The following is completely hypothetical, I've not heard anything anecdotal so please if it causes you concerns in the future for your shopping experience remember that most stores have Customer Services just for these sort of questions. It occurred to me earlier today that the near infinite supply of Clearance merchandise in stores isn't just caused by last seasons goods taking up valuable sales space but perhaps there are in fact more sinister reasons which have been kept purposely out of the public's eye. Imagine if you will a large container of jeans is produced in some country other than the one you are intent on buying in, now while the people who made the clothing might not be themselves in the best of health, there are limitations to the amount of contamination that they can do just through handling the goods. This however is not the case should the container pick up hitch hikers, Illegal Immigration is when people go to great extremes to escape one fate and swap it for another which can technically be worse. Being sealed in a container for potentially months does tend to put a cramp on a persons day, in fact in most cases the Vacuum tight containers can be sealed for months waiting for various papers to be filled out and filed because they eventually clear a countries import docks. In this time these immigrants can of course suffer a demise (They can die in the container). Depending on how sealed the container is (well it would of been air tight initial before an immigrant broke into it) there is a likelihood that months of a decaying carcass can infect the merchandise. So why do I mention this, well this is where it boils down to Ethics, Morality and Justice. Technically each container probably contains hundreds of thousands of a currency denomination. This means the death of one illegal immigrant isn't enough to burn the whole containers manifest, I can just imagine some middle management guy saying "Right all the clothing that's been in contact with any of the corpses bodily fluids, the rest I want put on the shelves." The problem is that there are a number of diseases that can actually be contracted from clothing through a dead body being in such a confined location. (I would source some information however if anything it tends to cause people to get overly paranoid, so I'll just mention something historic in regards to this. The number of deaths caused by settlers to the Native Americans due to Smallpox being contract through the trade of blankets taken from Smallpox victims.) My concern is that if such things occur the stores do not inform the customers as to why the "Clearance shelf" has such cheap merchandise and probably advertise the reason for the clearance as being something else. So ladies when you are next looking at the rack for something to buy.... I wouldn't suggest thinking of this thread. (What are you thoughts on the Ethics/Morality of Middle Management selling warez that really should be destroyed?)
But most of the time people do NOT have infectious diseases. You seem to be trying to make a big problem from nothing. Most human cargo are put into containers that are empty or have cars, trucks or other mechanical goods in them. Where do you get your information from? How do you know for a fact they are put into only containers that have clothes in them? Even if they were most of the clothing today is wrapped in plastic around the pallet they are bundled on. I believe you are just paranoid about this idea and have no real proof that it does happen like you say.
It's a "hypothetical" point Cosmic. A person getting in a container doesn't need to be a harbinger of a disease, for the most part most disease would die when the host dies. There are just extreme cases where bacterium of a corpse can become a problem to the living. i.e. various non-weapons grade Anthrax. I guess I'm just interested in how the removal of a corpse is dealt with and whether we get a great reduction in the cost of clothing while not being informed of the reason.
If the person had an infectious disease I'd think that those in charge would burn everything inside of the cargo container, wouldn't you?
Not such an Urban Myth. There is evidence to support that certain imported products are indeed contaminated (Of course not with Corpse leakage) For full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7474621.stm
Isn't the much more common reason for "clearance" merchandise, that the stuff has just sat around in some warehouse or on store shelves, and just isn't selling that well? The markets are rather fickle, and what sold last year, isn't necessarily the big seller this year. What's the real difference between a $50 video game, and a "clearance" $9.99 game? Often the only difference, is that the "clearance" video game was a hot new game, a few years ago, and most everybody who really wanted it, already bought it, so now it sits around on the store shelves, or in some warehouse, collecting dust. Isn't getting $10 for that game, better than paying for inventory to just have it sit around taking up valuable store shelf space? Of course, I would be suspect of stuff imported from China. What sort of "quality" can we expect from slave labor, where complaints of workers who built the stuff, about quality, aren't particularly likely to be taken seriously? Empowered workers with a voice, are far more likely to produce quality and take pride in their work, not just try to "survive another day" of drudgery. China does seem to be earning itself quite a reputation for shoddy merchandise.
This was actually in one of House episodes I think. (or maybe CSI) The user got some kind of disease from jeans made in another country and kids were selling it in the high school parking lot...
So then it must be true then? Because it was written for a television series makes it happen? Is this what you are suggesting?
I saw this one. That was because of an insecticide [Phosmet] in the back of the truck he had bought it from, and he had worn the jeans without washing them first.
