Labour... They save on labour. People that barely make enough to survive keep your prices low.
this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2024
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Yeah, if your cool with slave labor, unsafe & unhealthy work conditions, supporting dictators and almost every other crime under the sun buy cheap non-fairtrade (or similar) shit.
Might as well buy stuff at a thrift store. You find quality and good fabric as long as youβre willing to sift. I buy 120-200 dollar cashmere sweaters for 20-25 bucks. I donβt trust that cheap shit either. If itβs cotton, cool, but if itβs notβ¦ 2 bucks is hella suspicious.
You also aren't directly supporting what's basically slave labor. Thrift is a way of life, as well as a moral philosophy.
When I can't thrift it, I buy it USA made. I probably even out to what other people spend on new clothes.
It is made by exploiting people and the enviroment. You are paying atop of the commercial price also a humanitarian and enviromental price. Slavelabor & Ecocide
I've heard that basically all new clothing is treated in formaldehyde, so regardless of the source or the price, it's best to wash all new clothing before wearing, especially for underwear.
Side note: I would sometimes get discount clothes at Dirt Cheap (sadly they're going out of business), and I'd usually notice some sort of harmless defect, like the pattern on the shirt would be off center or something, not like I care all that much.
I do not understand where they are making a profit
I think you're overestimating how much money it costs to produce this stuff. Economies of scale and certain other practices in this specific industry allow retailers to sell stuff at a significant markup even when it seems like they're giving customers a heavy discount.
But even with relatively large markup percentages, the low price point means retailers have to move incredible volumes in order to make enough money to stay open. So they end up using aggressive marketing tactics to get people to come in the door and start impulsively buying stuff.
My intuition is that those shirts are simply from last season and didn't sell well enough or they've gone out of fashion. The store is using it as an opportunity to put a big 80% off sign out front and whip potential customers into a frenzy. Could also be a scheme to recover costs from online returns. But I really doubt there is anything wrong or even different about those shirts.
Source: worked in clothing retail for a several years
It's safe to wear but it's also probably just plastics. Microplastics on skin and other long term microplastics are still not in yet so you could say it's maybe not as safe as cotton. It's the same material as more expensive stuff though so the price tag doesn't really change the safety part.
It's cotton, all of it is, I am concerned about the dyes they use, will they seep into my skin or something
I regularly buy Bella + Canvas shirts, which are fairly cheap but nice looking. The trade off for price, is I usually have to replace them every 2 years.
My best advice is to not overdry them, and wash them inside out.
The markup on most things you buy in the store is very high, sometimes 10x or more. That, combined with the fact that product that isn't being moved is wasting money, means you'll occasionally see things marked down drastically just to get rid of it. There's a good chance that they're still making a profit on it too.
Depends on your budget, really. Is it worth you to get basically 'disposable' shirts?
I have had some organic cotton Tshirts last me 13+ years now and they still look great/color, etc. They cost at the time 15$ or: a little over 1$ per year.
I just loaded up on some shirts from Uniqlo because of a comment a friend made on their clothing that they last a long time (10+ yrs)-and she has way better judgement in clothing than I do...for sure. So there basic T is 10β¬, but I got a deal on the first order through their website & got 10 for 6.50β¬each.
That being said, I would load up on these and have them in stock at home and get a much use out of them as I could (and when they wear down they're hobby/work/outdoor etc.)...
Edit: wash in cold water, do not use fabric softeners, and only 1-2 T of detergent, line dry if you can
Cheap doesn't mean disposable. I have a bunch of shirts that are a decade old and still fine that I got for less than $3 a piece on clearance.
Correct, but OTOH it is a mindset to think of them as such if they end up being garbage quality wise and you don't get any reasonable length of time and wear with them.
When in doubt, ask. Only the provider can speak for that. Maybe the shirts are fragile. Maybe they aren't as reusable. Maybe the provider is foreign and doesn't understand local customs. I actually just bought some clothes (black sleeveless sweater, white plaid shirt, and faded pants that might as well be a skirt, wearing these now) at the laundromat shop reasonably because I've been in a clothes management situation for a while, and I learned most of it in this case is for advertising.