Child labour discovered at Shein suppliers.

[HoxtHun]

Here:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/08/23/child-labour-discovered-shein-suppliers-london-stock-market/

Let’s hope it deters more people from buying their stuff. People close their eyes and ears to the fact that cheap ‘stuff’ comes at a human and environmental cost. Always.

They've dropped the suppliers involved.

Surely this cannot come as a surprise to anyone!

Yet look at the treads on MN where people share Shein discount codes…..As long as they get their next little outfit, who cares?

Well I can’t say I’m surprised.

Problem is more expensive clothes aren’t a guarantee that it is any better. It can be just as bad with a much higher markup.

Wish there was the equivalent of fair trade so you have some idea the company treats its employees well.

Only because they were found out though. Do you really think they didn’t know before hand?

I asked Google which of Shein and Primark was ethically the worst and this is what came up first:

https://earth.org/fast-fashion-brands-to-avoid/#:~:text=Primark%20also%20ranked%20at%20the,the%20impact%20of%20its%20business.

But it was a surprise to see how many iterations of the question there are.

Exactly.
And they'll do it again.

People will use any excuse to continue buying shit from shein. Shit which ends up in the landfill.

I had a different take on this.

Everyone knows they use child labour, so I think this was their way of spinning it - I.e. deliberate publicity.

“Oh look, yes there were a couple of isolated incidents which we were shocked about and immediately dealt with”.

It makes them look better than either (a) ignoring it or b) denying it. Yet I suspect the issue remains much bigger than those few incidents.

This!

I think lots of fast fashion places are complicit. However, I’ve bought (from Cider and EBay Chinese seller) some items in the past, mostly dresses from the eBay person. I wouldn’t not buy them as I wanted them and there was no similar place to buy them.

I think lots of fashion and fast fashion brands pay under or just the minimum wage and think that’s fine. The truly ethical brands aren’t what everyone wants all the time.

The sad truth is that many of their customers don't really care that much or don't care to see how their behaviour leads to this.

Well at least you're honest about it.

Most people on here plead poverty rather than admit that they don't give a shit as long as they get what they want.

The truly ethical brands aren’t what everyone wants all the time.

I’m afraid this is true. So much moaning and dismissiveness about high prices and dullness whenever anyone suggests brands like this on S&B:

Community Clothing

I have no idea how people are still purchasing from those sites since the news circulated that loads of their products contain wildly high levels of toxic 'forever' chemicals.

People shut their eyes because they want the clothes as cheap as possible. They look cheap and they are. Landfills are full of this fast fashion and there are 'pits' of these requiring segregation because of the dye chemicals used.

It's not just Shein and the like, I stopped buying in Boden years ago when they moved their manufacture from UK -> Czech Republic -> Bangladesh and now China. The clothes quality is poor but the prices are still high. It won't be the workers benefiting from the pricing.

Seasalt is still made in the UK, I buy a bit from there.

nameification it doesn't make them look better at all. Is anybody really fooled by their 'kneejerk' ridding of the supplier? No. These businesses are 'audited' but the stink goes way deep and everybody knows it - they just carry on in the hope that they won't get caught.

Surely no one can be surprised at this? Loads of bands are the same, even some more expensive companies. It’s absolutely awful and definitely shouldn’t be happening, but sadly it does. I’m not really sure what the answer is.

It's all I can afford at the moment. Have 3 work dresses, if one of them goes it will be shein as I can't afford £40-60 for a dress.
And I won't be the only one.

@kitsuneghost if you started a thread asking for sources for thrifty dresses as an alternative to Shein, people would be falling over themselves to assist you.

Charity shops. Vinted. My whole work wardrobe was from Vinted.

Can I ask a genuine question, as someone who hardly ever buys clothes and when I do they are usually second hand.

If the countries where the clothes are made use child labour, and everyone stops buying them, what happens to the families that relies on the income? I am not defending child labour at all, but surely the ire should be towards the corrupt countries where a family has to have a child's income to survive? In Victorian Britain and before, if the poor family didn't have the child's income, they would have all starved, as there was no alternative. Until we protest and campaign and change the laws of the countries involved, surely the same will happen here?
Or am I missing something?

When primark stopped using Thai factories that worried me. The sex trade seems worse than the clothing trade. That was a short term concern though, for those specific child slaves.

Longer term we need mainstream shops to be more ethical.

Where is fairly acceptable these days, does anyone know? M&S?

I mainly use charity shops but get the odd item from Joe Browns if I need something urgently.

I keep seeing Cider but have no idea whether they’re reputable.

Don't forget folks - child and slave labour is of course horrendous and not acceptable. Unfortunately they aren't the only company whose products can be traced back to use of this. Which, their avid shoppers will gleefully post out to us all.

The likes of Shein and Temu encourage mass over consumption. They release at least double the amount of new lines that most high street providers do on a regular basis thus using FOMO to encourage over consumption even more. Their clothes are so cheap new that when people wear an item once or twice but think it's ok because they give it to charity , charities find it near on impossible to sell these items on as it's cheaper to buy new.

Justin Leconte on YouTube has some excellent well researched videos that explain way better than I can.

But yea - these organisations are particularly shit for society and the planet.