February 22nd, 2008

Where’s the Thrill in Cheap Shopping?

Posted by Julie Hayes

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There was a time, not so long ago, when I would meet my two girlfriends for a fuel injected latte at our favorite chain coffee store for one purpose:  to rev up for a super fun, marathon day of Cheap Thrill Shopping.  The Thrill came from the Cheap and the Cheap came from those less expensive stores we often referred to as members of The Vortex – stores such as say, Forever 21, The Gap, Old Navy, Target and H & M, where you could expect to spend an hour (or two), trying on hundreds of clothes, ogling the low prices, giving the yay or no way to your friends and walking out of there with two giant bags full of clothes that cost you less than your cable bill.  

But things have changed.  It’s a new time, a socially and environmentally conscious time.  And that’s really good and honestly, what it should be. But the downside is that the Thrill isn’t so thrilling anymore.  In the “olden days,” it was easy – just stay away from WalMart and Kathy Lee Gifford and you were good.  But my raised consciousness has brought me to a whole new level of awareness that has made it next to impossible to enjoy shopping anymore.  Where I used to get excited by a price tag that read $19.95, I now get depressed by a label that reads, “Made In China.” It’s on every item, in almost every store.  And now that I think I know what that label really means, I can never again shop with the sort of careless glee I once had. 

So what do you do if you are a not-rich-yet, conscious person who cares about the environment and social justice, who loves to shop without breaking the bank but can’t stand feeling like a big ol’ hypocrite?   

Research. Or so I thought. But as it turns out, like almost everything in this new world of green and social consciousness, there are so few standards by which to measure who is good and who is not that it makes it next to impossible to find the truth.  It’s all a gradation of grey.  Some dark grey, some light grey and some darker or lighter than others.  After Googling myself to death, it became clear to me that I couldn’t find out all the information I was seeking from one angle and maybe I had to broaden my approach by looking at it a couple of different ways.  The first one being… 

Who’s been nailed. 

It appears that of the larger, chain companies, the ones who have been “outed” in the past five years for social or environmental violations have better than average standard practices at this point.  Take Nike for example.  After facing constant accusations regarding human rights and conditions for workers in developing countries, Nike now has a well developed focus for its corporate responsibility on improving conditions in contracted factories, aiming for carbon neutrality and making sports available to young people (girls in particular) across the world.   In other words, they got in trouble so they got their act together.  And, if the company continues to be successful, they will continue to be a target and will most like have to continue to work hard to be a positive example of how business should be done. 

So here’s the skinny on some of my old faves.

The Gap Inc. (Includes Baby Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic)

  + 2003 – The Gap Inc. was involved in a class action lawsuit filed by sweatshop workers in
Saipan. The allegations included workers not being paid for overtime, unsafe conditions, and forced abortion policies. 
  + 2007 – Gap Inc. is evaluated as one of the 100 “Most Ethical Companies” by Ethisphere Magazine, a leading, world wide publication that studies the ethical business practices of global companies.   Gap was also ranked 25^th by CRO Magazine on it’s “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list.
  + Then, on October 28, 2007, BBC outs a Gap factory in
India, airing video of children working in one of their factories.  Gap denies knowledge of this violation and vows to investigate and stop such practices. 

You can bet they are probably more aware and behaving better than ever at this point.

Forever 21

  + 2001 – Factory workers called for a store boycott until working conditions and payroll are improved.  Forever 21 agrees to pay back wages and the lawsuit was dropped.
  + 2004 – Forever 21 agrees to cease selling clothes featuring animal fur after being targeted by PETA.
  + On-Going - High profile designers file lawsuits against Forever 21 for ripping off designs.  Designers include: Diane von Fürstenburg, Gwen Stefani, Anna Sui and most recently, Anthropology.
+ December 2004 – The Garment Workers Center, Sweatshop Watch and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center reach an agreement with Forever 21 on behalf of garment workers.  All remain committed to ensuring that the clothing Forever 21 sells in its stores is made under lawful conditions.

So while it appears Forever 21 may have reached acceptable levels of social consciousness and they do manufacture a portion of their clothing in Los Angeles, they are infamous design thieves and a big question mark when it comes to their environmental practices.

Target Corporation

Okay, some have been nailed and learned from their mistakes and some have not and look pretty good but the details are fuzzy and hard to pin down. Welcome to Target. In April of 2000, Target received the Minnesota Environmental Initiative Award for it’s environmental program. The store has since gained notoriety for extensive community outreach and charitable giving and states impressive social and environmental principles on it’s website. However, there is little previous info available for consumers to evaluate the company’s progress or effectiveness in these areas And let’s face it, any store that takes up that much space can’t be all that great for the environment. Yet, overall, it seems the cuter, cleaner version of WalMart isn’t as bad as we thought it might be and in fact, has signed an agreement with National Retail Federation’s “Statement of Principles on Supplier Legal Compliance,” (translation: commitment to high ethical standards and has stated that they will continue providing environmentally friendly goods that meet customers needs. I recently bought pajama bottoms there and found, when I got home, that they were made from organic cotton!

H & M

Okay, here we go, we have a winner!!! It seems that the Swedish based company has a long history of positive social and environmental practices. Yay! H & M’s Code of Conduct states, “…it’s suppliers must comply with all relevant environmental legislation. In practice, the requirements cover the handling of chemicals, waste management and waste-water treatment.” In January of 2008, an international branding and business think-tank, The Medinge Group, released its fifth annual Brands with a Conscience list and H & M is in the top eight. The goal of the organization is to show that it is possible for very successful, high profile brands to practice business in sustainable, socially responsible and humanistic ways while continuing to build profits.  Not for nothing but skincare giant Aveda also made this list. H & M has also started selling a few organic cotton items for men and women so there’s hope in that department too. The worst thing I could find on H & M was a resistance to their US, in-store workers all forming a union but they are apparently open to talking about it.

SO WHAT’S THE VERDICT?

Things are getting better but they’re certainly not even close to perfect. The best choice is still clothing made by local manufacturers in organic or sustainable materials. And there are hundreds of green clothing manufacturers now in this exploding field, many of them you can find right here in our green clothing section. And for those who still need to get their shopping thrills from finding a bargain, there’s always vintage! Just think how much amazing pre-loved fashion there is out there, just waiting for you! Read our earlier piece on finding vintage and used clothing near you so you can get the deal of a lifetime and still feel great about yourself!

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