Clothing Prices Set To Soar

The price of cotton is set to soar. Believed to be linked with the large scale floods in both China and Pakistan, the price of raw cotton is up from ten cents a pound to an unbelievable rise of 83 cents a pound in the last month alone, along with the rise in VAT to 20 per cent.

This drastic increase will hit low budget high street chains such as Primark and H&M most forcefully seeing as these stores use cotton as their majority material. Consumers will have to rethink their perception of the store which is most notably known for selling £2 t-shirts and £4 jeans.

Primark Finance Director John Bason warns: “The pricing environment is a tough one for the consumer.” Customers will have to start thinking about the impact these environmental changes will have on them.

Consumer campaigners are angry at retailers for changing the prices, only when it benefits them. Campaigners have been urging retailers for years to increase their prices in order that long suffering foreign workers are paid more fairly.

Dominic Eagleton, from Action Aid comments: “For years, major retailers have been telling us they want to put prices up to help foreign workers-but don’t want to upset customers over here. This statement though, would suggest that when it suits companies they can raise prices after all if they want to.”