Like everything this year Black Friday was a little more extreme than previous years. This year I personally haven’t seen such low prices on many different types of merchandise. This is clearly a direct result in businesses losing out public spending brought about by the pandemic. However, in my opinion some retailers went further than others when it came to cutting prices. For example the online fashion company Pretty Little Thing. The prices that they had on offer were so low in fact, that they became trending on social media.
The clothing brand offered deals of up to 99% off. I don’t think I’ve ever seen sales like that, items such as high-heeled shoes on sale for 25p and dresses for 8p. Multiple buyers took to Twitter bragging about how they benefited from the sales. One buyer tweeted that they had made 27 orders from the brand for just 57p each, while another said they had bought 56 items for £28.
Boohoo is the company who owns Pretty Little Thing as well as brands including Nasty Gal and Karen Millen, who also offered up to 80% off all of their products, with skirts for as little as £1.60. While some consumers were more than happy about the sales, they also created serious backlash on social media as many people soon came to question how clothing companies could afford to make these items so cheap? One person on Twitter wrote “ I hate giving attention to PLT but having a Black Friday sale of up to 99% off is actually disgusting. Garments should not cost 5p and if they do it means the workers manufacturing the garment have taken the hit with awful pay and horrendous conditions.” While another said that “Black Friday just seems to be a race by some retailers to prove how unethical their clothes are?” I missed the sales on PLT and I’m glad I did, the only reason I even knew about the sales was because 100’s of people on my personal Instagram were posting complaints to their stories.
The sales on these clothing apps also brought out reactions among environmental experts. Libby Peake, of the Green Alliance, stated that “Some of the most common things people will be buying on Black Friday is textiles and electronics, and both of these can come with hefty environmental price tags,” she said. “Fashion has a bigger environmental footprint than aviation and shipping combined. Single-use clothing is bad for the environment, and doesn’t necessarily save customers money in the long run.” Earlier in the year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calculated the fashion industry produces 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions every year and used an estimated 1.5tn litres of water annually. As well as this according to Greenpeace, enough textiles to fill a rubbish truck get sent to landfill or burned every second. With a Greenpeace spokesperson stating “When the cost of clothing is staggeringly low, you have to wonder about the human cost of making that garment, and whether it comes from a supply chain of exploitation,” “Remember when you see clothes selling for cheap, this always comes with a cost to people and the planet.”
This is the second time that Boohoo have been in trouble online when earlier in the year there was allegations made that the company sources its clothes from factories and warehouses in Leicester that have poor health and safety records and in some cases pay their staff less than the minimum wage. At the time Boohoo said it has not found any evidence of suppliers paying less than the legal minimum wage, as well as denying allegations and stating that they would launch an investigation.
After the most recent display we’ve seen on Black Friday, and I’m not one for pointing fingers but, surely this company must be cutting costs somewhere in order to have prices like that?