WORN OUT

A report on widespread exploitation and resistance in the world of clothing retailers.

Van Oort examines the transformation of mass-market clothing sales during a time when the processes of gauging and serving customer preferences have changed dramatically due to modern data collection. “Fast-fashion retailers have benefited from, and pushed forward, a so-called global logistics revolution,” she writes, “in which the production and circulation of goods across the supply chain occur faster and more cheaply than ever before.” Drawing on interviews with employees and managers who toil in the retail sector, along with her own firsthand experiences as a part-time sales clerk, the author documents how large stores have sought to maximize profitability at the expense of the well-being of their workers. In a suggestively totalitarian environment of hypersurveillance, “an array of digital technologies—which workers may or may not be aware of—track employee attendance, performance, and, to a certain extent, their lives outside work.” Van Oort capably sketches the technological, economic, and social forces driving changes in this industry, and she argues persuasively that the specific kinds of dehumanization within it are broadly representative of contemporary trends in other retail operations. A benefit of the author’s insider knowledge is her clear understanding of the human impact of these forms of hyperefficient capitalism. As she clearly shows, those who have labored in the industry are treated as commodities as disposable as the clothes they sell. In the conclusion, Van Oort speculates on how such exploitation might continue to evolve and how resistance to it has already taken shape. In such efforts as the Retail Action Project, collectives of activists have begun to defend workers’ rights, define a more equitable set of relations between employees and employers, and augment possibilities for reform.

An insightful, often alarming look at modern surveillance culture in the retail industry.