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 | 6 Comments »
