Primark hits the headlines again

On the 10th of January Primark announced they were investigating after reports made by the Observer reports made by the Observer and the BBC suggested a Manchester supplier may have breached employment and immigration laws.

Primark’s auditors are not, it seems, the sharpest tools in the box. After all, it isn’t the first time that Primark have said they were blissfully unaware of what was going on within factories that supplied them. Even after journalists uncover reams of evidence and information Primark maintain that they have stringent checks in place, that the supply chain is too complex to really know anyway, that it is a one off and that it IS possible to make a sequined top for £3. In the most recent Manchester incident Ethical Primark explains that “this was the third time in less than a year that independent auditors instructed by Primark had inspected TNS”
Unfortunately missing, again, what journalists were able to uncover. (Is it only me that was a tiny bit surprised that the workers were actually paid as much as £3 an hour?! After all it is apparently impossible to pay workers in India a wage that they can live on, even though that is almost nothing in pounds.)

Blogger,The Seldom Seen Kid says:

“Primark can not continuously find itself embroiled in these sorts of allegations, if it is to survive in the high street. There will be a point when the public vote with their feet and walk away from the clothes store. You would have thought.”

So you would have. But no. As ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ goes on to point out, the Primark shoppers interviewed by the Manchester Evening News didn’t seem overly concerned at the reports. And you might think that is just down to chance and other shoppers, not interviewed, might have cared enough to change where they shopped. Primark’s rising profit levels suggest otherwise. Boo hiss.