AIBU to not buy from Soak and Sleep?

[Skinnytailedsquirrel]

Really fancied one of their duvet covers until I saw it was "manufactured in China". Looked at another one...and another one....same thing.

Why would a company do that? So many people (including me) are boycotting anything made in PRC.

But where is the cotton grown? About a third of it comes from China, and it won't say that on the packaging, only where the product was made.

sourcingjournal.com/market-data/cotton-data/world-cotton-124059/

Plus, the pandemic has shown that there are Chinese run sweat shops in Italy, and south Asian run ones in Leicester, where the conditions are more like China and India, illegal in Italy and the UK, with the items produced bearing reassuring but misleading made in Italy/UK labels.

It's true that we would struggle to find out the country of origin of components such as cotton, wiring, microchips, steel etc but it's still worth boycotting goods that carry a "Made in China" label because the biggest profit comes from assembling the materials rather than producing them in the first place. As others have said on the thread, it's about doing something, rather than adhering to some unattainable purity test.

I don't really understand your point about European sweat shops - it's up to those countries to regulate factories that operate within their jurisdiction. I don't know that much about the Italian factories but, in Leicester, I think the sweat shops were run for and by UK-based bosses of Asian heritage who were able to exploit the local Asian community - some of whom were illegal immigrants and so had few choices when it came to work.

The point I was making was that, even when things are being made in the UK/EU, it's no guarantee that you're buying goods without contributing to a system that exploits its workers.

The point I was making was that, even when things are being made in the UK/EU, it's no guarantee that you're buying goods without contributing to a system that exploits its workers

But it would be specific situations. You cannot say the majority of workers in Leicester and Italy are exploited.

Also, as a nation, the over reliance on one supplier is not advisable and puts the buyer in a weaker position over the not so long term. This is one of the basic rules of business

Just about our whole lives come from China these days.
I'd be interested to hear how you manage your boycott OP, though I don't doubt you have good intentions.

@BarbaraofSeville

The point I was making was that, even when things are being made in the UK/EU, it's no guarantee that you're buying goods without contributing to a system that exploits its workers.

But even the most hysterical among us don't believe the UK/Italian governments are ethnic cleansing/forcibly sterilising etc? The Leicester/Prato factories were operating outside the law and aren't representative of most factories here or in Italy - in China, not only is it lawful to allow slave labour, it seems the Chinese government is directly involved.