Ala Moana Experience

-How stores made you feel-why?

•American Eagle: They made us feel welcomed and appreciated us coming in. Sales people were friendly and manager was straight-forward. Store was bright and energizing. Displayed were neat and environment was appealing.

•Abercrombie: It was dark, music was loud, and smelled strongly of cologne and perfume. Workers were welcoming but didn't know where the clothes came from. Manager was untruthful about the sweatshops.

•Gap: Environment was clean-looking, modern, and simple. Sales people were kind but not as welcoming. They weren't truthful about the companies actions. 

 

-What you learned at each store

•American Eagle: We learned that they have sweatshops. Every week the shipments of new clothes range from 1,2, or 3 times a week. Most of their jewerly is made in China. Their Clothes is mostly made in China and India. Most of their pants are made in Bangledesh and Indonesia.

•Abercrombie:Most of their clothes are made in China and Taiwan. Materials are mostly cotton are polyester. Everyday from Monday to Friday they get 100-3,000 units. The style of clothing they sell are based on the mainland seasons. 

•Gap: Mostly use cotton for their clothes. Most items are made in China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Most manufactors are in Asian countries. A lot of clothes are made in sweatshops. 

 

-Which store had most informed employees?

•American Eagle: Sales people weren't informed where their companies clothes were made, and all of the sales people told use to ask their manager. The manager knew where the clothes came from and was more informed then the sales people were.

•Abercrombie: Similar to American Eagle, sales people at Abercrombie weren't very informed about where their companies clothes are made, so they asked us to ask the manager. The manager knew where the clothes came from and was some what more informed than any of the sales people. It struck as interesting that in both American Eagle and Abercrombie, the information that managers had about the companies' manufacturing practices was not conveyed to the sales associates.

•Gap: As with Abercrombie and American Eagle, the sales people at Gap did not seem well informed, but the managers seemed to have a little more information. Still the what the managers said about sweatshops was confusing to us as we will explain in the next answer. 

•Patagonia: All the employees had a lot of knowlege about their company and the purpose of the resourcful 
 

-Was anything told to you that you question? Do you feel like they told you the truth?

•American Eagle: We feel that American Eagle told the truth, because the manager told us that American Eagle does use sweatshops. Yet she did not elaborate on this, merely saying "thank you" and stopped talking and left us.

•Abercrombie: The group feels like Abercrombie was untruthful becasue the employees there told us that the company doesn't use sweatshops to produce its clothing. We did our own research and found out that in fact Abercrombie has a poor record of maintaining labor standards and there are many recorded instances of the comapny manufacturing in sweatshops.

•Gap: We think that the manager at the Gap store gave us false information about the working standards the company has. While she did say that the company uses sweatshops in other countries, she also said that the company pays and treats its employees well.  We are confused by what she meant, because no sweatshop can be like that. The very definition of sweatshop is that it has "that has socially unacceptable working conditions." (Wikipedia) From our research we believe that Gap is one of the worst compnaies when it comes to using sweatshops in its supply chain. Perhaps when she says the company treats its employees well, she is referring to employees in the retail stores. 

 

-How was this experience different from normal shopping?

•It was different because we were more concious of where the clothes were made and the material.

 

-What was it like shopping at Goodwill with $12 and the wage list?

•Shopping at Goodwill was hard with only $12 and the wage list. The wage list documents the minimum wage for a 10 hour work day ing the top 14 countires where the clothes we wear are made. The clothing we purchased at Goodwill could not be more expensive than the minimum wage in the country where it was made. It was hard finding items in the budget of a person working for minimum wage.