Highstreetmax.com notes that in recent years it would appear that the UK has become obsessed with ‘throw away fashion’; as low priced fashion retailers take the UK High Street by storm, it has never been so easy or cheap to buy in to the latest fashion trends. In some well know shops on the high street, full priced 100% cotton t-shirts costs as little as £2.00 each. This in turn poses the question; how much do these garments cost to make.
High Street Max offers affordable fashion to all of its members at some of the most respectable shops on the high street. The shops featured on the High Street Max rewards programme have not been. High Street Max provides affordable clothing through discounted gift vouchers that can be used at selected stores. These stores are selected partly because of their ethics and their dedication to supplying the UK High Streets with good quality fashion.
Members of the public are now faced with a huge dilemma when the reality of the real cost behind cheap clothes, conflicts with their ethics. For many people in the UK on low incomes themselves have little choice but to purchase low priced fashion, even though they are not completely satisfied with the alleged poor conditions in which their clothes were made. Well know stores have been working tirelessly to shake off the image that the sweatshop scandal of the 1990’s had on their brands, however a well known value chain has been thrown under the spotlight for these types of alleged offences. As the credit crisis deepens most of the general public have to find ways to make their pound go that little bit further. The BBC reports that £1 in every £5 spent in the UK on fashion goes to low cost retailers. Many shoppers may feel quite torn as a result of the current situation regarding the condition in which the clothes may have been made. It would appear that countless Britons have no choice but to buy cheaply made clothes because they are struggling in a form of western poverty that seems to be getting worst each year. For these members of the public the clothes are not brought to be thrown away a week or so later they are worn until they are worn out.
HighStreetMax.com members never have to skimp on quality or choice because their membership allows them to buy clothes from socially responsible companies at less than the recommended retail price.
Highstreetmax.com asks are cheap clothes sustainable?
Many market analysts would argue no, there has been a rise in cost of raw materials. Even though the UK is an island the country as are many is involved in a global market, where by what happens on one side of the world seriously affects the other. Because consumption of the natural material used to make certain items of clothes fell considerably last year in both the US and the EU, farmers have cut their losses and started to grow more lucrative crops. This in turn will help to push global prices up as less land is dedicated to growing crops such as cotton. This coupled with the recent surge in gas and oil prices are making factory running costs increasingly more expensive. This equates to what many believe the producers will have to do which is raise their costs or face bankruptcy.
In the meantime it would appear that some factories in India and Bangladesh have taken to putting the squeeze on there employees in order to meet target prices being set by a few retailers in the UK. A report in The Independent in 2006 stated that some factory workers were being paid as little as 3p an hour. It would also appear that two years on not much has changed as some workers are still being denied overtime rates of pay despite working 17 hour days.
High Street Max only works with company who demonstrate that they are corporately responsible. These companies work with communities and factories to improve conditions for workers and the quality of the garments produced. As opposed to dumping factories that do not comply with their current regulations, as one of the retail giant currently in the spotlight has been publicly accused of doing.
Consumers in the UK are being warned to brace themselves for more expensive clothes prices, however highstreetmax.com members can rest assured in the knowledge that no matter how much the price of clothing goes up by they will always pay less that the recommended retail price.
