This "Pic Of The Week" is of a post-Christmas mannequin display in the sprawling department store "House of Fraser" in Westfield Centre, London. Throughout the large store every single plastic body was donning one of these red t-shirts signaling the store's sale. And it wasn't just House of Fraser -- quite a few stores in Westfield had a similar idea.
It made me think: Isn't it a bit embarrassing that even in this flailing economy big retail chains still have so much money that they can afford to create clothing for the sole purpose of advertising a sale on mannequins? I don't mean to preach, but aren't there countries (and areas inside our own country) where people desperately need clean, decent clothing and textiles? Yet here we are, glibly printing shirts just to dress life-size dolls for a week or two.
What do these stores do with all the shirts when the sales end? Somehow I doubt they wash and fold them to save for the next big sale. God forbid they re-use ANYthing, lest they look out of fashion.
Maybe we'll start seeing AP photos of homeless people in Third World nations sporting bright red "SALE" shirts. Sadly, I don't think retail giants are that considerate.
It's something to think about.
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