How much does cheap fashion cost? When a sewing factory collapsed in Bangladesh earlier this year, it was estimated that 800 people had died from the incident. Prior to day of collapsing, the building was inspected by authorities and was determined to be unsafe as a working environment because of a big crack on the wall. The owner of the factory ignored this warning and continued to run the factory, and eventually tragedy occurred. Joe Fresh, a Canadian company, was one of the fashion retailer that had their clothings made by the factory. When the news broke out, some Canadian customers threatened to boycott the brand until they can improve the working condition for their factory workers. Joe Fresh is a brand known for selling fast fashion and a cheap price, and it really raised some questions about the company’s ethical policy. Is the company willing to sacrifice some profit and find a more ethical manufacture and a better management? How is this incident going to affect the consumers? Will the price of goods rise?

    My view on this issue is that the management of a firm should definitely assess  what it is the cost of choosing a more ethical (maybe more expensive) manufacture or management, and consider to terminate their business with unethical ones even if it means to move away from their core ideology, which in the case of Joe Fresh is to provide fashionable clothings at a cheap price. This action may drive the price of their products, or even lessen their profits, but a success of a business doesn’t solely rely on its profit. Even though those workers in Bangladesh do not work directly for Joe Fresh, the company still holds some degree of responsibility for them. If more major corporations choose to partner with ethical manufactures, then the less of this kind of accident would happen.

    In the end, Joe Fresh and other some other retailers choose to address this issue by signing a safety pack to regulate working conditions of the manufactures, which at least is a good start towards a more ethical business. More can be found here — http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/05/15/bangladesh-factory-joe-fresh-loblaws-safety-pact_n_3275213.html