Episode 255: I’m With The Brand (the price is right?), part eight

Many of you have reached out to get my thoughts on the closure of Remake.

And yes, it’s really complicated for me. I have spent a lot of time reflecting on this over the last week. It took a long time to get my thoughts together.

This is from  the part of me that works really hard to be a source of hope and motivation. The part of me that cries every time I think about Remake decided to shut itself in the bathroom until I was done writing this.

But both parts agree: this is not the end of the slow fashion movement…it’s just part of the growth and awakening many of us have been experiencing over the last few years.

To be fully transparent: it’s hard for me to be completely neutral about Remake. My feelings are just too complicated. A few years ago, the organization’s carelessness became an incredibly traumatic experience for me.  It started with an instagram post shared without my permission that heavily implied that my bipolar disorder had led to shopping addiction. The organization could have just pulled the post and apologized. But instead it turned into a full-on nightmare that included bullying (via email and Zoom) from the CEO of the organization and a follow up instagram post that painted me as a fame-hungry liar.  Behind the scenes, I was engaging in self harm as a coping mechanism (I can still see the marks on my left arm) and very seriously considering ending Clotheshorse.

That experience changed me forever. I still feel nervous standing up for myself online.. I have a great deal of paranoia about my work being stolen/copied. And I have been intensely distrustful of anyone involved with Remake, which has made me turn down opportunities and potential friendships. I still find myself intentionally separating myself from those involved with the organization.

However, all of this work advocating for humans is done by humans. And that means it will sometimes be imperfect. People make mistakes and hurt one another accidentally all the time. What Remake did to me does not cancel out the years of impactful work done by the organization, its ambassadors, and its larger community around the world. 

While Remake has been an integral part of many campaigns and projects over the years, its most important legacy is the community that developed around it. So many people found purpose, connection, and personal growth via Remake’s community organizing.  From afar, I have watched so many of you literally change the course of your lives after getting involved with your local Remake chapter. I do not want that to end.

I do think (and I say this as a person with a podcast literally called Clotheshorse) that a lot has changed over the past few years, both in the slow fashion movement and the world at large.  

We can no longer view the fast fashion system and its human impact as a separate, specific issue.  Fast fashion is part of a larger set of interconnected issues that threaten our planet and our future: uncontrollable greed, the rise of fascism, widening wealth inequality, lack of oversight and repercussions for the wealthiest in our world, and technology wielded as a tool to divide us.  

It’s no coincidence that we see fashion and cosmetics billionaires like LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault or Ronald Lauder supporting Donald Trump.  

It’s no coincidence that Les Wexner (so many mall brands including Bath + Body Works) is found all over the Epstein files.

It’s no coincidence that we see executives from fast fashion conglomerates like URBN (Anthropologie, Free People, Urban Outfitters, Nuuly)  donating to Republican candidates.

Fascism and fast fashion are just fruits of the same poisoned tree.  A tree that grows from unchecked greed and disregard for other humans.

A tree that regards humans merely as workers and wallets. 

A tree whose roots suck up all of the water, resources, and sun…leaving little for everyone else.

A tree that ultimately destroys everything and everyone around it as it grows and grows.

The thing is: we CAN cut down that tree.  It’s not easy.

The ax is super heavy. It will require a lot of chopping. 

One person or organization can’t lift the ax.  And it’s easy to get tired from all of that chopping. 

It will require patience. Hard work.  Time. But most importantly…we need EVERYONE helping to get the job done.  And that means extending our work and our community outside of slow fashion.

Politics, human rights, anti racism, feminism, animal rights, environmentalism, childcare, small business, education, research, healthcare, food…we must join forces with everyone who cares about these things (and more because this is not a comprehensive list).   That’s how we get the work done.

Community and solidarity are the way forward. I am worried about who will be the “connector” now that Remake is gone.  But I am also excited to see how we can build even larger communities when we extend our work and passion beyond dismantling fast fashion.  

I always say that slow fashion is a way of life: Being a concerned citizen. Voting. Organizing within our communities.  Educating others.  Running for office. Sharing our time and expertise. Showing up for our neighbors. And of course, changing our own relationship with shopping, clothes, and “stuff.” 

All of us who care about dismantling fast fashion want a better world. I know we can make that happen.

I believe in us.  

Okay…Dustin…can we get some cute music right here to transition into the episode?

Let’s do a little #buyerslife imagination exercise…close your eyes and imagine this: you’re sitting at your desk at your buying job at any brand, selling just about anything around the world.  If you’re working specifically in fashion, you’re probably wearing a full face of makeup.  You’re hoping your bangs aren’t parting themselves down in the middle again.  You’re wondering why you made the foolish decision to wear a strapless bra to work today.  And if it’s summertime, you’re freezing your butt off, possibly wearing a “desk coat” while wrapping a blanket around your legs. You’ve just taken a break from vlookup formulas and emails to eat an underwhelming $15 salad. You’re simultaneously scrolling instagram while wondering if you’ve been drinking enough water today.   And while you’re reassuring yourself “salad without dressing IS good,” someone thrusts a sweater in front of you.  Or it could be a necklace, throw pillow, pair of socks, lip balm…really anything.  You look up to see one of your coworkers and she asks, “how much would you pay for this?”

By now you’ve been working in buying long enough to know what this person is REALLY asking you:  how much would the customer pay for this item?  Not necessarily how much YOU would pay because you get an employee discount.  Or you know that sweater is acrylic or that pillow isn’t washable and you wouldn’t actually buy it.

No, you’re trying to figure out what the customer–the target customer for your employer’s brand–would pay for that item.  And that price is called the “perceived value.”  Meaning…the price a customer is willing to pay is based on their interpretation of an item’s value…the impression that item is making on them.  All that to say…perceived value CAN be rooted in tangible qualities: 14K gold versus surgical steel.  Alpaca vs. acrylic.  The amount of RAM a computer has (learning that one the hard way these days).  Serving size (small drink versus large drink).  And yes, we will pay more or less based on those criteria.  But ultimately, what we are willing to pay is based on something far less tangible…vibes.  As I have said before, 95% of the reason we buy anything, where we buy it, and when we buy it…is purely psychological. And how much we are willing to pay is also part of that. 

That’s the thing about pricing: sure, it needs to math the math.  The cost of producing that product needs to be covered.  It needs to hit the margin target your employer has set for you.  And that margin target accounts for the company’s total overhead expenses and leaves room for net profit that will you know, drive stock prices, pay shareholders, and cover executive bonuses.

But no matter what your margin target is, if the price you need to charge to hit that target, to make the math MATH, isn’t what a customer is willing to pay…well, then it’s back to the drawing board.  When you know what a customer’s perceived value of that item is, you have to engineer that item to make the price work (and hope that the customer still likes it).  This means potentially bringing down the cost of the item so that you can price it lower: 

1. changing up the fabric, yarn, ingredients, etc
2. Making it smaller: make a maxi skirt a miniskirt, turn it into a crop top, a big pillow becomes a small pillow, a lip balm just shrinks a little bit
3. Cutting out some of the details: remove the pockets from the dress, reduce the embroidery on the pillow, now the lip balm doesn’t come in a box, it’s just floating free in a tube or pot.

The risk here is that after all of those changes, it might no longer be desirable to the customer. The perceived value might drop or even disappear entirely.

The other approach is to say “hey, maybe we can make this product SEEM more expensive, raising the customer’s perceived value of it.” Of course, the catch here is that you have to make this item seem nicer without spending more money to make it.  So it’s all about creating the illusion of value:

• Maybe the packaging colors change.  The box switches to a matte cardstock.  The graphic design gets tweaked to align with current graphic design trends.  Or maybe the design mimics a more high end brand. You will see this a TON in cosmetics and personal care products.  Drugstore brands trying to mimic the color palettes, fonts, and design of more high end brands. Glossier’s minimalist, millennial pink and white design has been copied so many times at this point that Glossier no longer feels unique or premium.  All of the knock offs have DECREASED Glossier’s perceived value.
• If it’s jewelry or other metal items you can take a page out of the Urban Outfitters playbook: antique the metal to make it less shiny. Yeah, I know that sounds so silly, but that’s what we did with every single jewelry piece when I worked there.  Yes, it was the same $1.90 jewelry that Forever 21 was selling, but by just making the metal less shiny, we could charge $18 or even $28 for it. 
• If it’s a textile item, maybe you can do an extra wash on it or tweak the color slightly.  Because something that feels a little softer feels more valuable.  The same goes for color…even turning the saturation down a little bit on a color can  make it seem more…”premium.” Sometimes–especially with sweaters, scarfs, and hats–I found that you can actually increase the perceived value of a knit item by swapping into  loftier, even more synthetic yarn…which is actually cheaper!

None of these changes improve the quality of the item, yet they fundamentally change the value of that item. They increase the vibes. When you get down to brass tacks, this idea of perceived value is all an illusion.  There are two phrases that I find super triggering from years of working in buying departments…but I also catch myself saying them all the time:

“OMG that is SO CUTE.”

And

“Ooooh, that looks expensive.” Always in reference to something that is not, in fact, expensive, but has been tweaked to SEEM expensive, to increase that perceived value.

That’s the thing about perceived value and pricing in this century, more than a decade into the fast fashion era:  it’s all about building an illusion of value.  And that illusion is part of the larger illusion that a brand creates: the emotional connection with customers, the identity that it lends to its customers so they will continue to show up.  Yes, pricing is just another part of emotional branding…because we all have a lot of emotions wrapped up in price and value. 

Wait…did someone say “branding?” Uh oh…sounds like it’s time for another installment of “I’m with the brand.” And this time we will be asking “when is the price truly right?”

Welcome to Clotheshorse, the podcast that costs a lot of money to look this cheap. 

I’m your host, Amanda. And this is episode 255, part 8 in an ongoing series about brands and how they influence our identities and drive consumerism.  If you are new to the podcast or need a refresher because I took a little break from this series, go back and get started with part 1.

In this episode we are going to unpack the vibes and strategies around the number you see on a price tag.

If you’re feeling skeptical about how the price we are willing to pay for something is influenced by vibes, I guarantee you will feel very differently by the end of this episode.

Two last things before we jump into the episode:

1. I have ten postcards remaining and they are already stamped and ready to go. So if you have not signed up for a postcard, this is your last chance.  The link to get your card is in the show notes. For these last few cards, it is limited to US addresses because I am out of international stamps and they cost me $1.50 each!
2. I have a ton of merch inventory–iron ons, stickers, pins–leftover from tour and I really want to get it out of the house (and recoup some of the money I spent on it).  So for the next month, podcast listeners (you are such an elite group) get 50% off EVERYTHING with the promo code THEPRICEISRIGHT.  You will find that code in the show notes.

Years ago, I had a friend who was working on a pretty daunting project: turning drugstore brand Wet N Wild into a more premium brand.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with this brand (pretty sure this means you were never a teenage girl or teen goth–Wet n wild made black lipstick that cost $1 when I was in high school and it was a very important part of my development)…Wet N Wild has been around since the late 70s. It is usually the least expensive brand of cosmetics found in drugstores and mass retailers.  Just about everything is under $10, with most of the products being under $5. My first lipstick was without a doubt Wet N Wild–glitter color changing of course.  And the brand is cruelty free and most products are vegan.  On top of that, the quality is pretty decent.  They have won a lot of awards over the years for their formulations.  

I guess in the mid 2010s, Wet N Wild was having a bit of an identity crisis, as company leadership was wondering “we have this good product.  It’s cruelty free. There is a loyal fanbase.  Why can’t we raise our prices to be more in-line with Revlon or L’oreal?” I’m sure they were also motivated by customer loyalty to Sephora’s own in-house brand of makeup.  Why couldn’t Wet N Wild capture the same fan base?

The problem–as my friend figured out pretty fast–is that Wet N Wild just has a lower perceived value…even though the product is decent, and as good as (if not better) than more expensive drugstore options. There were just a lot of issues that made an increased price seem impossible.  What was keeping its perceived value so low?

• First, the brand name.  It was kinda cute in the 80s, but in an already saturated market, it sounds cheap and out-of-date.  I mean, try comparing it to Glossier. Tarte. Mac. Nars.  I found a post on Reddit from 8 years ago discussing the brand name. Someone called it a “silly, porn- y name.” Another person added that Wet N Wild is also the name of a chain of waterparks…which feels like a complicated situation.
• Next, Wet N Wild has always been associated with teenagers.  Even the current Wet N Wild about page declares, “wet n wild® starts as everyone’s first beauty brand.” For an ageist culture that glorifies youth, we don’t really think of teenagers as an aspirational brand.
• Then there was the packaging…it just looked kinda…cheap.  Which is not to say that the packaging costs any less than any other drugstore brands.  But it was shiny.  The graphic design was a little stale. Other drugstore brands like e.l.f.  And NYX were actually making a jump in terms of perceived value because they were using the right cardstock, matte jar lids, minimal art and font. They were even doing something as simple as using black palettes instead of white palettes, which made the contents seem more expensive.   Were the products any better than Wet N Wild? Probably not.  But they just looked more expensive.
• And then there was the in-store experience.  Like a lot of drugstore brands, Wet N Wild is on a special fixture designed just for the brand. And in many stores, it was either at the far end of the makeup aisle (you know…that liminal space where you find nail files, tweezers, and polish remover) or on an endcap of another aisle, sort of set aside from the rest of the makeup.  This alone made the brand seem less desirable.

Ultimately my friend’s advice to the brand? Forget about becoming “premium.” Instead, be this hidden secret. This super value that only those in the know get to use.  Lean into the cruelty free and vegan aspect.  Talk up the awards and formulations.  Make people feel like they are getting this extra special deal, like they are smarter than everyone else who’s paying 10X more for something similar at Sephora.  Sounds a lot like the TJ Maxx strategy, right?

Not to brag—because to be honest, this is a depressing thing to brag about–but I am really good at taking something kinda cheap and making it feel more expensive…raising that perceived value.  And I have to say, I learned everything I know about doing that from the years I worked at Urban Outfitters.  Because all of the URBN brands–Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, and even Nuuly–are making fast fashion (and fast everything) look like it’s not fast fashion.  They aren’t the only brands that do this…and certainly, I applied everything I knew about creating the illusion of value and “elevating” fast fashion at every single job I had.  How do these brands make things seem more expensive, more valuable than they really are?

It’s all about the branding! It’s all of these little things that add up to make you feel something about the company that is about to sell you something.  And these little tiny things WILL make you pay more.

As I mentioned in the intro of this episode, sometimes it’s just about making some tweaks to the product that make it seem nicer…even if those changes don’t actually change the quality of the item. 

•  “Antiquing” the metal of a cheap necklace to make it seem nicer. Changing up the finish on buttons and rivets. One thing I have done hundreds of times in my career is ask my production person to find a button that costs the same price but “looks” more expensive.  Hard to explain what that means, but I know it when I see it.
• Washing t-shirt fabric so it’s a little bit softer.  Or washing a graphic tee after it was screenprinted to fade the print. Don’t even get me started on screen prints that actually have the distressing built into the screen to make a tee look worn or “vintage.” I like to think that doesn’t trick people, but sales data has indicated otherwise at some of my jobs.
• Changing up the fiber.  For example, in the 00s, heathered tees were all the rage. Still kinda are? Thanks American Apparel.  And the thing about those heathered tees? They were actually a poly cotton blend. More prone to pilling.  Less breathable.  Inherently, a lower quality product. But we found that we could charge MORE for a heathered tee than we could a standard 100% cotton one.  Oh one more thing about the American Apparel era: if we put a contrast drawstring in a hoodie, we could charge $5 more, no problem.  
• Even just tweaking the color to be a little unique can increase the perceived value of an item. I know that sounds silly, but it works.  We tend to think of more saturated colors as “cheap” (unless it’s a specific trend color), but we value less saturated, more neutral shades (one of my painting professors used to call it “browning down” a color by mixing just a dash of a complementary color.  Add a hint of green to red, and suddenly it becomes a bit richer…and you can charge more money. I’m obsessed with color theory, whether we’re talking about painting or clothing.  

But once a brand has exhausted every little product tweak, they are really leaning into the branding to create the illusion of value, to raise that perceived value.  And once again, the URBN brands are essentially a master class in doing this. Remember, it’s all fast fashion clothes, made of the same fabrics and fibers as stuff you can buy at any other store at the mall.  And it’s made in the same factories as all of those brands.  But the URBN brands can get away with marking  it up 5 to 6 times the cost of making it because of the branding.  Think about it:

• The stores…all of that dialed in visual merchandising, cool displays, the smell of the stores, the music playing in the background, the aesthetically pleasing, well dressed employees. I swear that what REALLY made Anthro and Free People develop such a devoted following is just how nice the stores looked.  Especially Anthro. None of those stores are using ugly metal grid (like you might see at Forever 21 or H+M).  The fixtures aren’t shiny. (Once again, the finish of a metal matters).  You’re going to see more tables, whimsical “found” furniture. Nice lighting.  All of the signage is lowkey, printed on high quality cardstock and glued to wood boards.  It almost blends in. The mannequins aren’t hard plastic, they are really nice dress forms on custom metal stands.  And when I was a store merchandising manager for Urban Outfitters, we literally had a woodshop in the back where we built every display you saw on the floor.  I was back there weaving, macrameing, dyeing, painting, building flower walls, and so much more. We took scrap materials and turned them into something beautiful. My display artist James and I were literally out driving around before dawn, looking for abandoned pallets so we could have more wood for flooring, risers, and more.  And we made so much cool stuff! Recently I was looking through photos of some of my past visual merchandising installations, and I was like “wow, that’s how we got people to pay $28 for plastic shoes that cost $1!”  
• But conversely, think of a place like TJMaxx or Ross: these stores have extremely utilitarian fixtures and signage. Shiny racks, tons of wall grid, signs that kinda just do the job of being signs.  Even the shoe area is just a bunch of shelves, and you help yourself find a size.  No one is burning a bougie scented candle. That merchandising is designed to cut costs…but it works because you’re looking for a deal and you expect lower prices. TJMaxx explains this on its website, “our lean, no‑frills way of working helps us pass spectacular savings onto you. So, don’t expect fancy extras in our stores – just amazing merchandise at fantastic prices.”
• Another part of the store experience that can affect your perceived value? How much product is on the floor.  Basically, if racks aren’t stuffed to the gills, shelves aren’t overflowing, then we expect items to be more expensive.  TBH when I look into the window of a boutique and see a few sparse racks and tables, I worry that I cannot afford that store.  So I am often too nervous to even walk in and check it out.  There is a balance. Now, this was a problem we were always struggling with at Urban Outfitters, where we would receive massive shipments of everything.  There was this tremendous pressure from management to get everything out on the floor (“stack em high, watch em fly”), while the corporate creative team implored us to put MORE stuff in backstock.   Meanwhile, think about a place like TJMaxx or H+M…the racks and shelves are bursting.  And it feels “right” because those stores are all about deals. When I worked for the “feminist” brand there was this massive tension between myself and the creative director (not just because she sent weird thirst trap photos to my vendors), but because she wanted the store to be sparse and premium.  A high end boutique can get away with less inventory on the sale floor when everything is $500+ because they don’t have to sell that many items to pay the rent and salaries. But when most of your sales are $40 feminist tees, you need to sell a lot of them to break even.  And to do that, you need to have a lot of stuff on the sales floor to sell. Let me tell you, there’s a lot of strategy involved in pricing, inventory, and overhead expenses.  And I have the spreadsheets to prove it.
• Next, it’s things like hang tags (are they a good card stock? What color is the ink?). The sew in labels (are they woven? Yes, you can charge more. Screen printed? Eh, unless the art is good, these might seem cheap).  And with hangtags and sew in labels, we’re talking about a few pennies…which can translate into tens of dollars in perceived value. But also: the shopping bags! Are they fabric (like at Free People)? Are they nice sturdy paper? Are they plastic? Do they have the brand’s name printed on them? Do the items get wrapped in tissue?  Or if you order online, do they arrive at your house in an unbranded plastic mailer? Or something nicer? Is there an unboxing experience? I see a lot of people in the Selkie Facebook group talking about how they will order a $500 dress…only to receive it in a polybag jammed inside a plastic mailer. Their expectation is that a $500 dress should be more of an unboxing experience.  What do you think?  And does something feel more valuable to you when it arrives with tissue paper, stickers or other swag?
• When it comes to packaged goods: food, cosmetics, cleaning products, even pet food…you’re also going to to think a product is higher quality if the packaging is nice, the art direction (font, color, graphics) are in line with current design trends (or even better, one step ahead of current design trends).  In the early 2020s, product design focused on minimalist packaging: smaller, clean fonts, 1-2 colors, lots of negative space. This trend was called “blanding.”  In the past few years, more premium products have become more maximalist with bold, whimsical fonts, bright colors, cute graphics. I am curious to see what happens next.  My guess is that in order to stand out in an AI art world (especially with more and more mass brands using AI for everything) premium products will have more “handmade” seeming packaging. Things will seem hand lettered, painted in watercolor or ink.  The boxes and hangtags will seem more like they are made of handmade paper.  These brands will embrace the imperfection of human made art and design.  
• Next, let’s talk about the website.  One thing you will notice right out of the gate is that there is a stunning difference between lower priced brands and more “premium” brands when it comes to website design and user experience.  Go look at SHEIN, Temu, or Amazon. Weird color palettes. Timers, multiple banners and popups announcing discounts. The photos tend to be smaller and there is just a lot more stuff to look at.  The photos themselves might be AI generated or strangely photoshopped. The clothes might be photographed on a dress form instead of a model. Now go to a nicer brand’s site…the photos are much larger. Always on a model. The photos feel similar to something you might find in a nice magazine…they are more “editorial.” The site feels cleaner, more sparse.  More copy and less clutter.  Even the use of color and fonts is often more in line with current design trends. And that alone…being on trend in terms of font, will increase the perceived value of everything on the site.  We expect that cheap brands (like SHEIN) will have ugly websites and it makes sense to us.  But we will gladly spend more when the photos take up half the page and look like they were taken with film. See also: the emails you receive from these brands.
• I will also just add this: I think that as more and more brands are using AI to write product copy and emails, to create photos and social media content…I think that looks cheap. And I think that our perceived value of these brands is dropping/will drop because all of the copy and imagery feels…not premium. Sort of going back to the idea of color theory…tweaking the color of something slightly makes it feel more thoughtful, special.  And yet another AI caption or email just feels mass produced and…cheap.

How could someone ever make a living selling a dress like this for $150? The answer is…no one could make a living selling that dress for $150. Let’s think about the expenses associated with making and selling that dress:

8 hours of sewing

Fabric

Any trims (zipper, buttons, hook and eye, elastic, label, etc)

Packaging for shipping

Platform fees (whether it’s sold on Etsy, Shopify, Square, or any other platform, someone is taking a cut)

The time spent creating the listing, doing customer service, posting on social media, sending out marketing emails, taking photos, sourcing fabric, creating a pattern, testing the pattern, and so on.

If somehow 2-6 were free (spoiler: that’s just not possible), that means that someone was paid $18.75 for the highly skilled, physically demanding work of sewing that dress. That’s not a living wage. And if you think $18.75 is “fine,” I want to ask you: are you willing to sew all day for $18.75/hour?

But even worse: we know that the fabric was not free. We know that the platform took a cut . We know that the packaging cost money. We know that there was a whole lot of extra labor involved. A small business owner selling a dress for $150 is probably making minimum wage, at best. And we know that is not a living wage.

I always say “It’s cheap because someone didn’t get paid.” But also, sometimes it’s still too cheap for someone to actually get paid fairly…even when the price is a lot higher than SHEIN or Zara. That’s just how much exploitation and cut corners are baked into the fast fashion model. Fast fashion prices are really that far away from making sense!

I have been working with small businesses for five years, as a coach, advisor, and teacher. The problem I encounter most often? Business owners who are not paying themselves, or paying themselves so little that it feels cruel.

Sure, sometimes when you’re starting a business you just can’t pay yourself. I get that. But what I see happening is this: the business starts off with pricing that will never accommodate anyone getting paid to do the work of running that business and making the products it sells. And at some point, it begins to feel “too late” to fix that.

Why are businesses offering these unrealistically low prices?

Fast fashion has turned our perception of price and value completely upside down. Customers have a new baseline for price expectations and anything above that is deemed “too expensive.”

Of course, here in the slow fashion community we know that fast fashion prices are built on human exploitation and low quality. But we are still in the minority. We need more people to know the truth about those prices: that they are actually a bad deal for everyone (the planet, the workers, AND the customers).

That said, even small businesses who know the truth about fast fashion pricing (and how it is melting everyone’s brains) still feel that pressure from customers to keep things “affordable.” The problem with these “affordable” prices? They are great for customers and bad for everyone else.

To make matters even more complicated, many small businesses are community minded…and they want to keep their products accessible to everyone. And in a world where everyone (except for billionaires and executives) is underpaid, overworked, and feeling broke, that means that prices need to stay low in order to be accessible.

The implications of these low prices are all around us:

These low prices have a halo effect: if one small business underprices their products, then every other business has to follow suit or lose out on sales. So now EVERYONE is unable to pay themselves, much less pay someone to help them.

These unrealistic prices from small businesses just reinforce the validity of the artificially low prices that fast fashion offers.

Even worse, these low prices just devalue the work involved in making products and running a business, reinforcing the illusion that this work is “unskilled,” something that anyone can do well. And that helps fast everything companies get away with continuing to underpay and exploit workers around the world.

Small businesses close up shop because they can’t make enough money to stay in business. Or the owner gets so burned out from working 24/7…and still finding out they can’t pay their bills at the end of the month.

When small businesses close, that pushes customers toward the same fast “everything” megacorporations that have built their businesses off of human exploitation and low quality. This just exacerbates economic inequality.

And to be clear: every human deserves a safe, happy, healthy life. And in a capitalist system, that means they need to be paid enough to afford food, shelter, healthcare, clothes, and fun. Furthermore, they need to be able to take time off, to rest, to get inspired, to spend time with loved ones. That means being paid a living wage for their work.

So what is the solution?. How do we fix this disconnect in pricing and customer expectations?

I wish I could say it was something simple. “Do xyz and voila! Everyone gets paid and no one ever leaves a comment on a small business post about something being too expensive.” Yeah, that’s not going to happen.

There is a path forward, but it involves work from EVERYONE: small business owners and customers alike. And this work is worthwhile because our current expectations about price are…super unethical.

What small businesses can do:

Take the time to sit down and work out how much a product actually costs you to make…if someone were being paid a living wage to make it. That includes materials, platform fees, packaging, and LABOR. Does the price you are charging customers actually cover that? If the answer is “no,” now is a good time to create a plan to get there. It will never happen if you don’t start working toward it now.

Increasing prices is actually a great opportunity to educate your customers about the work that goes into making your product and running a small business. Remember: most people just don’t know. Fast fashion has warped their perception of price and value. And a lot of people think robots and machines are making most of the stuff we buy. Is it fair that you have to do this kind of work? No. But this is where we are. And if you’re stuck on how to market your business, sharing this kind of information and education can turn into a ton of social posts and emails.

What about accessibility? I get this. I also want everyone to have access to high quality, ethical stuff. But I often see small business owners not paying themselves so that they can offer the lowest prices. How is that fair? It’s not fair to the small business owner…but it’s also not fair to the customers who will watch the business disappear when the owner is burned out and can no longer continue. I recommend reserving a portion of every drop/collection for sliding scale pricing (if this is something you can do). You also don’t have to do this. It’s up to you!

My final advice for small businesses: when one business underprices, it forces everyone else to underprice. And so pricing your products to cover a living wage actually lifts up every small business around you. We have gotten used to the artificially low prices of fast fashion because we are surrounded by cheap, low quality goods. We can get used to paying ethical prices when they are the rule, not the exception.

What everyone else can do:

We have to rewire our own perception of price and value. Once again, the prices of fast fashion/fast everything only “work” because they are built on a foundation of human exploitation and low quality. Just about nothing we buy should be this cheap. These brands are not doing us a service by offering low prices. Instead, they are making us complicit in wage theft, forced labor, and human exploitation. They are making us sign on to dangerous and unhealthy working conditions. And in exchange, they are giving us low quality stuff that won’t last very long.

When I encounter something from a small brand that feels too expensive for me–because yes, even I have to do this work to rewire my brain–I ask myself: “What price would make this affordable to me? Does that price make sense when I think about the time to make something, the materials involved, the work of running a business?” And most times I realize that no, it does not. If I can’t afford that item new, I look for something secondhand. Or I wait and save my money. The thing about moving away from fast fashion is…we have to slow down the process of buying. Fast fashion relies on us being impatient and thoughtless. We can and will do better.

One of the other aspects of our behavior that fast fashion has changed? It has made us think that we need a steady stream of new, trendy stuff. Guess what? We actually don’t! One good dress > five unsatisfying dresses. And when we prioritize quality over quantity, suddenly the higher prices of small businesses don’t seem so wild, because we need less. YES, THIS CHANGE IS DIFFICULT. But it’s actually how we lived our lives before the fast fashion era.

Spread the knowledge! Remember, most people don’t know that fast fashion pricing is one big exploitative scam…ripping off workers AND customers. We have an amazing opportunity to create a better future. It starts with talking to the people around us.

Don’t be a jerk. If you see something cool that feels too expensive, just walk away. Saying something about it to the seller or in the comments section is not only rude, it actually reinforces those artificial fast fashion prices for everyone who hears or sees your comment. And it means you’re inadvertently doing free PR for fast fashion.