(Un)ethical retailers

After my comments touching on working conditions in places less affluent than ours, I've just happened upon this article in the Times. Not so surprised by big American companies like Levis and Walmart, and perhaps not even so surprised that brands like Primark who might be more susceptible to negative publicity.. but I am surprised that John Lewis* and Sainsbury's, bastions of the middle class, don't appear to be taking supply working conditions seriously. Perhaps that says more about how the average consumer's (and the media's, and my) prejudices sit firmly with low cost brands, at the expense of looking at every brand.

* Waitrose is reputedly very up on offering "fair" prices to their food suppliers, which again leads me to think that "corporate responsibility" is almost entirely a device to boost sales. Of course, I'm not so naive to think that this couldn't be a primary motive, or that all companies operate the same way, or self righteous enough to say that it's a bad thing, but it does demonstrate quite neatly that if consumers don't care where the goods come from, the supplier almost certainly won't!