A month ago, on Behind the Seams: The Ethical Style Blog, there was an short-article about the work that Aeropostale was doing for Haiti. In partnership with DoSomething.org, Aeropostale was offering a 25% off discount to those who donated gently-worn jeans to them and, for every pair donated, they would match the donation and send those jeans to Haiti. Didn't Aeropostale use sweathshop labor like Abercombie, Forever 21, and GAP? If you give away clothes you aren't making fairly, if you give your product away, is that still considered philanthropy?What's the motivation? I know International Development and I know big Clothing Corporations and I couldn't see Haiti getting into bed with Aeropostale without some kickback somewhere. Even if they were wearing jeans.
I shared with the authors about my nagging feeling and they featured my question on the Ethical Style Blog. They said that in 2002, Aeropostale did admit that they used sweatshop labor and had to hand out a hefty sum for workers in Saipan. They didn't really know why Aeropostale would suddenly take an interest either. Riding on the charity-wagon, maybe? Investment spying, maybe? One of their readers thought that even if they were just scoping for more factory places, low-wage jobs were better for Haitians than no jobs. Ethical Style asks a question, which I direct to my brilliant readers:
What do you think? Do you think Aeropostale is try to help or do you think they're up to something else? And if they are, is that okay?
2 post-its:
I think Aeropostal is after raising their sales numbers on top of cleansing their image form the stench of sweat labor....and that is the main target. Not so much the "oh-we-want-to-help"
I don't buy from them. Never have, never will.
Ok, you know that I've sworn off buying my clothing straight from larger corporations and I've decided to thrift stop or buy handmade because of my beliefs about unethical practices in large clothing companies. That being said, I think people with my stance can take our opinions to a slanderous extreme of "all large companies are purely evil and no one receiving a paycheck there has a decent bone in their body."
That may not necessarily be true -- the claim that every higher up of a large company is basically psychotic is what that claim is stating. Maybe -- again, I say maybe because who are we to judge? -- there really is some sincerity in their efforts. Maybe they really do want to do something to help.
But are they also using that as an opportunity to gain some benefit out of their charity as well? Does it make the company look good? Does it help increase sales? Obviously -- the proof is in the 25% discount offered to those who donate. People even do that on a micro scale -- who doesn't like to be recognized and have their reputation boosted from doing a good deed? It's the natural selfish ego. Large companies are no different -- they're made of people after all.
Post a Comment