Problem 1. Almost all of the clothing sold in the United States, particularly clothing that is affordable, is manufactured in sweatshop conditions. Most clothing companies in the United States outsource their labor in order to make a less expensive product, and many corporations (including WalMart, Target and The Gap) contract with companies that utilize sweatshop labor.
Is there anything that can be done about this situation? Argue one solution to this social problem that you think could lead to better reform of the clothing manufacturing system as it currently exists. It could address the outsourcing of labor, the deplorable conditions in many sweatshops, or even the price of clothes (you are not limited to any of these; you may offer a different solution if you would like to).
Problem 2. Benjamin Lorr focuses Part I of The Secret Life of Groceries on Joe Coulumbe, the founder of Trader Joe's, a California-based supermarket chain with a massive cult following. Coulumbe changed many things about the marketplace in ways that other supermarkets would never have thought about, from paying all of his employees a good wage (including paying women the same as men), to rebranding generic items with the Trader Joe's label, to his innovative ways to handle supply chains, and even to his belief that "the customer isn't always right". After reading this section, talk about one of the ways that Coulumbe (the original Trader Joe) changed the way we shop, even if you've never set foot inside a Trader Joe's before. Do you see this at your local supermarket (Wegman's? Sprouts? Aldi? Shoppers? Etc.), and if so, how? (If not; how might it look if you did?)