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MadWorld74 Wrote:

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> ay? you've lost me Alan Dale.....why should I

> embrace the White Stuff?


What I mean is that they represent the future of Lordship Lane. Change is inevitable. If you don't accept and embrace it you'll end up as frustrated and irate as Louisa.


The relative merits of chains an independents is a redundant debate as whatever you conclude there is little you can do about it. By all means shop exclusively at independents but don't expect your shopping habits to catch on or alter the retail landscape.

I think this whole independent/chain thing is a form of inverted snobbery. I'd never heard of White Stuff until people started posting on here about it. All I care is that a shop sells decent quality goods at reasonable prices without exploiting it's workforce in some Third World sweat shop and has friendly staff and good customer service.

I'm also fully aware of thier opening PR gambit at the beginning of this thread but why people feel the need complain is beyond me. They are now a shop on our main thoroughfare in East Dulwich and should be fully entitled to post on this forum whether you like it or not. I think I may have that cup of tea now.

You point out you have no 'sweatshop bargains' - does this mean you will be selling overpriced goods for yummies and their offspring? Where do other people go to buy clothing?


Louisa, it's a shop that reckons it has located its target market and is going to try and sell clothes to it. Where "other people" buy their clothes really can be no concern of White Stuff. It's not as if they've knocked a local cheap clothing outlet (actual or potential) out of the market, is it? Local people who can neither afford nor want to buy White Stuff, er, stuff will either (if there are sufficient numbers of them) get their own shop(s), or continue to shop elsewhere. I haven't seen too many naked people wandering down Lordship Lane of late, so presumably we are all managing to clothe ourselves well enough as it is.


PS Lee Cooper, say hi to Levi Strauss for me when you get the chance.

I reckon I have a valid point. What would you guys be saying if M&S or Bhs opened up a store locally and got someone from the marketing department to make the claim they are in effect a small local business providing compettion for the small 'indies;, when in fact we all know they are following the same route as every other chain did. They are opening up new stores as we speak across the country, this is how all the big names started, and given 5 years they wont be far off from having a store on every major High Street across the land! I dont mind chains myself, but dont try pretending to us that you're a small independent business offering discounts to people to get us all on side. It's disingenuous and it makes me cringe. I am not going to shy away like Jah Lush and pretend it's great, give it a few years and other chains will be queueing up to join the LL club to provide dull lifeless clothing for posh mothers with more money than sense.


I am not against success, far from it, but I am against the tactics of transforming retail in an underhand way. Why are the rents so high on the corner shop btw? hmmmm

Honestly, if someone set out to parody the EDF they would hardly do a better job


As far as I know White Stuff advertised locally for managers/supervisors so if the successful applicant is a local lass/lad then why not come on here and post. Exactly the same as Kate from G&B and good luck to both of em


Yes White Stuff is now an international chain, but as we've discussed before abaout chainage generally they are hardly in the same league as the Walmarts of this world, for 57 main reasons, which I haven't got time to go into here.


They may YET end up that way but some benefit of the doubt is in order - I'll be popping in there no dout and may even be friendly to the staff just to spite the doom-mongers


So - White stuff for Septempber forum drink-up anyone? ;-)

White Stuff. Meh. Who cares. Their clothes might be OK or they might not. They are hardly a force for bad are they? It's just a clothes shop.


I own a white stuff t shirt that's about 12 years old. I haven't worn it since 1997 when someone asked me if it was a racist statement.


I love Fenton Walsh and Question Air. When are we going to see more men's boutiques opening in the area?




Charlie

"What would you guys be saying if M&S or Bhs opened up a store locally and got someone from the marketing department to make the claim they are in effect a small local business providing compettion for the small 'indies"


1) Difference is that White Stuff is owned/run by its founders (according to the White Stuff bod), and is not a listed plc like M&S owned by a load of pension schemes.


2) Don't think they claimed to be a small local business.


3) What does it matter anyway? Surely choice is a good thing and all the people who don't like it will make their feelings known by leaving their hands in their pockets.


Best of luck to White Stuff and any other successful entrepreneurs who want to invest on LL. Bring on the faded fabrics.

'And, hey Louisa, where do you get off? Where on earth do you get your anger from? If you haven't got anything nice to say (which is usually the case) don't bother.'


Anger? I was not angry at all. I was making a point to the team at White Stuff. Jah chose to step in and personally attack me by claiming that I usually cannot say anything nice. Well I sincerely appologise that I cant just live and let live, have no opinions, see the world through rose tinted glasses. No one tells me there is a time and place to make a point. That post on behalf of White Stuff was a deliberate attempt to encourage everyone to give positive feedback about the chain opening up along LL. What they claim to be a small independent business opening up locally for the good of the area, selling overpriced 'ethical' clothing, is in fact a growing business opening up new stores all the time.


I expect an appology from Jah because as you rightly say Sean 'there is no need to get personal in public'. Maybe then I will appologise for my comment.

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