On Nov. 5, the first physical Shein store opened in Paris, France. With an estimated 88.8 million customers globally, the opening was intended to be a major success. However, due to the company’s low-quality products, widely criticized labor practices and a recent controversy involving certain products, massive protests from French citizens and politicians met the store’s opening.
Shein is an online fashion business that is known for its trendy, low-priced, diverse range of clothing. Over the years, the company has expanded its inventory to include products like home goods and beauty products.
Because of the variety of products and their production costs, Shein is known for having a hostile working environment. This consists of extremely long hours with low wages, poor working conditions and child labor. Several investigations have concluded that some of Shein’s workers exceed their legal 60-hour work week without extra pay or time off.
French fashion retail associations also criticized the store’s opening, arguing that Shein’s business model floods the market with enormous amounts of cheap, low-quality, “disposable products.” This practice is viewed not only as a threat to local French fashion businesses but also as extremely damaging to the natural environment.
Many smaller businesses dedicate much of their time designing and creating unique, high-quality clothing pieces for their customers. These companies often find that Shein then copies the same item and quickly recreates it using cheaper, less durable or flammable materials. Once reproduced, Shein resells the item for less than a quarter of the original price.
Different brands like Chrome Hearts and H&M have experienced this issue and having a physical store where customers can buy duplicates of products directly threatens original business owners and creators of current fashion products. The most intense controversy surrounding the store opening occurred when, on Nov. 4, the day before the official Paris launch, inappropriately designed dolls with childlike features were discovered listed on the Shein website. Although the company immediately removed the products, the incident fueled public distrust, with critics arguing that a company making such severe mistakes should not be trusted by consumers.
