Shirt.Woot

Before I type this message of disappointment, I just wanted to say I've been a fan of woot for years and have a pretty sizable collection of woot shirts.

That being said, I am saddened by the fact that my new Woot Shirt's tag says made in Honduras. Not only have you guys raised the price from the original $10, but now you've stopped purchasing your blank shirts from American Apparel, a company that prides itself in not using sweat shops and making their clothes in Los Angeles.

I'm paying a higher price for a shirt that doesn't cost as much to make. If this keeps going on, then this last shirt (Online Debate Team) will be the last shirt I purchase from your site.

P.S. I know I posted this earlier, but it was on the wrong board. I would very much like a response.

ThunderThighs wrote:Thank you for the feedback. Here's the thread that announced the change back in Feburary.

I understand that Anvil might be fair to its workers, but you are still outsourcing the production of your blank shirts while charging the customers more for them. I was comfortable paying the extra $2 to increase Woot's profit margin as long as American workers are supported. I am not comfortable paying the extra $2 while Woot is getting cheaper shirts made in Honduras.

It would have also been helpful to make it more apparent and noticeable on the main page that the changeover happened rather than in the forums that many customers don't even read.

kingofhearts589 wrote:... It would have also been helpful to make it more apparent and noticeable on the main page that the changeover happened rather than in the forums that many customers don't even read.

Disclaimer boxes were put up on the shirt page for a couple months after the switch. Additionally, there were threads here at shirt.woot, multiple questions/posts at deals.woot, and community members were noting which blanks were being used for which shirt throughout the transition period.

So I'm at a loss of how else should Woot have handled this.

Telepathy, perhaps? [/s]

I doubt this was what they wanted, but rather, what they were dealt.

Narfcake wrote:Disclaimer boxes were put up on the shirt page for a couple months after the switch. Additionally, there were threads here at shirt.woot, multiple questions/posts at deals.woot, and community members were noting which blanks were being used for which shirt throughout the transition period.

So I'm at a loss of how else should Woot have handled this.

Telepathy, perhaps? [/s]

I doubt this was what they wanted, but rather, what they were dealt.

Dealt by who? Themselves? If they didn't want to use American Apparel, they should've looked for another American manufacturer. I would gladly pay $15 for a shirt made in the United States than $12 for a shirt made in Honduras when I was already paying $12 for an American Apparel shirt. Why should I pay the same price for something that's cheaper to make?

The answer for me, personally, is that I shouldn't. I can't support Shirt Woot when they're delivering a product that is cheaper on their end while remaining the same price to the consumer.

The only mistake I made was not finding out sooner.

I'm sorry, Woot. I loved you, but the love affair has ended.

kingofhearts589 wrote:Dealt by who? Themselves? ...

No - the bean counters.

You do know that Woot was bought out a couple years ago, right?

Narfcake wrote:No - the bean counters.

You do know that Woot was bought out a couple years ago, right?

Yes, I do know Woot was bought, hence the reason they have eight different Woots instead of original and Shirt. It's getting out of hand, but that's another story.

Doesn't make it any less terrible or justified for the change over.

Narfcake wrote:No - the bean counters.

You do know that Woot was bought out a couple years ago, right?

And Unions are the reason you can't eat Twinkies right now.

Woot made a choice. It may have been forced by Amazon's slow march to corporate profit domination, but that was still a choice. If small time shops with less than one percent of Woot's daily profit can continue offering AA (and many do) so could woot, with their bulk purchases.

I have no doubt that someone high up made the switch, but I would highly caution against using language that seems like it was financially the only option. Someone at the top would be making less of a killing with AA. No one would be let go, no bankruptcy would be threatened, unless that higher-up insisted that his (or, to be fair, her) already significantly higher pay needed to remain at a certain rate at the expense of the workers or site.

That being noted, it HAS been nearly a year. That much is true: in terms of warning, woot couldn't really be expected to keep a "new blanks" post on their site THAT long. Basically everyone is unhappy with the decision, but at this point, woot's transparency in having new blanks is one of the few things you -can't- call them out on.

***It's also worth noting that, while Woot certainly has more sites than makes any logical sense, Wine existed before Shirt did, or at least rolled out around the same time. Sellout has existed for similar time, simply outside the main site. And Deals and I'm pretty sure kids.woots were all in existence before Amazon took over. Pointless expansion has long been in the woot DNA.

AdderXYU wrote:And Unions are the reason you can't eat Twinkies right now.

Woot made a choice. It may have been forced by Amazon's slow march to corporate profit domination, but that was still a choice. If small time shops with less than one percent of Woot's daily profit can continue offering AA (and many do) so could woot, with their bulk purchases.

I have no doubt that someone high up made the switch, but I would highly caution against using language that seems like it was financially the only option. Someone at the top would be making less of a killing with AA. No one would be let go, no bankruptcy would be threatened, unless that higher-up insisted that his (or, to be fair, her) already significantly higher pay needed to remain at a certain rate at the expense of the workers or site.

That being noted, it HAS been nearly a year. That much is true: in terms of warning, woot couldn't really be expected to keep a "new blanks" post on their site THAT long. Basically everyone is unhappy with the decision, but at this point, woot's transparency in having new blanks is one of the few things you -can't- call them out on.

***It's also worth noting that, while Woot certainly has more sites than makes any logical sense, Wine existed before Shirt did, or at least rolled out around the same time. Sellout has existed for similar time, simply outside the main site. And Deals and I'm pretty sure kids.woots were all in existence before Amazon took over. Pointless expansion has long been in the woot DNA.

I guess I just didn't notice because they had a ton of extra AA shirts for a long while after they switched suppliers. This last one I bought just happened to be the first I, personally, bought that was Anvil. I wouldn't really think to look at their changing suppliers post when my shirts hadn't changed.