rant whine 'splain espouse: Confession

Thursday, August 19, 2004

Confession

Last week I bought something at the Gap. Those of you who know me probably just let out a shocked gasp.

If you don't know me, an explanation is in order. The Gap is one of the largest clothing manufacturers in the world, and as such, a company that wields immense power in its industry. It is also one of the biggest purveyors of clothing made in overseas sweatshops.

I didn't buy any clothing. I bought a messenger bag. This doesn't really make it any better, since the bag was probably made in a sweatshop in China or something. But I try to find a modicum of justification in the fact that I've been looking for the idea messenger bag for over six months, and simply haven't been able to find what I was looking for anywhere else. Not until I walked by a guy in San Francisco last week who had a really great bag. I asked him where he got it.

"At the Gap," he offered helpfully, not knowing that my well-hidden reaction inside was, "Aw, crap."

I had an hour and a half to kill before I met my friend, so I walked down to the Gap to see if they were still carrying it in stock. Indeed, they were. And indeed, I bought it. It truly is a very good bag; has all the features I've been looking for and a few I hadn't been, and was a very good price. Damn.

About a dozen of my closest activist friends would probably cringe slightly if I told them this, but I also know some of them are reasonable enough people to understand when sometimes a compromise must be made. And yes, I actually do mean "when one must compromise one's principles."

I realize that's what I did. But I intend to make up for it. Because, in the same way that I try to make up for occasionally buying books from Amazon.com by purchasing an overwhelmingly larger amount from locally-owned used book stores, I believe that it's incumbent on me to not let my $35 go into the pockets of Gap Inc.'s shareholders without them hearing from me (or at least the company's management).

So I intend to do something to balance the scales. I haven't decided exactly what yet. I've got a few ideas so far:

1) I might write a letter to the Gap about my concerns.

2) I might create a new microwebsite about the Gap's past sins, thereby educating more people about their shady labor practices.

3) I might bring back the Crap T-shirt (a parody of the Gap logo which an SF company used to produce, but mysteriously doesn't any longer), by producing them through Caf� Press (until I hear from the Gap's lawyers, I suppose).

Wanna weigh in on which you'd prefer? Leave a comment...

And in the spirit of telling multinational corporations that we indeed an informed consuming public, that we're watching them, and that we're demanding them to do better, here's the Photo of the Day (Heidi and Olya outside the Telegraph Ave. Gap, Berkeley).