boycott topshop

Photo source: fashionmagazine.com

Up until now I've tried to not really mention my opinions on Topshop on this blog. Mainly because I'm quite conflicted about how to explain them, but also because I know people don't really give a shit because they do what they do really well. If you like that sort of thing. But fuck it. It's something that I feel really angry about & if a blog that started off kind of personal style like can't talk about Topshop then the universe must be broken right? Because most people I talk to about this don't know & I think that's the problem.

So right. 

We all (mostly) know that Amazon, Google and Starbucks don't pay their tax. But why does no one ever mention Arcadia? Probably because no one's heard of them. Arcadia Group Limited own some things you have heard of though; Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Wallis, BHS, Topman & yes indeed, Topshop. They are theoretically owned by Lady Christina Green, or Tina Green. She happens to live in Monaco, haha isn't that handy? A tax haven! Of all places! (She also, on a side note is a white South African, which is something that sits with me extremely uneasily.) Her husband, Sir Philip Green is actually the owner of Arcadia Group and all the others. He does the day to day running and for all intense and purposes is the owner, except he lives in London. Where you (well.. most of us) have to pay tax. So you know as a gesture to make her feel involved or whatever he put his conveniently placed wife at the helm. Imagine earning £1.2billion one year and not even being the owner! No wonder David Cameron asked Sir Green for advice on how to cut government spending, considering he managed to cream off all that profit. 

This wasn't the thing that made me stop shopping there though, like 3? 4? 5, maybe, years ago though. No. It was the experience of being in a Topshop. The images showing girls with personality, models that you'd heard of, wearing clothes you could actually buy. & this is the thing "personality". I think Topshop was the first place where I ever really felt like they were trying to sell a personality to young girls. You know, like buy this dress & you'll totally be Kate Moss! Buy these shoes & you'll be Claire Danes in My So Called Life! Buy these & that guy who's never spoken to you will immediately love you! I know all advertising is like this but it felt more so in Topshop for me. I also felt like their copies of runway looks were being sold to people without the information. & the fact that Topshop is now trying so hard to drive the London Fashion Week scene makes me sort of physically sick. The fact that Samantha Cameron can pose with designers, Philip Green lurking in the background, whilst her husband diminishes the arts and pretends the fashion industry isn't one of the only things we still have going for us in this country. That the name St Martin's resonates around the world more than Eton should fucking mean something, should translate.

But it doesn't. Instead they churn out polyester copies at massive prices and inadequate quality & then turn round & tell us they know so much about fashion because they've worked with a couple of brilliant designers. & I can't say the collaborations are a bad thing to be honest, apart from the obvious fast fashion (& high fashion) guilt about eastern factory workers & the fact that they are essentially more expensive Topshop clothes that they didn't have the guts to make themselves. I also can't explain why I still shop in places like H&M or Zara who pretty much do the same thing. Well actually, H&M doesn't pretend to be anything it's not. It's collaborations are a genuine surprise and it is fast fashion but it doesn't ever say it isn't, it doesn't tell me it knows more than I do about how to dress myself. 

So basically I'm still very conflicted. But my anger remains and that keeps me away. I read someone's post about Topshop clones once who probably wrote this out better than me. I mean my generation did it because it was there, I don't hold it against them. I like that everyone looks better than they did in the 90s, is more aware of fashion than they were, I just fucking hate that they all look the same & that that seems to be the ultimate goal.

You know?

boycott amazon

Whatever your opinions on the book vs the e-reader (& I could write paragraphs on why you'd be wrong if you picked e-reader, in fact I just did & deleted them. Because.. you know.. focus) there is absolutely no reason to inflate the profits of a company intent on putting multiple staples of our high street & our lives out of business. I do not want to live in a world without books, but more than that I do not want to live in a world without shops, where the only place you can shop or need to shop is Amazon.

As much as that, I do not want to buy my nails and hammers from the same place I buy my DVDs. I want to talk to a human being & not scroll through reviews before I can be bothered to make my own mistakes and form my own opinions about things. Specialism is good. Come into the bookshop where I work and the first table is called "Staff Picks" because we know the stock best, we can pick out all the best things because we love them, because we can see past spines and because we know what we're fucking doing.

Of course one of the reasons Amazon became so popular (apart from price, which we'll come to) is because this is dying out, or was. Because scorny faced bored looking assistants in Urban Outfitters don't make me want to shop there. I know they probably get treated like shit & their managers a dick or whatever, but to be honest I don't care. If I'm having the shitiest day in the world at work I'll try even harder with customers so that they don't know that, so that they come back & I still have a job next month.

Now. Back to the most important thing. The thing that makes people mention the "A" word to me at work, immediately deeming them unworthy to shop there; the prices. How can you buy a book on Amazon for half (or even more) than the price in a bookshop like where I work? I'm not going to talk about the tax dodging because if you care enough to read this I'm sure you know enough about it. So let's focus instead on the main costs that Amazon and bookshops share: rent, staff, stock and why it's a totally uneven playing field in those areas as well as tax.

Rent. Bookshops need to be in prime locations so that it's convenient for customers and attracts passing trade, like any real world shop. The rents in these locations are completely extortionate as the private rental market drives them up and up at inflated prices because (some) chains think they can afford them. There are also business rates. Which charity shops do not have to pay, that's why they spring up in prime locations when other businesses can't afford to be there. At these locations too, space is limited, obviously, meaning stock has to be limited. Meaning bookshops can't have every single book you have found in the recesses of Amazon, because we wouldn't expect to sell it. 

Amazon on the other hand, well they rent warehouses. The four in England are in such top locations as Marston Gate, Rugeley, Peterborough, Doncaster and Hemel Hempstead. In the first six months of opening a warehouse or industrial building you pay no business rates. In this time they've probably made up their initial outspend to set up the warehouse. Imagine if your average retail shop had this kind of initial crutch? Although the rent and business rates (when they start paying them) are more, they're huge enough to house enough stock to make this worthwhile in a way that a small shop on a high street is completely unable to.

Staff. The minimum wage in the UK for people my age (20) is £4.98 an hour, I earn more than that in the bookshop where I work & after a review last summer I got a raise because of my high performance. We're also becoming a sort of John Lewis co-op thing as soon as the company goes into profit. My manager treats us with total respect, in the 2 years I've been almost full time I've learnt every aspect of the business, had my input in the running of the shop & been listened to when I've had concerns. 

At Amazon workers have quotas that are completely unrealistic, are given penalties when they take a day off work even for sickness and are unable to unionise against poor working conditions. They are also made to work a night shift at the end of a 5 day week meaning they work every 7 days of the week. That, to me, is slavery. There's a great bullet point list of details things that they've done against workers on the Housmans website as well as Against Amazon if you want specifics. Bust basically if you pay staff well, reward them when they work hard and treat them like human beings that is more expensive, but I do not want to pay less for something at the cost of that.

Stock. This is the biggest issue that faces me day to day working a bookshop. "Oh you don't have it/oh it's £20, I'll just get it on Amazon." They sell books at a loss to entice you in and buy other things, something bookshops cannot do because of the two things above. They put huge pressure on publishers for lower prices, squeezing their margins to the point where authors and they earn next to nothing. How can a business be innovative and take risks when if it doesn't sell they're already tiny margins will completely disappear? Publishers are not struggling because people have stopped buying books, they're struggling because the model of supermarkets putting pressure on their suppliers for smaller and smaller prices has been emulated by Amazon. & they have everything because as well as 78 "Fufilment Centers" around the world Amazon also acts as a platform and owner of millions of independent sellers all over the world. So just because something is listed on Amazon does not mean it's still in circulation and in print and whatever. It might just be sitting at the back of some second hand shop and have been there for decades. That's why I can't get it for you. They also fulfil orders for books they do not have in stock without telling customers they're unavailable or will take longer. We've had tons of students who've ordered foreign language books on Amazon that have simply never arrived. 

In bookshops the stock has usually been handpicked by someone seeing what people have bought before, or in the case of where I work, ordered by the staff themselves from experience of what their customers want or simply what's appealing to them. Making it quirky and eclectic and always a thousand times more interesting than having all the choices presented to you even though they're not necessarily available at all.

Obviously I'm pretty biased, but look at the facts. No tax, unfair treatment of workers and a completely uneven market weighted completely in the massive company's favour. Now I get that when skint it's harder to resist, but do you really need to watch or read or listen to that as soon as it comes out? Can't you wait until the DVD goes down in price or the book ends up second hand somewhere? Lack of money is never ever ever a barrier to morality (despite what Tories might think) and in fact shouldn't the skint among us be standing up for this sort of thing? I don't want a job where I'm treated like a machine or simply like shit. I want to work in a lovely bookshop surrounded by beautiful things, recommending interesting shit to nice people. I want to build a house of books inside my walls, I want artists to have jobs designing their covers and editors to make them and commission them, I want weird books that don't make a massive profit & I want huge expensive books that become heirlom's. I don't want a mystery warehouse in the internet controlled by capitalist robots.

Do you?

This man is now the Mayor of my city.

I can hardly talk that makes me so fucking angry. He was elected on the back of lies & the white middle classes. THE BIGGEST ISSUE IN BRISTOL IS INEQUALITY & GEORGE FERGUSON IS THE EPITOME OF THAT. In a city that has the highest sexual assault rates of anywhere outside of London we have elected a man who believes prostitution can never be got rid of, into a council that is on the brink of allowing a Spearmint Rhino to open in my city. My city. MY CITY. My city. My city did this.

So why do I call him a liar? The media is calling him an independent. He quit the Lib Dems practically seconds before announcing running for Mayor. He says he way key to the redevelopment of Bedminster. He bought a piece of prime property at the right time as the middle classes moved into Southville & instead of turning it into affordable housing or a place for the community is became a hub for theatre, organic food markets & middle class white people. Awesome. At one end of North street and the other the polarities of the city have never been clearer. He says he's "actually done stuff" in Bristol. What he does is campaign against any form of development until it's not approved & then presents his own architecture firms plans and wins the new contract. 

This man is completely self interested. He has been elected by sections of society in Bristol that have too much say already (40% odd turn out in Henleaze, Westbury & Redland) whom I shall forever deem as "The Unthinking Posh". He has no policies on inequality. He has no policies full stop. This is not about one in the eye for party politics as he is at his core a Lib Dem, this is about the fact that people can be bought.

He has admitted to spending at least £60,000 but what about the PR people around him? Every member of the Labour party staff have to declare their time as a deduction from the campaign fund. But I guess they were just volunteers right George? Not that they're getting paid fuckloads from their firms to campaign for you. He needs to be investigated.

I will fight every fucking thing he tries to introduce. If he has any power it will be detrimental to Bristol and will only line his pockets further. This man is poisonous. & we have just put him at the head of our city. Are you fucking happy Bristol? This might be a deal breaker for me to get off my ass & actually leave this ridiculous city.

Oh but PS. The Independent woman won for our PCC, which would be great, if all the above didn't apply.

FUCK.

So it's all over. & what a fucking deflated note to end on when it's basically been a month or more of beautiful amazingness that I never thought we were even capable of hosting. As soon as the Opening Ceremony started all my "I'm not sure about this" was gone. I squealed when Arctic Monkeys came on (luckily I hadn't been on the internet that day & it was a genuine surprise!) & their rendition of Come Together was just... wow. I was blown away, literally. It was a total surprise.

I on holiday for the first week but had the second off work & literally had it on 24/7 when I was at home. It was gripping. As it always was. But somehow more so when you saw everything working & that it was in London & all the different outfits done by Stella McCartney for the medal givers & athletes. It was endlessly entertaining.

Then the closing ceremony happened. I honestly had to keep biting on my blanket it was so embarrassing. I mean George Michael? Ok, if he sings one song & it's one that everyone knows. But not 3. & not unknown ones. That was basically the beginning of the end of the front of pride for me. The Paralympics opening ceremony did little to redeem it, minus the emphasis on Physics & also the Human Rights, which the Tories want to get rid of. & have in fact just promoted one of the most outspoken Conservatives on that front. It was like Danny Boyle's whisper was still echoing around. But it wasn't the same.

& last night after being sick a couple of times I went to bed & just watched the closing ceremony this morning. Sorry not the Paralympics closing ceremony, actually just a coldplay gig. I mean are you fucking kidding me? I know they're meant to be one of the biggest bands in the world but I have literally never met anyone who likes them, or will admit to liking them. & to pin a whole three hour ceremony that's meant to symbolise all that is great about Britain on them is like only showing the Judo coverage from the olympics & nothing else. Like we've never produced any other decent bands. 

To re-alliterate this feeling Rhianna & Jay Z (AKA Chris Martin's mates) performed as well. A song that is about Roc Nation, or at least New York/ the music business. Not the world or even sport. It's not a triumphant song. Like I'm sorry. I fucking love both of them, in almost any other context I would be so hyped to see them even with Jay Z mucking up his verses. But this is to celebrate British achievement. It's a showcase of us to the world, that we have more than handled. With ratios to size we obliterated every other country at the games & we have a rich musical culture (as showcased in the Olympic Opening Ceremony, sort of) we don't need to draft in American's to do the job. Hell no.

But this isn't even the worse thing I've seen today. David Cameron talking about triumph & overcoming adversity when it comes to disability, that "if children are like his" oh man, so many fucking quotes that make me scream mildly over most of his speech. Here's the thing. Labour brought the games to London & did so by saying it would inspire a new generation to take up sport. Labour & specifically Gordon Brown poured money into sport so that we could be the best we could be. Labour invested £2.4bn into school sport raising the participation level to 90%. 

The conservatives have cut funding to sport by £22bn at least since the first budget, mainly from schools but also from councils that provide sports facilities. School children participating in 2 hours of sport has fallen to 25% after the waves of cuts. As much anger as we should legitimately direct at Atos, the company given £100 million a year to take as many people as possible off incapacity benefits, it's the government, the conservative coalition who are driving this. 1100 people on incapacity benefit who were deemed fit for work later died. This government doesn't believe that disabled people should be granted enough money to live a decent life. The money that meant many paralympians could be at the games at all.

And finally going back to the below par-ness of the closing ceremonies & Paralympic opening ceremony I would like to point the finger squarely at Kim Gavin, the director of all three. This man made his name producing Take That's shows. Take That who include Gary Barlow. Gary Barlow who is a supporter of the conservative party, campaigned for them & got a distinctly mute opinion from one David Cameron when asks to compare his moral objection to Jimmy Carr over his old chum Gary Barlow who had done exactly the same thing.

THIS IS NOT OK WITH ME.

(photo credit: Francis Baker and Ros Barnett via Left.write.center. Stats from this article)

Sticker from the etsy shop of the amazing Midge AKA ModernGirlBlitz.

So over my apple & coffee this morning I read this article in G2 about teenagers not knowing what consent means. Interesting, given that recently high profile men & what would appear to be the whole British media, are pretty sketchy about what consent means as well. The only good thing about the Julian Assange fiasco is that if it comes up in conversation I now have a great way of telling what side of the "rape fence" someone stands on & can adjust my behaviour towards them appropriately. As in "Wikileaks is more important than whether two women were raped" = spit in face/point & scream rapist.

The sex education in this country (never mind the rest of the world) is appalling. I was shown the same video twice, about cartoons having sex & what this does to their body. We were never talked to about what constitues emotional abuse, or that because boys are often raised on porn nowadays their expectations of girls are unrealistic & that the girls themselves should treat them as such. Basically, to say girls you have the power to say no to anything you don't feel comfortable with because the boy doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about or wants anyway.

Recently I've had several friends tell me that guys have taken condoms off whilst they were having sex & although they felt completely violated, they didn't consider it rape. This totally astounded me. All of them are confident, self assured feminist women. It angered me so much that if it could happen to them & they did nothing, then what would these guys get away with, with more vulnerable women? They all agreed in the end that they had consented to one thing & the guy's had crossed the line into something that they had not consented to. Whilst I don't know the technical term for rape, it sure sounds like it to me. & I cannot believe that there are teenagers out there thinking this is ok. That there are guys that do this at all. I just... I can't believe it's so fucking common.

"27/06/11

So, this is the beginning of my proper human life. As of the end of (hopefully) my last ever exam at 11.15 this morning. It didn't go so well, but nevermind. I don't want to be a physisist anyway. I also started volunteering at Oxfam..."

One year ago today man. In the diary I started to stop myself doing fuck all. I've been a proper human being for one whole year. I've been feeling pretty fucking down about it too. All I've done is quadruple the days I work in a bookshop. All I've done is a few days here & there in other careers (art teaching, at the Guardian, meeting with a local stylist) that I now realise I do not want to do. Yeah, I'm pretty clear about what I don't want to do. 

Everyone tells me to chill out "It'll fall into place" but you know, it won't. I'll be like 30 still living at home & working at the same bookshop. Bitter & pissed. With all these people telling me how I should go off & do something amazing. Even my boss tells me I shouldn't work there. That I should find something better. But everyone thinks they're better than that right? Maybe I'm not. Maybe I am destined to work in a bookshop & I found my calling at 16 & everyone should just shut up about it.

Except that just doesn't sit right. One more year & all the people my age will have degrees &  I have to have done something. Sorry. Self indulgent post. I'll get over it again & carry on.

I've just been to a debate on the "Future of Feminism" that makes me truly think that the future of feminism is fucked if it's left in the hands of these "sisters". Not only were the panel patronising, they didn't answer the questions from the audience. They also intimidated other members whilst talking about patriarchy and how we have to bond together in a "sisterhood" and stop judging each other. In the words of my wonderful feminist mother "If you are against the patriarchy then stop patronising my daughter". 

When I asked a pretty legitimate question about the fact that the furthering of the feminism is more about empowering women from the ground up rather than having theoretical debates between like minded people about how we can further equality for everyone; I was met with defensiveness and talk of outreach programmes. The panel were very happy to talk about getting involved with the community to further the "feminist movement" but nothing about actual real women and what it can do for them. Nothing about young women which I specifically mentioned. And don't even get me started on Finn Mackay's response.

Other audience members asked questions which were repeatedly not answered or brushed over into areas the panel felt more comfortable talking in. There were interesting points raised about the role of black feminism as a separate entity within feminism as Chitra Nagarajan from Southall Black Sisters was on the panel. There was also a comment from Finn Mackay to the effect of "In the media feminists are painted as hairy, man hating idealists, like that's a bad thing" which was met with laughter. BUT IT IS A BAD THING. That's the reason young women do not want to identify themselves as feminists. That's why the girl in the audience who'd prompted this reply was being taken to an employment tribunal after making a sexual harassment accusation on the basis that she was an outspoken feminist and didn't know whether to identify herself as such in court.

She was also told to walk into court and tell them "to fuck off" by an American woman who had already read a piece from Sian Norris' book that was straight out of the handbook of bad 70s feminism. This is support. This is "sisterhood".

This same woman had grabbed the microphone to tirade a girl on the other side of my mum who had wanted to ask a VERY RELEVENT question about the medias perception of feminists. Offhandedly she had asked why writing about feminism is still seen as something to tiptoe around & apologise for, unlike racism or homophobia. But the high & mighty couldn't let it slide & answer the pressing question about perception of feminists, they decided to barrage her with complaints about how people are still racist & homophobic. Huh! Really? They patronised her to the point my mum was sat between two young girls shaking with anger at being scrutinised for wanting to move the idea of feminism & the moment forward. Into the future. The point of the whole debate.

No wonder young women do not identify with the idea of feminism if it is still purely a debate for academics. When the idea of patriarchy is still introduced. When we are told to "say the word feminism everyday". When those on the "feminist scene" are too closed to talking about feminism with anyone who doesn't identify with "sisterhoods" & "women only spaces". I am one of those young women & I can tell you for sure that I have said the word feminism to more people in my short 20 year lifetime outside of the world of "feminism" than any of them. I have debated what it means to be feminist with teenage boys raised on pornography & Lil Wayne. & I don't fucking care about pornography & I fucking listen to Lil Wayne.

If you preach non judgement on other women then do not belittle me because I oppose your arguments & can back them up. Do not set up a debate of the future of feminism and only talk about ideas of feminism that have been irrelevant for decades. We need it more that ever & they're taking it & turning it into something cliched & undebatable. So fuck it. Maybe I'm not a feminist. Maybe I'm an equalist. Because if the debate of feminism has been hijacked by these people then I do not identify it & I'll move onto a different debate. That of equality for all. Because that was meant to be the message all along.