Ethical lines aren’t clear-cut in the global garment-supply chain, which remains a murky network in which clothes pass from factories through traders around the world. After a 2013 factory collapse killed more than 1,100 people in Bangladesh, most of the biggest U.S. apparel retailers joined safety-monitoring groups that required them to stop selling clothing from factories that violated certain safety standards.
Amazon didn’t join, reports The Wall Street Journal (Oct. 24, 2019). The site today offers a steady stream of clothing from dozens of Bangladeshi factories that most leading retailers have said are too dangerous to allow into their supply chains. Apparel appears on Amazon that is made in factories whose owners have refused to fix safety problems, such as crumbling buildings, broken alarms, and missing sprinklers and fire barriers. Walmart, Target, Costco, and Gap have agreed to have their supply chains inspected and to disclose to the groups the factories that supply them.
Clothing including pants, sweaters, and robes that originate from blacklisted factories have ended up on Amazon, which has become a major player in apparel. Other retailers must compete in this market, where customers often seek the lowest price. Amazon may have overtaken Walmart as America’s No. 1 clothing seller and dominates the online-retail market.
Amazon runs its platform without many of the constraints that other companies apply to their products and stores, sometimes in ways that can put customers and workers in danger. That is particularly true for Amazon’s third-party marketplace, made up of millions of individual sellers. Many are anonymous and aren’t subject to some of the oversight Amazon applies to its own brands and to items it sells directly. Thousands of products listed on Amazon are deemed unsafe by federal agencies, are deceptively labeled or are banned by regulators—items that many retailers’ policies bar. They include items such as unsafe children’s toys and recalled motorcycle helmets. Amazon doesn’t inspect factories making clothing that it buys from wholesalers or that comes from third-party sellers.
Classroom discussion questions:
- Is this a significant supply chain issue? Why?
- What is Amazon’s responsibility in selling products from Bangladesh–and elsewhere?