Primark.

So now we know. Primark's famously cheap prices are down to the use of sweated labour by some of their suppliers, not in Bangla Desh or India but in Manchester and London. I dont know if I am the only one but I found the apology from Primark for profitting from such practices laughable. Are the directors of such a successful company that naive that they did not suspect that they were able to make a good profit out of clothes that sometimes only cost a few quid retail might just be an indication that the business practices of those that they were dealing with might just be a little dodgy ?.

And what about the rest of us ?. I dont suppose that there are many of us who dont have a few items with the primark label on it somewhere in our wardrobe. I dont suppose that too many of us lost too much sleep over the fact that those knocking out the clothing might be working for what amounts to little more then starvation level wages.

And then of course there is the fact that many of those who were involved in producing the clothing were working illegally. Given the fact that most condemn illegal immigration, if they were true to their principlals they would be marching into Primark and dumping their Primark bought goods on the floor but I very much doubt that they will. A bargain is a bargain after all.

Sadly, the economic climate being what it is and is likely to remain, I doubt that such practices are going to go away and I suspect that as the drive intensifies to produce cheaper goods that generate higher profits we shall see more examples of cheap labour being used and given the rapidly rising levels of unemployment you can bet that it will not all be immigrant labour that is on the recieving end. If the exposure of Primark leads to people thinking more about where the goods they buy come from, who produces the goods and at what costs and what the knpck on effects can be, some good may come of it all.