to want to shout at Primark shoppers?

[baiyu]

I mean really, just how many shoppers without a conscience are there? There really is no justification for shopping somewhere that treats its garment workers so badly and has continued to do despite years of campaigning.

Primark are thriving in the economic downturn making workers lives worse and worse as they struggle to keep up with orders. Being poor is no excuse, I can?t afford to buy new clothes but I?d rather my few quid went to Oxfam than ABF and their cruel trading practices. So tell me, why do people shop there? The quality is terrible too, how is it a bargain if an item of clothing lasts ten minutes?

I?m not just reading the Daily Mail by the way, researching things like this is my job, the working conditions have NOT improved and it?s just making me angry! AIBU to think more people should care?

each to their own baiyu.....up to us where we shop

So which are the good shops (for new, not 2nd hand)?

And what about the fact that Primark set up workshops that were supposed to be childfree. As it turns out the LOCAL workers were farming the work out to children without the company's knowledge. They did the best they could AFAIK and it didn't work. Why? Because of the desparate poverty of the country. Which is not a problem that one company can solve.

I don't shop in Primark, as I don't like their clothes

"...than ABF and their cruel trading practices."

Im not cruel!

I shop there because im skint and my children need clothes. I can buy a pair of trousers for say £2.50 from a charity shop but can buy a pack of 4 for about 3 quid from cheao shops, I know which im going to buy especially since they grow so quick that I dont have time to wash them into tatters.

But I use both Primark/Supermarkets clothes and charity shops so am I exempt?

If everybody just stopped shopping there overnight then that would have a far more catastrophic effect on the lives of workers at suppliers, underage or not. Nike learnt that lesson in the 90s. War on Want has some really good material on this.

That's not a justification of poor labour practices it's just a fact that engagement between suppliers and NGOs is a far more productive solution than a boycott.

Oh and BTW, literally every high street and supermarket chain which sells clothing manufactured abroad will be involved to some degree in poor labour practices, so in this way it doesn't make sense to mark Primark out just because they are the cheapest.

Why do they CHOOSE to shop there?

Erm, because they can't afford to shop in other shops with higher prices?

I am with you and not with you.

Firstly, a lot of people are simply not aware of the situation.

Secondly, unless you buy fairtrade certified clothing, you cannot be sure of the conditions of growers/workers.
Even M&S have been found, recently, to be selling goods made in dreadful conditions. And they talk a lotabout their ethics!

I feel very strongly about this issue and buy second hand clothes where at all possible for this and also environmental reasons. However, I have found myself buying what are bound to be sweatshop goods, simply because I have four children to clothe and limited resources to do it with.

Do you support War on Want? A wondrrful organisation who work hard to expose all sorts of bad situations and conditions in the world. Subscribe to their emails (free) and raise awareness. Much better than alienating people and putting them off the cause.

YABU - my daughter shops in Primark as she only earns £4.44 an hour...she can get 10 outfits for £5 in there as opposed to a couple of outfits from Next..they might not last as long but trends change so quickly.....and I'm sure I read somewhere a while back that Next (or might have been Gap) use sweatshop workers but mark their prices up extortionately. We do buy in charity shops too....I tend to avoid the big high street names as I am a skinflint prudent shopper.

Whats wrong with Asdas and Tescos FGS? I would love to shop in my local organic/farm reared shop/deli round the corner but unfortunately I like to eat every day and would have to remortgage the house to buy my groceries from there everyday.

In third world economies, where there is no welfare state, a job paying a few pounds a day might be the difference between eating and going hungry.

Factories providing cheap goods for rich westerners are hopefully the first step in creating wealth in the third world, to pay for education and health care. Eventually their standard of living will rise to meet that in the west.

Our own standard of living will tumble if there ever comes a time when there's no longer cheap labour to produce manufactured goods

YABU.

People shop where they can afford to shop, not everyone can afford to shop in the likes of Boden.

YesBut I think we would get on well!

And you can get some bloody good bargains in Primark, my sister bought a pack of those chicken fillet things for a bit of added oomph and they cost 4 QUID! £4! Saw some identical ones in Debenhams for £25.

YABU.

Where do you buy your food? Ever buy it from a supermarket? Get your bins collected? Those people are on crappy wages and on BENEFITS! (tax credits)...

It's all well and good being principled, but don't go thinking that it's only sweatshops in Asia which abuse worker's rights!

Want things to change? Stop outsourcing work to Asia, get factories back to the UK - anyone remember the women on Corrie working at Baldwin's knickers factory in the 70s/80s?

"Clothes" cost the same today as they did in the 80s - there's a reason for that.

YABVVVVU sorry if you are on a tight budget the first thing on your mind is being able to clothe the family for less. As others have highlighted its not only Primark others are also responsible such as Tesco,Asda, Sainsburys,Matalan most of the shops in the highstreet infact. I personally cannot afford to buy designer clothes or pay £30 for a girls dress, £50 for a girls coat, where am I going to get that money!. So yes YABVVVU and preachy.

Oh, and while you're at it, don't buy anything made of cotton (unless it is fairtrade and organic) because almost every cotton item contains a percentage of cotton grown in Uzbekistan, where an entire inland sea has been lost due to cotton farming and children are taken out of school during harvest season and taken away from their families to work.

And don't buy synthetic fibres because production damages the environment, although it isa toss up whether the high water consumption and use of pesticides for cotton is actually more damaging.

No wool, because of the cruel practisce of mulesing (slicing off a piece of sheeps' bottoms to prevent blowfly) and the fact that many die when shorn too early in the year.

Which leaves...not much. Or you can just make the best choice you can in every situation.

As someone pointed out above, do you "hate" everyone showing off their iphone or laptop?

I used to work in a knicker factory as a teen. Paid in piecework. Used to have to work all the hours to earn a living wage.

But it was still far far cheaper to outsource the whole lot to China.

manufactruting on the whole is on its last legs in this country because of the high costs, everything will be outsourced to low cost economies eventually.

I'm pretty poor and yes I shop at primark, its a bloody life saver for me because its so cheap. YABU. Bugger off and leave me and the rest of the paupers alone.

ohemgee

i cant afford organic chicken or shit poncey deeply unflattering Boden gear.

my name is Lemony. I love Primark and Iceland and Tescos.

and i do shop in one charity shop, the one that hasnt hiked its prices up by 300% like everywhere else...

You're right ohemgee, I don't think an all out boycott is the answer but Primark do have to work harder to make sure workers are looked after.

Thanks YesBut for flagging up War on Want, you're right, they are a fab organisation.

Other shops have supply chain issues and they should all be monitored TBH. Primark don't support child labour but through their demands and low prices paid the factory owners feel they have no choice but to outsource to illegal workers - ie children to sew on sequins.

YABU. Almost all of the highstreet chains do it and at least Primark have the decency not to put massive markups on all their prices. Also, after the controversy with the TV programme about them I believe they are cleaning up their act a bit, whereas the other shops haven't bothered.

I would imagine most people know the ethical issues with cheap clothes such as Primark and if they choose to shop there then that is their decision and one I quite sympathise with.

OP, where do you shop for clothes?

I can't afford Boden either! My kids are clothed mostly through freecycle, charity shops and handmedowns. I can't afford to shop for myself period.

The hypocrisy of "all of this" (I don't mean OP!) is quite mind-boggling.

Take for example Steve Jobs (Apple) - a man who claims to have discovered Buddhism when travelling through Asian after college and all that "hippy shit".

Wonder how much karma is going to kick his arse in his next life?