I still shop in department stores for clothes. My budget is limited and if I want something that looks reasonably good at a reasonable price, I find that mid-range department stores still offer the best selection and prices. Most people in my age group however probably cannot remember the last time they set foot inside a Sears, or if in the US, a JC Penney.
The unfortunate fact of the matter is that no matter what one wears or where one buys it, it likely was not made in Canada or the United States, but rather in a country with wages and working conditions far inferior to what a garment worker here would have. This is the unfortunate result of globalization and so called "trade liberalization" agreements. As a result, North Americans are manufacturing less and less and the middle class is disappearing. What is left are those working much lower wage service sector jobs who can only afford to shop at discount or second hand shops. Of course on the other extreme are those making extremely high wages who can buy whatever they want, wherever they want. Customers on either extreme though are still getting goods made somewhere else by people not earning a fair wage and in inferior conditions.
I walked to a local Sears this afternoon. I had seen an advertisement for a sale that looked good. I was amused as I looked at the tags on the items. I bought two shirts, both made in Bangladesh. I thought about putting them back on the shelf but realized that the possibility of me finding shirts made in Canada or the USA was next to nil. There was one sign of hope in the undergarment section of the men's department. Stanfield's are still going strong, manufacturing a whole range of underwear and socks in Truro, Nova Scotia. It's worth paying $5 more for better quality and the satisfaction of knowing that it was made in our country by someone paid a proper wage in safe conditions. And due to my limited budget, buying a Stanfield's product is about as close as I will get to Nova Scotia this year anyway! Stanfield's is an old family-owned company and is one of those bright spots of business and manufacturing success in the Atlantic provinces. Among the past generation of its management was Robert L. Stanfield, former Premier of Nova Scotia and then national leader of the late and lamented Progressive Conservative Party (PC), an institution far more respectable in its spirit and conduct than the present Conservative Party.
Cities and towns across Canada and the United States used to be full of clothing manufacturers. When I was young, my family would spend our summer holidays in Eastern Ontario, not far from the village of Lanark. Each year, a day got spent in that village for school clothing shopping. The tiny community on the Clyde River was home to the Glenayr "Kitten Brand" Mills. There were a series of factories and outlet stores that basically composed what could be called downtown Lanark. Glenayr made clothing under a variety of brands for several distributors and chain stores. The quality was good and reliable. By the late 1990's, it was of course falling victim to cheap imports of morally questionable origin. Other towns and cities had clothing manufacturers that managed to hang on for only slightly longer, such as Tiger Brand in Cambridge Ontario and Deacon Brothers Sportswear in Belleville, Ontario.
Does anyone remember the Great Western Garment Company (GWG)? Blue jeans with the signature GWG logo on the rear pocket were the only ones I thought anyone wore when I was young. They were all made in Canada too, coming from Edmonton, hence the Great Western name. When Wayne Gretzky was still almost a kid and made it big with the Edmonton Oilers, he even did product endorsements for GWG. I remember seeing cardboard cutouts in stores of the young Great One with a blonde semi-mullet wearing a pair of GWG Scrubbies. Every store sold GWG and everybody wore them. Levi's and Lee were less common and the absurdly expensive Calvin Klein jeans arriving on the scene were for people with too much money and too much attitude. In my original home village of Frankford Ontario, the wonderful Mr. and Mrs. Helm sold GWG at their shop, K&W Family Clothing. In fact, almost every other product they sold was made in Canada or the USA too. Once or twice a year, they would go to Toronto and buy directly from manufacturers. The boots and shoes they sold were all from Kaufman in Kitchener, Ontario. The former Kaufman factories are now condominiums or office space where the people all wear things made in other countries.
As I walked home from Sears this afternoon, I concluded that I would probably get picked up by the police or mental health authorities if I only wore clothes and shoes made in Canada or the USA. I'd be barefoot and only wearing a pair of underwear from Stanfield's.
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