Rude Shop Keeper...ethical questions

craftlady

Do try Oxfam as they have specialist Wedding Dress shops. Good luck in your quest.

garthdp

sounds like you touched a raw nerve with them.well done to you

lil_lady_2

wow she obviously saw you where a nice person and had a power trip , personally i would have told her to F off but thats me .
Hollywood dreams dresses are made in london (so i have been told)
do u know what dresses she had in?? (designers)
also if you have had a bad experience dont hold back from reporting on the youandyourwedding website theres a thread on there.

Errata

Almost all charity shops will accept wedding dresses and either sell them in their own branch, send them to a branch that specialises in wedding dresses or sell them on.
They will have no idea if the dresses were produced in a sweatshop or not.

SugarSpun

Sweatshop. Blatantly.

I imagine she thought that if she embarrassed you enough you'd drop it and buy the dress to save your blushes.

Errata

Primark if questioned will say none of their garments are produced by sweatshop labour. They are, and in Manchester not in some small town on another continent.

Soubrette

I'm sure it wasn't you personally ecoelle, but just to put another side of the story, imagine if you are subject to casual racism all the time, for example you just have to read some of the posts on here about people who believe that ethnic minorities are somehow more favoured than white people.

Imagine then if someone comes into your shop and asks if you use sweatshop labour and then when asked if they would do the same for other shops that you might consider more white and mainstream...and they say no.

I'm not saying that the shop keeper was not rude but she may well have misinterpreted your question as racist.

That said, you weren't being so you have no need to feel bad about the situation.

Sou

ecoelle

I do ask questions in other shops, it was just the ones she mentioned i don't tend to shop in, i think i may have found another shop with a lady who was really friendly, when i asked her questions about where the dresses came from she was happy to tell me that the factories were in the far east, but had information about them, she knew where exactly they were and i've looked them up and they seem to abide by standards for their workers. Anyway, thanks for the replies.

Soubrette

ecoelle wrote: »

I do ask questions in other shops, it was just the ones she mentioned i don't tend to shop in,

The trouble is she wouldn't know that and it was unfortunate she mentioned shops you wouldn't actually use but she probably assumed were mainstream.

I had a paranoid neighbour once who always talked to strangers who knocked on the door through the letterbox. A black guy knocked and was obviously surprised to have to bend down and have a letterbox conversation.

I was gardening at the time and he asked me if she always did that - I assured him that she did but he did look a bit doubtful and on some levels I can't blame him but on the other hand why should she change her behaviour because some people took it more personally than she intended.

I don't really know the solution to this problem, I can see why she thought you were being racist and I can see that you were not being.

Just a simple misunderstanding and so nothing to feel worried or defensive about.

Sou

Edited to add that I'm glad you've found somewhere more on your wavelength to buy your dress

lil_lady_2

but asking if a dress ( or any clothing) is ethical is a growing trend and as a business woman she should knows this . it is unprofessional of her .