I'm surprised there hasn't been a thread on this yet.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/stor...angladesh.html
Quote:
So to do my research I went to the underwear section of the Bay.
The first ones I looked at were Calvin Kleins, two pairs for $30, or $15 a piece. They were made in Cambodia, the 186th richest country on earth out of the 229 recognized by the CIA Factbook. People in Cambodia make about $2,300 a year. They are only marginally richer than the people in Bangladesh. Tommy Hilfigers,at $17.50 a pair, were made in Indonesia, 157th richest on the list, where people earn about $5,000 a year. The most expensive ones I saw were branded Diesel at $40 a pair. They were made in India, 166th on the list, average income per person of $3,900 — less than Indonesia, but about twice the per capita income of Bangladesh.
Polo Ralph Lauren (Indonesia and China), Hugo Boss (Egypt), Jockey (Costa Rica), Joe Boxer (with Canadian flags; made in Thailand), were all manufactured in poor countries. Most importantly, there was no clear relationship between price and the poverty of the country where they were made. Nor was there any obvious correlation in quality. The strange exception in my little informal survey was the section I visited last.
Stanfield's underwear were the cheapest of them all at $30 for a pack of three, or 10 bucks each. Their label said they were made in Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, which has an average income $41,500 per person, 27th richest on the planet.
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I have been trying my damnedest to purchase everything that I can within Canada. So, yes, my underwear draw is full of Stanfields. Some of the Kodiak jeans at Marks are made in Canada. Some of Hanes socks are made in Canada. My New Balance sneakers are made in the U.S.. My winter jacket was made in Quebec and my spring jacket here in Ontario. Most, but not all are a little more expensive. And it's not that I don't agree with buying things from other countries. It's just that with buying things from Bangladesh or other impoverished country, you just don't know if about the safety conditions, the hiring practices of the company (ie child labour), or if they are paying slave wages.
But it reminded me of when I was talking to someone from Health Canada who said that Campbells Soup had asked HC to make some regulation regarding salt content in soup. Campbells wanted to do the right thing and reduce their salt content, but they were afraid that they would lose market share to other soup companies that were not willing to make the change. Few companies are willing to change to ethical practices unless forced to by law because they have to compete with companies that won't be inclined to change their behaviours.