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...?

Also many people can not afford the likes of Marks, there are more than a few families that would no doubt be dressed in little but rags if it wasn't for these cheaper stores.

Not as easy to have a social conscience when money is tight, imo

Well said,colacubes,
I buy a lot of my youngest dcs clothes at primark/asda ect.
I have got a social conscience,and do feel twinges of guilt about the background of these items.
But my children have lots of lovely clothes that they wouldent have otherwise,and if we all stopped buying from places like primark,the workers would probably have no income at all,and anything is better than nothing.

No, don't go in there. The clothes are beyond shit - scratchy, flimsy tat.

Shudder.

m & s do really cheap fair trade tops

Primark clothing seems to vary in quality so much - I have some Primark stuff I have worn lots, well worth the money I paid for it and it has lasted fantastically well, but some other stuff doesn't last as well. So the cost per wear argument is a bit complicated.

I wouldn't single out Primark as the only 'bad' retailer. What about all those sales at Monsoon and other, more 'middle class' shops where costs are slashed by 70% or more. Is Monsoon actually making a loss when they sell their more expensive stuff for peanuts, or is this the true price?

I know Primark have sales, but not as extensive as the sales in Next, H&M etc.

this is the man who runs, doesnt own it thou
archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2006/01/08/story10850.asp

no thats completely wrong, poor families get benenfits and clothing coupons if they really needed it, then if they were still desperate there are charity/vintage shops. and also, H&m and M&S do cheaper lines of clothing too.there isn't a excuse for shopping there!

No, I don't buy the same dress in different colours no matter where I shop.

I shop in Primark because it is cheap.

Lola, I don't know how you think working poor families get clothing coupons or tons of benefits. PMSL.

Clothing coupons, since when?

You can get a grant to buy school uniforms, but it's not enough to buy them from Marks and Sparks, if you are eligible for it (Working Tax Credits top out at about £15,000/pa joint gross income for a family and last I checked that's not a whole lot).

Benefits? Haahahhaaaa. Working poor people still have to pay their gas bill and transport costs to and from work and rent and council tax just like anyone else.

And if you live outside a city charity and vintage shops are few and far between.

We go on a ferry to do a big shop, there is only a small Co-op and Somerfield here.

It costs a bomb, although the price difference is such it works out cheaper if you do a big swoop once a month.

There is Primark in the area where we go, or you can shop in Tesco.

Otherwise, you have to use more fuel to get to Glasgow.

So I heart Primark all the way.

I never throw away clothes or mistreat them.

I have plenty of clothes from Primark and the like that are on their second child and/or I have been wearing them for a long while.

well thats a personal choice, if you are fine knowing the price is being paid elsewhere then clearly shopping isn't the problem..

and you don't think high street vendors don't use sweatshops or child labour?

i'm fine when my bills are paid, lola. when i'm not getting debt collectors sending me letters or Calor gas telling me i'm late again.

that means i have to make cutbacks.

things like cutting my hair myself, shopping in Lidl for basics, limiting the use of heat and hot water and buying clothes as cheaply as possible (including transport costs).

some people are living on the very brink of not being able to pay rent and utilities and have to watch every single penny just to get by.

be glad you're not one of those people.

Primark is my favourite clothes shop in the world.
My 12 year old DD also loves it and isn't ashamed to tell all her friends where she gets her clothes.

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nah, cod, that's your nose too near your arse .

NB: i am ONLY JOKING!

[sits back and waits for cod's reply ]

Ipswich Primark does not smell.

I agree expat. Unfortunately I struggle enough to pay bills, buy food etc since leaving work to look after my child that being ethically minded doesn't really come into it. I don't shop in primark myself mainly because the mess of the place puts me off. However, I've worked in retail for ten years as a manager in two very well-known 'middle-of-the-road' retailers (dorothy perkins and next) and if you look at the labels they are all made in countries where they can get away with paying workers very little.

I hear the label 'French Connection' is called 'Faulty Crap' by some retailers

IME you don't necessariliy get a higher quality, longer lasting garment by paying more than Primark prices.

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i bought a brolly from there once.

for a tenner.

it broke in the first rainstorm i was in in Scotland.

never bought anything else from there again.

French Connection is poo, IMHO

I have lots of T shirts from Primark and they are LONG which is good for me (big norks, long body, bad midriff)

I think folk who think that sweatshops and child labour is the reserve of Primark are incredibly naive.

Tbh, I have bough stuff 100x the price of Primark in the past, ad it's been no0 better imho. You arwe never going to find the key pair of trousers that will keep ypou going into your dotage there.

Yes, the shops do smell. The one in Bristol is mingoid and like a jumble sale.

French Connection just doesn't do it for me. Everything looks shapeless or is strangely coloured or patterned or usually all three.

I don't like Primark either - the one in Birmingham is always heaving with whole families of very large people snatching up items in various shades of lurid pink.

Then again, if we question the ethics of the entire high street we would all have to live in hand-woven hemp sacks unfortunately.

Tigermoth. That could be Boden you are talking about.

Expensive, but crap quality, so agree with waht you say about quality.

Not a fan myself. Not because of ethical reasons, just because I did buy some stuff from there for wearing after the birth of DD2 and, after 1 wash, all of it went in the bin - the seams twisted, the stitching looked crap, fabric looked tatty after just the 1 wash. I would rather spend money on quality items. I buy shoes from LK bennet and have then for years! Bought a tuxedo jacket from zara women for GBP150 five years ago and it still looks great. I do appreciate that it sounds alot of money to spend a few hundred quid on a pair of shoes, but my neice buys cheap shoes all the time; they hurt her feet, fall apart, etc and she throws them away and buys some more. She must send alot more than me on shoes but is never happy with any of hers!

Saying that, I did buy a very nice bath sheet towel from primark and after lots of hot washes it is still soft and fluffy (bought for my hospital bag when having DD2 but didn't need it - hospital supplied fluffy towels) so still use that now!

Expat - Where/how do you get a grant for school uniforms??? I'm on IS and rang local benefits office and was told no such thing existed. DD starts junior school in sept and uniform is much stricter than infants, its looking like it could cost me nearly £100 just for bare minimum of stuff. Not to mention ds1 who has grown out of all last year's school trousers and lost/stained all his tops.