So I think the title says it all. I have been doing some pre-shopping lately for spring in hopes to get excited for the real shopping that my mom and I will be doing later next week when I am home. Pre-shopping? I go online to the sites of stores in our mall, see what I like, what I don’t. It narrows my focus when I am actually in the mall. A godsend for anyone who shops with me because oh buddy am I distracted by shiny things.
Besides pre-shopping I spend a lot of time at the Urban Outfitters site imagining that I could decorate my life in their home section, or trying to figure out what I could realistically make on my own.
But recently I have had a slam down to earth. Thank you anthro homework. Reading about free trade zones that are supported by US policy and how they don’t pay workers enough so they are forced to immigrate is bad enough. Then you read about the companies that have factories there. Its just about everyone. What is the point of buying a Gap Red Campaign shirt if that shirt is made by underpaid and overworked people who in all likelihood will have to leave to travel hundreds of miles just to make the attempt to get into the US? I know I sound petty and shallow when I say that it depresses the shopping experience, but its getting to that point where I don’t know if I can sacrifice human dignity for a good sale. I don’t think enough about where my clothes come from.
But I also know that its a multifacited problem. The situation of a FTZ factory worker in South America is not the same as a FTZ factory worker in Shri Lanka. For factory girls (yes they prefer the term girls) in Shri Lanka there is a degree of agency involved. So do I support the system monitarily? Can I find affordible, fashionable, quality made in america products to wear? American apparel may make a see through dress, but at least I know where it comes from.
Well said, I only wish a few more US consumers thought about this more. While price is always important how we are able to sleep at night is equally so!
Additionally, the carbon footprint of domestic manufacturing and transportaion is yet another consideration to the issue of domestic vs foreign/off-shore production.