Primark

[Zebraa]

Does anyone else go in and find themselves buying the same dress in every colour because it's a fraction of the price you would pay anywhere else and is 100% cotton?

I have the same dress in 5 colours! Surely I'm not the only one...?

I heart Primark

yep

did it with linen tunics last year when pg (coral, orange, tan)

sometimes...but I really shouldn't - I've still got thinkgs with labels on!

no. never
i have never been tempted by anything in primark
on the few occasions i have gone in, i have always left within a few minutes, feeling quite ill.
there is no way on earth that the price on those clothes reflects the cost of making them. viisions of people sitting in dirty, infested places, making those clothes for pennies, so that they can feed their children always comes to mind.
then there is the whole idea of disposable fashion. that also makes me ill.

i'd rather be dressed in an outfit that cost a lot more money, but didnt cost the earth, or someone's life, and will be able to last wash after wash, for more than a few seasons. i appreciate that makes me sound as if i am on some sort of moral high horse. i am not. i can be as consumer oriented and capitalistic as the next person, but primark and everything it stands for, disgusts me.

Most clothes are made by people earning pennies. Go naked

i bought 3 black tops the other day - did the same last year, but last years ones are loosing it now cos of deodrant marks under arms apart from that they are fine and i wear them most days to work.

I won't go into Primark anymore. Last time I went in and bought a number of cheap tops to find that I had to return them a fortnight later. The sizing on them was ridiculous, I find the size 10 tops were huge and then after watching the documentary about them were totally put off by buying cheaper clothes from them.

cotton is cotton where ever you buy it.
I have a lovely dress from primark, which i 've worn to work & has been a holiday dress with no compromise on colour etc.
I love primark, baby essentials are great too.

girraffe, i bought some mand sa ones four years ago, and i am still wearing them. daily. i appreciate that mand s and all the other retail stores will of course pay as little as thy can get away with paying to their workers, i still have a particular disgust for primark. this was there long before the programmer

yes zebra
dd has 5 identical t-shirts in diff colours
she grows so fast they will not fit her by september.cost £7.50

The business model for Primark is different to most retailers - no advertising for example. Hence the low retail prices. The process of manufacture is broadly the same. Don't be fooled by M & S's corporate advertising strategy. They still pay peanuts in the 3rd world.

agree - givepeasachance. MANY other retailers exploit their workers overseas.

true, as i said, i am capable of being as consumeristic and capitalistic as the best of them. but at least mands clothes last a bit longer. cost per wear, they work out far far cheaper than a lot of cheaper places.

every time i walk into primark, i get the shivers. it really truly disgusts me, and i have to leave immediately.
when people tell me they bought stuff in primark andit was blaha blah blah, i feel sick. ill

"Buy it cheap buy it twice."

Thats the philosophy?

But it is such fun at Primark I dismiss such philosophy and get loads and loads of stuff for such little money that I can buy it twice !

If you don't like the shop, why do you go in there more than once? Just a thought.

Paying 'peanuts' applies to most high street stores, it is naive to think it's only Primark.

I find Primark atm hit and miss, last year when I was pg with DD2, I got loads in there, haven't seen much this year.

Isn't GAP one of the worst payers to the third world slaves workers they employ?

I haven't shopped there for about a year, we've had Primarks in Ireland for years and years. I try not to shop anywhere so cheap now, it's not ethical. Tesco are paying shit wages in India to their clothes workers. I can't remember exactly but it was something like they were paying £34 per month, when the average wage to live on should be £52. How many billions did Tesco make last year? And they can't pay somebody £52 per month

Another person who won't go in primark, also don't do gap.

I do, not much, the jewellery is ok, and tops for hols etc, some bags are great too, but have to agree with the pricing aspect and the cost of labour. This is a hard situation, unfortunately certain countries run differently from ours, and children work to help feed themselves and family, so in a perfect world they would be schooled, loved and cared for in a a nice house with a comfortable bed to sleep in, but...

They dont live there and they have to survive, they have to work and they have to eat, so dont buy and they suffer, buy and they work, eat but still suffer???

I don't usually do this here, I tend to keep activism stuff separate from mn but I'll break my rule tonight.

No sweat

They are a organisation that rather than calling for boycotts, advocates making links with workers in countries and unionising and fighting for people keeping their jobs but being protected from the utter shit that the workers are subjected to.

There are alternatives to just boycotting on an individual level and/or parallel activism that is worthwhile.

Good point Slur. Boycotting doesn't really achieve anything as these people need the jobs and they need western companies to set up production in their countries however more than anything they need decent wages and decent working conditions.

Now it would be intresting to find a high street store that only sells clothes made my people working in 'good' working conditions for 'good' wages.

you have to realize its cheap because somewhere down the line somebody else is paying the price, how can anyone buy something that cheap and not be concerned. we live in a world which thrives on making money, people are definitly suffering. i hate shopping there, and never will. i go to marks and spencers and h&m and would never even think twice about it.
plus, on the other note everywhere wears the same thing because its so cheap and the quality is appalling.

but who's to dsy that H&M (also cheap) aren't doing the same thing?

they have been investigated, nothings been found. also they do certain things like use certain fabrics, factories suppliers.
unlike primark, and primark was recently found to have used 3 factories which were underpaying people and using child labour. and that was just 3 of their factories...imagine all of them!!