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Re:My visit to American Apparel by josefresco on Thursday January 08, 2009 @01:20PM (#425330)
"wal-mart clothes for 3x the price"

Did you ever stop to think that maybe Wal-Mart clothes are 1/3 the price of what they should be?

And I don't think we as Americans needs to worry about other countries perceiving us as unsophisticated because of AA. There is plenty of low hanging fruit in that category already.

Re:My visit to American Apparel by utsmokingaces on Thursday January 08, 2009 @02:02PM (#425423)
You are trying to get into the ethics of global trade. I am sure glad I can get a plain t-shirt for $6 instead of $20 for AA. But that is a long debate.

Checkout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zara_%28clothing%29 They are a Spanish company that do not outsource their manufacturing. They are able to keep their costs down and deliver the most trendy clothes to their customers. AA on the other hand made clothes that look like 1970s gym clothes.

Re:My visit to American Apparel by bd on Thursday January 08, 2009 @09:09PM (#426048)
Yup, Zara is incredible company.

I usually don't care about apparel brands, but I have a soft spot for Zara. They consistently create nice stuff for very reasonable prices. They make clothes that make you look good, as opposed to having attractive models looking good in whatever.

Their way of doing business is very hackerish (in the best sense), beautifully optimized.

No external marketing, they just put their shops in premium locations, letting their wares "sell themselves".

Instead of paying expensive prima donna fashion designers, they employ an army of young talented people. They constantly monitor fashion trends and consumer demands in their stores, able to rapidly innovate designs and change their production.

Their retail stock is completely rotated every two weeks, which creates an extra incentive for customers to come back to check what's new, and it also encourages Woot-type impulse buying, as the stock is limited.

Using state-of-the-art logistics they manage to keep their operations costs down. Thanks to their efficient procedures they can create better products for cheaper prices than competition.

Re:My visit to American Apparel by jfoutz on Friday January 09, 2009 @12:41AM (#426265)
Re:My visit to American Apparel by potatolicious on Thursday January 08, 2009 @04:39PM (#425700)
Having worked in the manufacturing industry I can tell you this with utmost confidence:

Wal-Mart clothes are precisely as expensive as they should be.

All other clothes are also precisely as expensive as they should be.

There's a very good reason why Wal-Mart clothes are 1/3 the price of other chains, and that word starts with a capital Q. Most people who've never worked in manufacturing call bullshit on this, but they really, really don't know the reality of things. You do get what you pay for.

Re:My visit to American Apparel by Prrometheus on Thursday January 08, 2009 @04:46PM (#425714)
Besides quality, Wal-mart also has one of the most efficient stocking and distribution processes in the world. There is hardly a facet of their business that the folks in Bentonville have not tried to optimize.
Re:My visit to American Apparel by mountain_man on Thursday January 08, 2009 @06:36PM (#425870)
oh, Quality. I thought he meant Quantity.