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Crowds go wild as Primark store opens in Brussels

11:52 11/12/2014

A crowd of at least 2,000 bargain-hunters lined up yesterday in Brussels’ Nieuwstraat for the opening of the country’s second outlet of the Irish low-cost clothing chain Primark. Queues were already forming at 8.00 for the opening at 11.00.

The new Primark store – the first is in Liège – takes up 1,600 square metres on the country’s most expensive shopping street, on the spot of the former Forever 21, and employs 180 staff recruited by the region’s employment agency Actiris.

Primark has 284 shops across Europe and is known for its fashionable selection for very low prices. It comes under regular criticism for achieving such prices – €8 for a pair of jeans, and €3 for a T-shirt – at the expense of low-paid factory workers in India and Bangladesh. In 2013, a factory of a Primark supplier in Dhaka, Bangladesh, collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people. The company says it has since implemented a stricter code of ethics for suppliers.

“I know that the garments I’m wearing, at €16 and €23, were not made at the expense of the employees in the supply chain,” Primark director Breege O’Donoghue told VTM News. “I’ve been to Bangladesh. I’m been in those factories, and I have seen very high-end luxury brands in the same factory as Primark. You should be asking not why are we so cheap, but why are our competitors so expensive?”

 

photo: According to police estimates, 2,000 lined up for the opening of Primark yesterday in Brussels. According to Primark, the number was 5,000

©Sander De Wilde/ImageDesk

 

Written by Alan Hope

Comments

NIGEL FARAWAY

Not sure we believe you, Breege. You seem to be the Ryanair of the retailing business.

Dec 11, 2014 12:18
Mikek1300gt

About time to be honest. Though I know that completion is a dirty word in Belgium.

Dec 11, 2014 19:41