Ethical Consumerism and Lolita Fashion

[honeyteaclover]

In my everyday life, I'm one of those consumers who scrutinizes labels on every product in the grocery store. I try to be a conscientious shopper. I've started thinking a little more about my consumer choices when it comes to lolita clothing, and I thought I'd present a particular issue to the EGL community and gather your thoughts.

Comments

[bloodconfetti]

I don't see what's so unethical about it. They aren't stealing the dresses, right? They're merely purchasing and re-selling. It's the job of the consumer to decide whether or not they are willing to pay the price of ANY dress/item being sold on the market, and the job of the market to watch those prices and keep them in mind for their companies.

[honeyteaclover]

I just want to provide this hypothetical scenario to contemplate

[bloodconfetti]

I definitely understand what you're saying, but if 'he' put in the effort to do all of that, and paid for the item, I'd say he earned that dress as much as any other customer, and what he does with it afterwards is his business. It may be unfair, but life on the whole is completely 'unfair' and you either have to get smart in the same way, or learn to accept that you're not always going to get everything you want. That's just how life works.

[___ifwinterends]

Cutting people in line, shoving them and taking dresses out of their hands then making a huge scene in the shop shouting in Chinese at Japanese female customers is not exactly what I'd call "putting in the effort". I mean I could rob a bank but I don't think saying that the effort of robbing it was such that I earned the money would really hold up in court. He's not punching people or making death threats so technically what he's doing isn't illegal, but it's very unethical and downright rude.

[xxyumekaxx]

I think in that case the market would regulate itself though. Buyers have a set price in mind and I guess not many people would be willing to shell out that much money, so the scalper would be forced to go lower some time until someone is willing to buy it for the price.
Of course it sucks for the other buyers who aren't willing to pay that much but they always have the choice to wait and hunt for the dress elsewhere. And in a time like this where customers can compare prices much better (via internet) I think the buyer has just as much "power" as a scalper.
(On the downside it warps the conception of pricing something fair, especially for single persons/indie brands, because customers only see the price tag at the end and not how much work it actually takes, how much material costs in a small scale actually are,... .)