[Reposted from Dec 2012] The other side of cheap clothing from Brent Cross stores

"Horrific Fire Revealed a Gap in Safety for Global Brands"

Link to New York Times

"ASHULIA, Bangladesh: In all, 112 workers were killed in a blaze last month, that has exposed a glaring disconnect among global clothing brands, the monitoring system used to protect workers and the factories actually filling the orders. 

"After the fire, Walmart, Sears and other retailers made the same startling admission: They say they did not know that Tazreen Fashions was making their clothing.

"... In reconstructing the deadly blaze, The New York Times interviewed more than two dozen survivors; relatives of the victims; Bangladeshi fire officials; garment factory owners and managers; auditors; and others. In the end, analysts said, the conflagration was a tragic byproduct of an industry in which global brands and retailers, encouraged by hundreds of millions of consumers around the world, are still primarily motivated by the bottom line.

"Richard M. Locke, deputy dean of the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management, said:

"We as consumers like to be able to buy ever-greater quantities of ever-cheaper goods, every year. Somebody is bearing the cost of it, and we don’t want to know about it. The people bearing the cost were in this fire."

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Link to:

"Ethical shopping: how the high street fashion stores rate "