29th October 2018
Sam’s Club to trial “no cashier” branch
Walmart's member's only Sam's Club announced on October 28 that a Dallas trial of an upgrade to its "Scan & Go" app, which will investigate cashier-free operations, will start "as...
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23rd October 2018
Confusion over Amazon’s share of US clothing market
Estimating how Amazon ranks in the US clothing market is tricky - and often leads to real overstatements. With their Q3 results about to be announced, it's worth looking at...
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9th November 2016
Post Trump and Brexit: there’s more than one way to skin the international retailing cat
While American voters were confounding practically all observers on November 8, on the other side of the Atlantic Britain’s Marks & Spencer unveiled a strategy that may be designed for...
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28th April 2015
Precedents look weak for Bangladesh lawsuits against buyers
Lawsuits announced in late April against apparel buyers over factory disasters now mean cases have been attempted in five different countries. But the likelihood of success still looks weak. On...
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8th December 2014
First VF-guaranteed loans to Bangladesh garment factories as Walmart with other Accord and Alliance members “looking at” similar packages
VF and World Bank subsidiary the International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced on December 8 the first three VF-guaranteed low-interest loans for upgrading Bangladesh garment factories. On December 5 Walmart was...
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3rd July 2014
Now US Congressmen join Western buyers in attack on Bangladesh government and factory owners
In unprecedentedly undiplomatic language. the major Western garment buyers publicly accused the Bangladesh government on June 30 of making "a threat to the rights and safety of trade union activists,...
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8th January 2014
Factory owners and retailers differ over future of Cambodian garment industry after year-end strike
Two startlingly different views emerged on January 6 and 7 about the effect of Cambodia's garment strike on the industry's prospects for 2014. Cambodian factory owners pessimistic. Garment Manufacturers Association in...
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2nd January 2014
Retailers start Bangladesh compensation funds as media “shaming” campaigns make little progress
Late December media campaigns to shame the US government into adopting an ethical sourcing policy and worldwide buyers into compensating Bangladesh factory tragedy victims seem to have made no progress....
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31st October 2013
US continues high-profile onshoring
The US dribble of high-profile onshoring projects with limited job creation continued in late October with well-publicised announcements from Ralph Lauren and Walmart. Walmart announced on October 31 that EP American...
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10th October 2013
Major retailers go cool on Asian expansion
Major garment retailers have begun to show growing coolness on their Indian and Chinese operations, while finding ingenious ways of keeping some involvement. Tesco announced on October 1 its current...
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10th October 2013
Bangladesh Accord explains why Aswad fire site was not listed:
The Bangladesh Accord has explained why the Aswad Composite Mills plant in Gazipur was used by a number of signatories, but does not feature in the factories list the Accord...
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17th September 2013
M&S and Walmart now phone polling Bangladesh garment factory workers
Marks & Spencer and Walmart both announced substantial roll-outs of their mobile phone garment factory worker research pilots to improve supplier compliance in Bangladesh. The two are approaching the resource...
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