Why are clothes so expensive here?

[Bon]

Well I understand there are customs and regulations in place which make it difficult to import anything.
But aren't clothes necessities? Textiles are cheap in Asia so is it not possible to ship through a freight forwarder or sorts?
Anti dumping policy to prevent domestic competition?
I have tried looking on the web for a decent explanation or solution but seems it is a fact and we just have to live with it.

Still, some Argentineans dress really well and I like the fashion... All else fail, you still have Boca/River/Messi/Maradona jerseys I suppose.
Thoughts?
P.s. there is a thread in 2017 regarding where to buy clothes from and it looks that most locals buy it overseas.

 

[Redpossum]

You should visit Avenida Avellaneda, (the street in CABA, not the town out in the province), near the intersection with Nazca, and west of there. Also check the parallel streets one and two blocks north of Avellaneda, where the real deals are. Check out Mundo Textil at Campana 576-580, if it's still there.

Early on a Saturday morning, go down there and look around. You can buy clothes in retail quantities at wholesale prices. Literally half what you'd pay elsewhere, or less.

This is January, and some places will be closed for vacation, as is the case everywhere in the city.

Two things -
Be prepared to pay cash
Observe reasonable precautions of personal security. Don't go waving your iPhone around or wearing flashy jewelry.

 

[Quilombo]

Anti dumping policy to prevent domestic competition?

Not just anti-dumping, state protection. Clothes have outpaced inflation at 118%. Here's an article from late 2022 talking about how the government was threatening to let imports of clothes in: https://www.lanacion.com.ar/economi...e-la-ropa-si-siguen-los-aumentos-nid18102022/

Peronism believes in Import Substitution Industrialization, a policy most countries abandoned in the 20th century along with mercantilism, but Argentina still tries it with basically everything, and the result is poor quality clothes at expensive prices.

You can check out the neighborhood of Once in general, that's where cheap textiles are found, but keep in mind it's all knock off and won't last very long. I'm about 2M tall so most clothes don't fit me here anyways so I just pay the insane duties to import (during COVID) or have friends bring them in their luggage when visiting now or I'm traveling abroad.

 

[dsp27]

The other side of the coin is that current textile fast fashion is unsustainable. A Tee is sold for 10 bucks because they pay some poor woman or child in Bangladesh a few cents a day, they pollute their water and air without paying any "externalities tax" for the environmental cost. It's equivalent of the "cheap" fast food in the US where most of the McDs workers are on food stamps (effectively having the taxpayer subsidizing McDonalds). You see someone is always footing the bill when you offer something below it's true value, be it labor or goods.

That being said, Argentine's obsession with protecting the textile industry is stupid. It's a low value added industry.

Nevertheless, I'd much rather pay more for locally produced textile than "cheap" rag from Bangladesh. The bigger issue is that the quality is also lacking here.

 

[Alfred_Arnold]

Not just anti-dumping, state protection.

To add to this...if you take a look at the Harmonized Tariff Schedule for Argentina, you'll see textiles and even just a basic men's shirt (chapter 62 let's say) hitting well over 70% duty. They are legitimately doubling the cost of the imported shirt, and yes, this is in the name of protectionism. The problem is though if you aggressively reject foreign investment, oppressively tax the home population, and then apply protectionist (and, totally insanely high) import duties, you get smug local producers that happen to have working machines from a time of more free import regulations (some clunky 80 year old machine atado con alambre) charging about what an internationally-priced reasonable quality product would be, but produced like crud.

 

[FrankPintor]

The other side of the coin is that current textile fast fashion is unsustainable. A Tee is sold for 10 bucks because they pay some poor woman or child in Bangladesh a few cents a day, they pollute their water and air without paying any "externalities tax" for the environmental cost. It's equivalent of the "cheap" fast food in the US where most of the McDs workers are on food stamps (effectively having the taxpayer subsidizing McDonalds). You see someone is always footing the bill when you offer something below it's true value, be it labor or goods.

That being said, Argentine's obsession with protecting the textile industry is stupid. It's a low value added industry.

Nevertheless, I'd much rather pay more for locally produced textile than "cheap" rag from Bangladesh. The bigger issue is that the quality is also lacking here.

Somewhat tangentially to this, there was an article in The Economist over Christmas about how fast fashion isn't fast enough when you take the transport times from China or Bangladesh into account, so some Chinese emigrants took over the then dying Italian fashion manufacturers: https://web.archive.org/web/2023010...er-of-china-are-making-an-outsize-mark-abroad

Argentina didn't get the "right kind" of migrants for this, I guess.

 

[Ries]

I havent lived in Asia, or been to Hong Kong or Singapore in quite some time. But compared to the USA, normal clothes dont seem expensive to me here. What is expensive is fast fashion, the really cheap stuff like H&M sells in the USA. I find that 8$ T shirts in the US last about as long as you would expect- they fall apart after a couple dozen washings.
In the USA, I wear work clothes that are tough, when I work in my metal shop- Carhartts, Wranglers, Levis.
All of those are quite expensive- $50 a pair and up for work jeans, $100 and up for denim coats.
I find the equivalent Argentine work clothing to be cheaper than USA versions- here I buy Ombu, and Pampero, and they are usually much cheaper than the made in Mexico or made in Bangladesh stuff I get in the US, and at least as well made.
I buy 100% cotton mens underwear, t shirts, and tanktops in Once, at wholesale, and its, again, cheaper than equivalent quality I buy in the USA.
I do not buy fast fashion in either country if I can avoid it.
I buy less, higher quality, and, whenever possible, locally made by small business.
I find that much easier in Argentina, and I find the quality good, if you know how to look at clothes, and how to shop.
You need to be able to tell the difference between wool, cotton, and alpaca, vs poly and synthetic.
I find shoes here are very high quality, and very reasonable, for well made ones.
I dont buy Nike or Addidas anywhere- its all made in either china or vietnam, in sweat shops that pay little and abuse workers.
I have been buying small designer clothing in Argentina since 2007, a wide variety of designers. Its always cheaper than US equivalents, usually a LOT cheaper, and its good quality. I have a jacket from Mancini over 14 years old, a leather vest from Hermanos Estebecorinos, also quite old, that are still looking great, much better than the low quality high price chinese pigskin leather you see in the USA.
If you look, there are good quality pieces here at very reasonable prices.
But its true, the Argentine tax and duty system is set up to protect local industry.
I think thats a good thing, and most of my household goods and clothing are Industria Argentina, and are better than most Amazon or US mall products.
But ultra cheap clothing made by bangladeshi workers who make a dollar a day- its not very common here.

 

[Aztangogirl]

I only buy made in Argentina clothes here. There are so many shops with individual designers clothes. You have to shop around. Stay out of the giant malls and brand names.

 

[jantango]

I bought everything for my apartment at house sales (ferias americanas). You can get on the mailing list of mariamaranessi.com for her weekly announcements. When people move, they sell everything, including clothing.

Most of the clothing and all of my shoes were bought used. My most recent purchase was a pair of Nike sneakers (hardly worn) for $1000ARS, which was about $4US when I bought them. If you're looking for quality clothing, then shop at the one-day house sales in Recoleta and Palermo.

 

[Quilombo]

The other side of the coin is that current textile fast fashion is unsustainable. A Tee is sold for 10 bucks because they pay some poor woman or child in Bangladesh a few cents a day, they pollute their water and air without paying any "externalities tax" for the environmental cost. It's equivalent of the "cheap" fast food in the US where most of the McDs workers are on food stamps (effectively having the taxpayer subsidizing McDonalds). You see someone is always footing the bill when you offer something below it's true value, be it labor or goods.

That being said, Argentine's obsession with protecting the textile industry is stupid. It's a low value added industry.

Nevertheless, I'd much rather pay more for locally produced textile than "cheap" rag from Bangladesh. The bigger issue is that the quality is also lacking here.

Oh I completely agree, I'd be fine paying the prices charged here if the quality was even half of that from South Asia; Argentina can make good things, I have pine furniture I've stained and painted by hand that's way better than anything I ever got from IKEA and cheaper too, but it's just been a shitshow with most textiles here, minus these bath towels I highly recommend and our friends want to steal haha.

This is an empirical example, but my husband goes through socks and boxers made here like they're going out of style. I have to buy him boxers at least 3 times a year, where one of the pairs I brought with me from the US just now started falling apart. I checked and I bought them in February 2020; almost 3 years vs. 4 months on average for boxers made here.

And it's not just in our heads either, when I went to the US for work last year my husband and one of my Argentine friends had me buy 20 packs of Hanes socks; they were both talking and said they never realized socks could last so long while keeping their elasticity and comfort until they both borrowed pairs of mine.