supermarket fashion labels are a problem... here's why 

just seeing some valid criticism on this video so i want to address it here! watching this video back i can see how it came across as out of touch. it’s always been important to me to focus on condemning brands and ‘big fashion’ rather than shoppers and i try to get this across on all of my videos, however i think i didn’t make this clear enough on this video. To reiterate, i don’t blame anyone for shopping affordable fashion - i blame brands for making millions in profit whilst relying on forced labour & environmentally harmful practices including overproduction. i’m not going to stop coming after brands that so blatantly disregard our planet, but next time i’ll make sure to highlight this more clearly.

It doesn’t surprise me that ASDA is the third largest retailer of clothing for the pure fact of their size inclusivity - they go up to a size 30. It’d be very rare to go into a charity shop and find ANY clothing above a size 20 let alone something good quality and in your aesthetic.

You know why theyre doing better? They're price, size and location accessible for time and money scarce mothers to buy clothing that they can see and touch before they by it without hasvjng to make a specific outing.

One thing I think you missed in why go to supermarkets / death of the high street bit. In smaller towns / rural areas, where the choice in clothes is already basically fast fashion, charity shop, or supermarket, the charity shop offerings are not... Good. Speaking as someone who lives in one of those less populated areas, trying to find anything in a charity shop is just sifting through racks of 8 year old Bon marche products and if you're lucky you might find something from New Look or Shein. *If you're lucky*. You definitely aren't finding any gems when it comes to clothes (now furnishings and books? Those are much less depressing to shop second hand.) Shopping ethically in person in places that aren't big cities with more diverse offerings is hell. Doing it on a budget? Lol.

You see overproduction and overconsumption. I see people who have collapsed their food and clothing budgets into one because they really can't quite afford either of them.

I'm from Croatia, and Lidl clothes are very popular here. I never understood why until I gained weight and grew out of straight size sizing. finiding clothes my size irl is damn near impossible, both fast fashion and secondhand, and Lidl has a great range of sizes for an affordable price. I am all for sustainable fashion, I really am, but sometimes they are really no options, and people don't have the money to buy from sustainable brands. I love your content, but this feels very out of touch, both from a financial point of view, and you being a person in a smaller body

Where I live (we have a city population and now status), we have about six of the big names left on our high street all of which are tiny stores with limited size availability that’s rarely restocked. + tend to be messy as the companies don’t want to pay staff if they’re not turning a profit. Supermarkets in comparison are full, spacious, and relatively well maintained and easy for someone to navigate. Most importantly, they feel SAFE unlike our high street. As you highlighted, it’s a lot easier to just grab something in the supermarket whilst you’re there. It’s cheap and easy and they’re offering fashion and a lot of the time magazines claim supermarket garments are even a good dupe for designer! Surprisingly, outside of M&S (which is too expensive for most people where I live), supermarkets seem to be the only places which offer a larger range of size inclusivity and especially for lingerie. Once Debenhams shut down, a lot of people I know only had the choice of George to buy their bras! Supermarkets are offering what SHOULD be accessible to everyone. I’m glad that they exist for the purpose of being able to clothe your family and even make workwear accessible for most people. There still is a stigma around charity shops and shopping secondhand for some people despite financial standing. This is why I always find brands like these difficult to fully critique having grown up lower working class myself in social housing. Supermarkets express that they’re giving fashion but overall I think their main purpose is functionality over other throwaway fashion such as H&M, Zara, Shein etc. Clothes you can wear whilst cleaning the house, getting mucky in the garden, painting with the kids and so on. It’s just a shame the greenwashing that goes hand in hand with all these. The materials and production behind these garments is the same as everywhere else however I think the throwaway value comes from items just not aligning with peoples lifestyles and it’s so cheap that they don’t want to go through the effort of making a return at the supermarket help desk. Also, another note to add on to my already very long comment, is, I find a lot of people that I personally know which use George, TU, F&F tend to be unhappy with their body as they’ve hit maturity and still yo-yo diet and use these items of clothing as a means to and ends that’ll “do for now” as they plan on changing up their physical appearance in the future.

I enjoy your channel but this video feels out of touch. The cost of living is increasing globally. More people are joining the lower class... hence the increase in supermarket clothing sales. I wore clothes from Walmart and K mart most of my childhood and was bullied for it. It's embarrassing. Instead of blaming overconsumption, I'd question if necessary clothing purchases that used to be made at higher quality clothing stores are now being made at supermarkets.

I'm glad you talked about this and just to add on currently Tesco and the social audit firm they use, Intertek, are facing a lawsuit brought by 130 Burmese workers who made F&F (their clothing brand) jeans for Tesco in Thailand. The garment workers say they were trapped in forced labour conditions, working 99-hour weeks for illegally low pay, while auditors failed to report abuses workers flagged. (taken from The Guardian article about it) The podcast Articles of Interest has an episode called "Inside the Factory" which looks into how brands actually audit the factories they use, worth a listen!

Can anything scream more privilege than being unaware that supermarkets sell clothes because you have never met anyone who buys clothes from supermarkets? Making a poverty tourism trip to local Asda, and trying to speak with authority about why people might shop there?

9:06 is when you said ‘I need a jumper for summer’ which is such an inherently British statement that I did have a giggle at it 😂😂

Grocery store clothes have improved, and they're more affordable. That's it.

I have so many thoughts on this… I grew up in Romania, and after we got into the EU, so many “quality clothes from the UK” thrift shops popped up. This was like 15 years ago. Fast forward to recent years, in Hungary there’s a popular thrift shop chain which I suppose gets its supply from the UK because it is SATURATED with George and F&F branded clothes. I suppose these were from older women just looking at the styles etc. I used to think George is a standalone clothing chain, not a supermarket brand omg!! I was today years old realising this. Also, buying cheap kids’ clothes IS a thing. I plan on having multiple children so I put away the ones my girl grew out of, I also try to buy clothes from Vinted most of the time, but having a couple of new pieces is nice, and Lidl has the best ones if I look at the value per price. So yeah, this is a thing. Maternity wear also. Other fast fashion brands ask a steep penny for things like this, and charity shops tend to have a very low amount of these, and what they have are weird, let’s be honest. Vinted and Lidl tend to have similar prices when it comes to maternity and kids’ wear, sadly.

I just happend to stumble across your channel a few days ago and just love it. You put a lot of afford and information into each video, so thank you for your hard work ❤ It took me a few seconds to realise what you store you meant, when you talked about Lidl because I understood "little" and could not think of a store with a name like that. Tbh I never knew that Lidl was a thing outside of germany.

Lidl also sells clothes in the US I have some leggings from there

my favorite was when heidi klum did a fashion line only available at... lidl...

I didn't even know that supermarkets sold clothes outside of the US. I'm not from the US and honestly always found it weird.

when I first came here in uk, I found it odd for super market has their own clothing line or selling clothing in the first place. but then I remember, this concept is common where I live. we have Aeon with similar concept 😂 you're right, the convenience was the appeal. bcos we used to shop there with our family. once we finished shopping for clothes, we'll go to the supermarket. haha this kinda brings back childhood memory 😅

you also have to look at where this stuff comes from, which is trying to be walmart

I still remember, when buying 'non food item' in supermarkets was a new and somewhat weird concept. I'm not surprised it caught on though, as it's just very convenient for people. They also often offer stuff for much better prices than actual home improvement or electronic stores. I always stock up on bicycle and house/garden maintenance related stuff when Lidl or Aldi has it, as it can cost easily double, when I have to buy it spontaneously. That thing with Lidl selling a quarter of all clothes in Germany though? No way that's correct. I'll do some digging in German and see, if I can find information on it. It sounds completely improbable to me, though. They don't even carry a lot of clothing. It's just occasional (often seasonal) stuff, not like you can just go and clothe your family there.

It's almost like lots of people can't afford even the clothing on their backs and are in need of affordable apparel... Look, I get where you're coming from, but it comes across as very priviledged. Your backdrop isn't helping in that regard either. I don't think blaming the bullet wound for the lax gun laws in the US is a valid argument or complaint. What you're really complaining about is poverty, and frankly, most poor folks don't have time to think about fashion when they're barely scraping by. This takes social and societal changes that go beyond "supermarkets shouldn't sell cheap clothes."

My bras are from Asda and Tesco,,and they’ve lasted years.

Those Costco pima cotton tees and wool lightweight shirts are as good as or better than Brooks Brothers/Banana Republic.

"...and that's a thing for some people". Girl.

After watching whole video I think that you are incredibly privileged and live in some kind of bubble. The main reason why people choose supermarket fashion is price/quality ratio. They can find stuff that is quite similar to popular fast fashion brands, but significantly cheaper. For many it is still something to be ashamed for, that you can not afford blouse or sweats from H&M. I get that probably main purpose of this video was to highlight that brands like Tesco dont give a f about environmental issues enough while creating clothing lines, but for gods sake, then why for good 10 minutes you go on how "some people might think its convenient to shop for clothes there, and why not spend 16£ for jumper". For some maybe, but for most it will literally be "i will spend 16£ on jumper here instead of triple elsewhere". You are sitting in this nice, spacious home ranting about poor people, and that makes me incredibly sad, as I am from background, when in my childhood I used to buy clothes in Tesco or Carrefour with my mum, and things from Zara and alike were for "special occasions".

I completely get the criticism from other people here about privilege and the justification of people buying supermarket clothing, but does the ethical 'cost' of these brands not matter? It is often poor, oppressed people on the other side making these clothes in terrible working conditions, and being paid inadequately for it. Does it matter less because it is not visible to people on the other side of the world? Or because they are from parts of the world that have been poverty stricken for a long time, so what difference does it make? I do think all brands that have fast fashion like ethics need to be criticized and called out by those of us who can do so. In the meantime, those who really need to be buying from supermarket clothing lines should continue doing what's best for them and their financial situation.

first here!