Many people have heard of companies using child labor, forced labor, and severely low paid workers to mass manufacture products and sell them for cheap. And many of those people who know about this have also bought from these companies.
These companies make it easy to get clothes and other products with their large selections and cheap prices, making it more appealing to many people. But many of these companies including, Shein and Temu have been caught using child labor and unpaid labor.
There are many companies that use forced labor that people don’t know about and buy from them. There’s nothing people can do about that and it will happen but people should continue to educate themselves on these types of companies. But when people know a company uses forced labor and still buys from them because its convenient for them then that seems wrong.
A big company that has many scandals with forced labor is Shein. “The fast fashion company has come under fire for accusations of mistreatment of Uyghurs, a marginalized group in China,” reported CNBC.com. Although it’s not completely confirmed that this company was using forced labor it is still very likely. With over $30 billion of revenue coming into the company, according to CNBC.com, that results in the company thriving and being able to grow their company and continue to harm these people.
Along with Shein, another newly popular company that possibly uses child labor and forced labor is Temu. “Companies like Shein and Temu keep their prices low by using garment workers, typically in Southeast Asia, who work long hours for low pay,” wrote globalaffairs.org. The low prices pull people into buying from these companies even if they do know the workers are mistreated.
Although most people have heard about the issues with Shein and Temu, people are still buying from the store and having the mentality, “It’s not my problem.” Instead of just breezing past the issue people could easily avoid fast fashion companies like Shein and instead buy from other companies.
Many people may feel that they can’t possibly have an impact on these companies. But nobody will know until they try. When buying from these companies people support them and what they are doing. Even if not buying from these companies doesn’t make a big change you at least won’t be supporting what they are doing behind the scenes.