In the blog post “Meet American Apparel” in the blog “B-Ethics”, Kate thoroughly discusses the clothing brand American Apparel’s value propositions and furthermore criticizes how their provocative, sexual ads fail to portray their values. I would like to focus on the values that American Apparel holds as a company because I found their distinctive, mature, ethical values that are complete reversals to their provocative, scandalous, and pornographic ads absolutely fascinating.

If you thought of American Apparel as a “pro-sex” company that sells clothes for an unreasonable price, you were wrong. As a matter of fact, American Apparel’s business model consists of all made-in-USA clothing, fair employee wages, and extremely fair employee benefits. The company strongly believes in the legalization of gay marriage and takes a strong public stance on immigration policy reform.

Most importantly, while nearly all major fashion brands use cheap labor in China and Southeast Asia to produce their products, American Apparel produces all of its products in its downtown LA factory. As the “largest apparel manufacturing facility left in America,” American Apparel’s factory uses anti-sweatshop manufacturing practices; moreover, workers receive $12 an hour, the wage almost doubling California’s minimum wage of $6.75 – this is sharply contrasting to the factories in Asia. Employees receive free English lessons as well as subsidized health insurance for $8 a week.

Although the company has a few problems left to solve such as their sexual ads criticized for demoralizing women, I believe that American Apparel is a big step ahead of its competitors in that the company has built extremely strong and vivid value proposition as well as choosing quality, business ethics, and the standard of working environments over cost and profit. I think I might have once more fallen in love with American Apparel again.

Source:

http://bizgovsoc8.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/meet-american-apparel/

Photos:

https://thethreadtheory.wordpress.com/page/2/

http://www.bloginity.com/2011/07/american-apparel-announces-exclusive-ebay-partnership/

Despite the controversies surrounding its “malignant marketing strategies,” China’s Xiaomi has now become the third largest smartphone vendor in the world. Following Samsung’s market share of 25 percent and Apple’s share of 12 percent, Xiaomi is now Samsung and Apple’s biggest competitor in the smartphone market with a market share of 5.3 percent – this is extremely notable as Xiaomi only released their first smartphone three years ago in August 2011.

One of the key reasons for Xiaomi’s fast growth and success is the extremely affordable prices of its smartphones. The business makes profit on selling “services” to the customers as customers use the smartphone, rather than from the sale of the physical smartphone itself. Furthermore, by relying mostly on online retailers and social media instead of having physical retail stores and employees, Xiaomi cuts down its expenditures.

However, in order for the company to stop being referred to as “the Chinese Apple wannabe,” the company should strictly invest in building its own unique and original design and features that differentiate the company from its competitors. Instead of producing the MiPads in the exact same colors as the iPhone 5C series and having the CEO dressed in a black turtleneck and jeans like Steve Jobs, Xiaomi should promote itself in a new, trendy,”Xiaomi” way.

Will the smartphone market transform from the strict domination of Samsung and Apple to a three-way competition between Samsung, Apple, and Xiaomi? The thought of the new ideas and innovations that the three companies will present to compete with each other with in the upcoming years make my heart flutter. World War 3? I think so.

Sources:

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2840875/chinas-xiaomi-surges-to-become-worlds-third-largest-smartphone-vendor.html

http://www.cultofmac.com/291859/xiaomi-ios-7-ripoff/

http://www.centnews.com/Business/China-s-Xiaomi-Threatens-Samsung-and-Apple-Sales/S-2014-11-04/101820.html

Photos:

http://www.engadget.com/products/apple/iphone/5c/

http://www.embargozone.com/2014/05/15/xiaomi-the-company-that-sold-more-phones-than-apple-in-china-launched-its-first-tablet/

The Site C Dam project must be stopped for the First Nations communities of the Peace Valley.

Problems caused by the dam will severely hurt the First Nations communities who have always depended on their land and water sources of their traditional land for their economic, social, and cultural wellbeing.

The Site C dam will flood over 100 square kilometers of “rich valley-bottom lands, including farmland, wildlife habitat, First Nations cultural sites, and heritage sites” and furthermore cause in a devastating destruction of 6,000 hectares of Peace Valley farmland. Moreover, the richest agricultural land in Northern British Columbia as well as First Nation burial and hunting grounds will be demolished. All of this sacrifice is to produce electrical power “which no viable market has been identified.”

What is more infuriating is that this dam will cost Canadian tax payers over $8 billion dollars. As a resident of British Columbia I cannot tolerate $8 billion dollars collected from the citizens of Canada only to flood the valley, destroy homes, and displace the First Nations families who have lived there for generations after generations. The government had promised the land to the First Nations, and now they are trying to take them back, manipulating the land in order to earn profit.

At this point, we always have to keep in mind that the land does not belong to the government; it has been the First Nations’ since the beginning. The government should keep its promises and take the $8 billion dollars to find and generate alternative energy that is more cost-effective, for all of us all. Now.

Take action through http://www.StopSiteC.ca.

http://www.nelsonstar.com/opinion/letters/274529801.html

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Premier+urges+cooperation+more+litigation+government+natives+reach+fork+road/10194776/story.html

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/First+Nation+chiefs+stage+Site+showdown/10215965/story.html

Photos: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/09/26/flooding-the-landscape/