Just like you might not know that your ranch dressing, lip balm, and drain cleaner are all owned by the same company, you could soon be buying clothes from multiple stores, all owned by fast fashion mega-retailer H&M. [More]
H&M
H&M Has Too Much Stuff, Needs To Get Rid Of It At Discount
By 3.30.17
As we’ve been reporting for some time now, it’s hard out there for retailers trying to compete for customers. H&M has had a particularly tough time competing in “fast fashion,” what with its late entry into e-commerce and stiff competition from brands like Zara. But what’s bad for H&M could be good for shoppers looking for hefty discounts. [More]
H&M Slows Down Store Openings, Shifting Focus To Online
By 1.31.17
For years, so-called fast fashion purveyor H&M (which stands for Hennes & Mauritz) has quickly opened store after store around the world to compete with rivals like Zara and others. Now, however, the company says it will slow down its pace of new store openings in order to concentrate on current stores and online sales. [More]
Report: Only Some Progress In Making Sure Clothing Factory Workers Are Treated Like Humans
By 6.1.16
Three years ago, after a building collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,100 of the people who were making our clothes, major global retailers pledged to make sure that the people who work for their suppliers are paid a living wage and have safe workplaces. A new report shows that while some things have improved at factories that supply retailers like Walmart and H&M, there are still serious labor and safety issues in these companies’ supply chains. [More]
Forget The Internet — H&M Wants To Double Its Number Of Retail Stores
By 4.6.16
With traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers continuing to lose ground to online sales, and longtime mall mainstays like Sears and JCPenney either closing locations or selling off floor space, the trend is definitely toward smaller retail footprints and focusing on the web. But the CEO of one of the world’s largest clothing retailers plans to buck that trend in a big way. [More]
H&M Says It Will Close U.S. Stores On Thanksgiving For The First Time
By 11.10.15
While some stores are dedicated to giving people a way to escape their families after stuffing their faces on Thanksgiving (we’re talking to you, Target, Macy’s and Toys ‘R’ Us), others are changing the way they celebrate the holiday: for the first time, H&M says it will close its U.S. stores on Thanksgiving. [More]
H&M Offering $1M Prize Every Year For Best Clothes-Recycling Idea
By 8.26.15
In a shopping culture where it’s easy to find something you like, when you want it, for a price that’s on the cheaper side, many of us end up simply chucking clothes we don’t want when we buy replacements. In an effort to combat that “disposable” clothing culture, H&M is offering up a $1 million prize every year for the best idea on how to recycle those unwanted garments, and keep them out of the trash. [More]
H&M Sells Customers’ Old Clothes Back To Them As Recycled Denim
By 8.21.15
A few years ago, H&M was caught destroying unsold clothing to discourage dumpster-divers, enraging people, especially if they were already opponents of fast fashion. A few years later, the Swedish chain did the exact opposite: they offered customers a discount for their old clothes, and promised to recycle those old duds into rags, insulation, or even new clothes. Now, three years later, you can theoretically buy your old clothes back from H&M in denim form. [More]
H&M Realizes Menacing Skull Emblazoned On A Star Of David Maybe Isn’t Appropriate, Pulls Shirt
By 3.28.14
When it comes to choosing designs for clothing sold globally by a major retailer, there should be one simple rule asked before said item hits shelves: Is this possibly offensive? Whoever is responsible at H&M for asking that question must’ve been on vacation, as the retailer is now apologizing for a tank top featuring a menacing skull emblazoned over a Star of David. [More]
H&M Plans To Pay Textile Workers “Fair Living Wage” By 2018
By 11.25.13
Amidst growing public concern over potential exploitation of overseas garment factory workers, the world’s second-largest clothing retailer, Sweden-based H&M, has announced what it believes is a roadmap toward paying a “fair living wage” by 2018 to approximately 850,000 of the textile workers who make its products. [More]
H&M Has Finally Realized It’s 2013, Might Try This Whole “Online Store” Idea In U.S.
By 7.30.13
What’s a person to do when she needs an outfit for that one thing she’s going to but can’t possibly be bothered to go to a store? There’s this little thing called the Internet and online shopping, a phenomenon that thus far has appeared to stymie H&M’s efforts to join the rest of us here in 2013. H&M (which stands for Hennes & Mauritz [the theater critics in the Muppet movies, right?]) has been peddling its wares online in Sweden for over 15 years. But there’s no such tool for American shoppers, unless the current rumors churning out of the mill are to believed. [More]
Parent Co. Of Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger Is First U.S. Apparel Maker To Join Bangladesh Factory Safety Accord
By 5.13.13
Weeks after a garment factory outside of Dhaka, Bangladesh, collapse, injuring thousands and taking the lives of more than 1,100, a number of large, global apparel and retail companies have signed on to an accord aimed at improving conditions for garment workers in the area and preventing future tragedies. [More]
H&M Will Take Your Old Clothes So You Can Buy New Stuff For A Discount
By 12.6.12
Many Americans just have too many clothes — our collective closets are stuffed with mid-range to cheapie clothing brands that we can tire of quickly and replace without breaking the proverbial bank. Like that sweater? Buy it in two colors! Need new jeans? There’s a sale so you can get three pairs! H&M has hatched a crazy-like-a-fox plan to help rid customers of their old duds while giving them incentive to shop for new stuff with a recently announced clothing recycling plan. [More]
October Recall Roundup: High Chairs, Herring, And Metal Shards
By 10.16.12
In this months’ recalls: wood cleaner sprays users in the face, wooden porch swings collapse, there’s Listeria everywhere, and an unusual number of herring products are recalled for unrelated reasons That number: two. [More]
H&M Comes Up With Charitable Settlement Over Stolen Design
By 2.6.12
You may remember a story from a few weeks back about Atlanta-area artist Tori LaConsay whose “You Look Nice Today” sign was plastered all over everything from shirts to bags to doormats by the folks at H&M, all without even making an attempt to notify LaConsay. At the time, the retailer said it was looking into the matter and was in touch with the artist’s lawyer. Now the sides have worked out an agreement that should help out organizations that are in need of money. [More]
H&M Thinks Being "Inspired By" Artwork Is Different From "Copying It Exactly"
By 1.25.12
H&M, better known as the store you go to when you need a decent-looking shirt that you don’t expect to make it through the wash more than twice, is feeling some Internet heat today over allegations that it’s cashing in on the work of a Georgia-based artist without permission or payment. [More]
H&M Plays Frankenmodel Game, Puts Real Heads On Digital Lady Bodies
By 12.6.11
When you’re looking to buy clothes, heaven forbid the models showing off apparel all have different, imperfect bodies! That apparent disgust with the human form is perhaps why H&M has admitted to using digital bodies on many of its models on the website, with the heads of real women placed on top. [More]
Old Navy 36" Pants Actually 41"
By 9.9.10
Your pants are lying to you. An Esquire investigation found that different clothing stores have greatly varying definitions of waistline size. Old Navy was the worst offender. Their “36 inch” pants measured actually at 41 inches. At the GAP, 36 inches actually means 39. Guess we need to start going to stores with conversion charts in hand. [More]
