them to fit, I’d brush it off, thinking, “Oh well, it was only $XX.” This habit went on for a couple of years. It wasn’t until Josh and I started living together that he noticed this habit. His response was not what I expected. Josh kept asking me to stop buying cheap clothing, and spend more money on quality pieces. I interpreted this as him suggesting I keep buying the same number of items, just at higher end stores. I kept saying to him, “Um, we can’t afford that.” Of course, what he meant was that I should stop focusing on quantity, and focus on quality. When I’d go shopping with Josh, it would take me aback that he’d spend over $100 on a pair of shoes while I stood there in my $12.99 Target flats. Fast forward four years later, those Ferragamo loafers he found on sale are still holding up perfectly, while I’ve gone through a countless number of cheap shoes. All of this caused piles and piles of clothes to accumulate in my closet and overflow into our room. I would take bags and bags of clothes into resale shops, where they’d buy about 10% of the lot from me, and pay me about 10% of what I spent on these clothes in the first place. What was too old and worn for these stores to re-sell, I’d just donate. Then I’d start the whole process over again.
(Please check out Annie’s post, which is so thoughtfully done, to keep reading about her experiences)
Like Annie (and for similar reasons) I’ve never been a huge fan of Forever 21, but didn’t really have an opinion one way or another about AA. Their ads as of late, I’d noticed, had gotten particularly scandalous, but several of the most shocking ones she featured I hadn’t even seen (because they’re obviously way too racy to post on a billboard). Recently, a friend of mine mentioned how awful she thought the brand was — and after reading this post, I’m beyond grossed out by it. Apparently, Dov Charney thinks he’s the Ron Jeremy of apparel. And it’s disgusting.
Her post made me start thinking about other businesses I choose not to support, and I realized as far as apparel goes, it’s pretty limited. I’m completely guilty of not researching the brands I buy from or learning about their practices. Am I alone in not doing my due diligence? How do you guys learn about companies that aren’t doing right by their employees or society as a whole? Do these issues even matter to you? What are the things a company could do that would cause you never to buy from them again? In our society where the impetus is to buy, buy, buy, I’m really interested to hear how people feel about this topic.
Filed under: Conversation, Just thinking... Tagged: | apparel, best practices, consumers, Fashion, labor issues, shopping
I’ve never even stepped foot in a Forever 21 but, for what it’s worth, I think American Apparel’s clothing tends to be fairly well made. I’ve also been fascinated by the company’s business model, although reading about the owner’s missteps has been disheartening, and their advertising sort of disgusts me.
Due diligence gets really tricky! There are so many factors to potentially take into account — a company’s business practices, campaign donations, labor practices, resource use, etc. For instance, on the one hand, I’ve witnessed Starbuck’s predatory practices that prey on independent coffee shops, so I don’t want to support them. On the other hand, from what I can tell, Starbuck’s seems to be a fairly good employer that pays fairly and gives benefits to its part-time associates. That’s more than you can say about a lot of companies of its size.
The one thing I do always try to do is to shop locally whenever possible. But, here’s what can happen: the other day, I bought a neti pot from the “green” store in my neighborhood. It’s plastic, made in China and cost close to $20. I could have purchased the same thing online for much less [or, something of better quality, still for less]. I feel good for supporting a neighboring business but, on some level, I feel like a bit of a sucker for fetishizing local shopping to this extent. See how tricky it gets?
Thanks for this thoughtful comment.
You know, I’ve struggled with similar issues when it comes to supporting small, locally run businesses–especially in a city like San Francisco that is full of them.
For example, I recently stopped in a local, family run hardware store that’s a fixture of its neighborhood. I was buying gardening supplies. Same stuff I could’ve bought at Home Depot out in the ‘burbs for a few dollars less. But for me, since it was only a dollar or two more per item, I went with it and supported the small business. If it had been maybe $10 more, I would’ve thought otherwise. But then when I think too much about that, it makes me feel a little guilty that I have limitations in supporting this family business.
On the other hand, like you said, it DOES bother me when so much of the crap this store sells is from China and of no better quality (if not worse) than any other major chain store.
The Starbucks issue is a good one too, though for me, in a slightly different context. Supporting businesses often times comes down to an issue of quality. There are plenty of coffee shops in my neighborhood that in my opinion don’t make that great of coffee. Meanwhile, I can walk a block to a Peet’s and get a great, inexpensive cup every single time. So I tend to only get my coffee/tea from Peet’s.
I completely agree with your point on Starbucks offering employees great benefits. I was in a similar situation when I worked for a Sur La Table while in school. A lot of people give SLT a hardtime for selling “expensive, China-produced kitchen crap,” but on the flip side, employees are treated well at SLT, they’re interested in employee development, and they offer fantastic benefits. From my viewpoint, it’s a great company.
And THEN you have businesses like yours (!!), who makes a fabulous product that is distributed through a major retailer, Anthropologie, that some people might not otherwise discover because they choose not to shop there. Do you then rely on your blog and Etsy shop to sell product? How do you overcome any of your target markets’ negative associations with your distributor?
My main issue is definitely American Apparel – their advertising campaigns are completely derogatory toward women and their CEO always comes across as being disgusting. I just have a lot of trouble supporting a company like that. That being said, I wish I didn’t support so many companies that sold things that are made in China, but it is really difficult to avoid doing that at least sometimes. And with the ease of ordering online for certain products, it sometimes makes more sense to order online & save some money.
I do try to support my local stores whenever I can. There’s a great card & gift shop across the street from me that I always try to buy cards from. It’s definitely more expensive, but the cards are all from independent people/small companies that are producing them. The way I look at it is that I want them to stay in business so I can shop there – so I have to support them. Then again I also do a ton of shopping at Target. I think it’s all about finding the right balance of supporting local shops & finding bigger companies that you think are more ethically responsible & care about their workers.
Hi readers,
Follow-up article on Jezebel about American Apparel, sent to me by Susannah:
http://jezebel.com/5625665/american-apparels-lender-throws-naked-sushi-parties
It’s interesting how individuals are selective on why they will refuse to shop at certain places. It makes me wonder if we all just cancel each other out. :)
It’s also interesting how selectivity changes across industries. For example, I would never buy fur, but am more than willing to purchase leather and eat meat. And at the same time, I would never buy from certain meat companies, but am happy to support others. Playing the devil’s advocate here, at the end of the day, does it all boil down to food being food and a shirt being a shirt? If being selective in one place cancels out other businesses we or others support that are just as guilty as the same “evil-doings” does anyone ever REALLY make an impact?
Sometimes it’s hard to see any sort of difference we make, but our actions do have an impact – both good and bad. Even if we do shop at big chain stores sometimes, order things online, buy meat that hasn’t been sustainably raised sometimes, it can never hurt to also be selective with some purchases. Sure, we can always be better and make better decisions, but even if we make smarter choices in on facet of our lives, then it will have an impact. We can still have a negative impact otherwise, but at least we are making it not as bad by balancing it out. Does that make sense?
On some level, I think you’re right that we may just all cancel each other out!
Per your Anthro comment, our seed bombs are sold in over 30 independent retailers across the US, plus directly from us online and at events. All that is a drop in the bucket compared to the Anthro volume, but still, we appreciate it.
It’s been interesting to me to get a few emails from people who discovered our work at Anthro and then contacted us to specifically make a direct purchase, because they don’t want to “support a chain store.” But, ahhh, it all supports us as well! So, like I said, it’s all tricky and, if I start to think about it too much, I feel like a hypocrite no matter what I do.