The following entry is a response to Melissa Chau’s blog post “Toms Shoes: Is It the Right Fit?”
TOMS is probably one of the world’s most well-known social entrepreneurship, as it donates a pair of shoes to a child in a third-world country when a customer purchases one of their products. However, Melissa Chau brought up an interesting point: are the consequences of TOMS actions really benefiting these countries in the long run? Chau stated that TOMS competes with local businesses by providing shoes for the poor, negatively affecting the economies of these countries and possibly doing more harm than good.
I agree with Chau’s claim that TOMS short-term help is only creating long-term problems. If you think about it, even in developing countries shoes are available, at a much cheaper cost than what TOMS incurs to ship in their shoes to these countries. However, many people in these countries are too poor to buy them. TOMS may help their situation giving them free shoes, but this is not addressing the bigger problem of the cycle of poverty. Perhaps TOMS could better utilize the profits it makes from its business to support local businesses. This would improve the economies of the area, making the population better equipped to buy shoes from local markets, and create long-lasting change.
Source: Melissa Chau’s Blog
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