We didn’t enjoy our first market experience so we decided to try the Sunday one on the altipiani above us. It’s a windy climb up the mountain that Mr FF always enjoys driving, I find it rather worrying as a lot of motor bikes enjoy the road too and it’s a bit of a race track.
Again we found the market too busy for our liking and instead took a walk round the quiet streets of the town. A little after 12 we tried again, by this time most people had left. Generally the stall holders start packing up around midday for a one o clock finish, this time they hung on presumably needing a bit more trade.
I braved a rummage on the everything 5 euro table, in fact I found a very nice Marks and Spencers swimming costume in my size. The supermarket one I’ve been wearing in our pool is suffering from the chlorine and I didn’t want to waste my better costume so I bought it. Mr FF got a nice cotton shirt, we were very happy.
However when I was pulling out items to examine twice I came across clothing with UK charity shop labels still attached. In fact one top had a Red Cross ticket reducing it to £1. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen this. I did a bit of research and it seems charity shops bundle up unsold items, generally cheap fast fashion, to be shipped abroad for rags, to be sold on markets or simply put into landfill. Shocking, it just demonstrates how unsustainable cheap fashion chain clothing is, not just from the disposal point of view but also the awful production conditions for workers, though I’m not totally convinced that some of our better quality chains treat their producers much better.
All pretty depressing really - one never knows where ones contributions are going to end up.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty awful to hear. I knew that things spent a limited time in the shops, but thought that they were then passed on to another branch where tastes might be different. We live in such a wasteful world.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever watch the documentary "fashion's dirty secrets"? Stacey Dooley investigated the awful effect of cheap fashion on the environment and it was quite shocking. I didn't know that our charity shops shipped unsold items abroad but suppose if some get worn again that's at least staving off the inevitably ending up in landfill for a bit longer.
ReplyDeleteI can confirm from helping out in a Charity Shop that its policy is to keep items on the shop floor for 14 days, after which, if they are in good condition and there is no obvious reason why they haven't sold, they are passed to another store and from there another etc.. In fact it's not unusual to find items returning to your own shop after a gap of several months. To be fair, however, when culling items that have been out for 14 days and are unsold, we are much more discerning as to their saleability and it is those items that are placed in sacks for collection by the rag trade and for which the charity is paid a pittance. I'm always shocked,however, by the number of items that are donated still with the original chain shop label on them and which the original owner clearly changed their mind about.
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