Giulia Oros on Naomi Klein's "The Discarded Factory"

In The Discarded Factory from Naomi Klein's book No Logo, Klein reveals to us the extent in which companies are dedicating themselves to the logo and not to the actual products. Her article explains how companies are no longer selling products, but instead they are selling a lifestyle. Hence, companies are investing money into creating a soul rather than merchandise. This shift in the lavish spending on marketing and branding means less investing in production facilities and labor. Corporate is therefore paying less which means that the laborers earn less in relation to the corporate earnings to satisfy the industry’s budget.

According to the author, ad agencies believe that the true value of a brand is the idea, the lifestyle, and the attitude. This is all in the mentality of the customers. I really appreciate how clearly she explains the logic of the corporations in regards to their shifting priorities. Her examples are rather disturbing and distressing, but they truly stir sympathy for the workers and the situations they must endure just for a mere wage.  The conditions in which shoes and clothes are made at such a cheap price but in terrible circumstances for the workers would make me feel guilty walking into a Nike store. After reading this eye-opening article, I could never look at brand name logos the same way ever again. In my opinion, the author depicts these corporations and factories as some sort of evil life-sucking entities in which they “extract” as many hours from each voiceless person as they can and greedily withhold money to laborers but rather put it in maintaining their logo.  

The horror stories in which Klein sews into her article indicate to me that these complaints and cases are just a few out of thousands. In one sentence, I feel like the author accurately expresses the working conditions: “work in the zone is characterized by this brutal combination of tremendous intensity and nonexistent job security” (215). All the suffering that the overworked women endured to keep their jobs somewhat secure goes unrecognized and practically forgotten, and really it only dawned upon me in this class that this issue is prominent in many foreign countries. Klein demonstrates the desperate measures that women go through by working at these companies; one example she gave was that a worker drowned her newborn baby in a toilet because she was afraid of losing her job. They pee in plastic bags and are punished for talking during their working hours;  it fathoms me that people endure such abuse to barely support themselves. Right now, it bewilders me how many desperate measures workers had to go through to get paid so little just to put a stitch on a shirt or a lace on a shoe. Our society is so oblivious to the harsh reality of the working industry of brand name companies; we are blinded by the ads and the glorious façade the brands portray to the masses. For me, a middle-class college student and part-time worker, I personally cannot deny that I shop at brand name stores and I try to find the best deals. For me, it is because I have known the company has certain good quality merchandise, but it never occurred to me how they got to the store.

Now that we know the places where our shirts and shoes go through before they get stocked in the aisles of a department store, how is that going to change our shopping habits? Are there any alternatives to being the customers that these corporations want?