Obesity and Production Complexity

A paragraph to ponder on Thanksgiving.  From the New York Times Magazine (November 11, 2012) by Suzy Hansen - - "It's Not Us Saying You Must Have This.  It's You Saying It."

The article provides a unique view of retailer Zara - - the world's top fashion retailer.  Rather than hire world-class designers, Zara, which is based in Spain, politely copies them.  Then it relies on a global network of shopper-feedback to tweak their designs.  Corporate HQ absorbs thousands of comments and sends tweaks to their manufacturers in Europe and Northern Africa, who literally sew the feedback into their next line of clothes.  The clothes are shipped back, and the stock changes so quickly that shoppers are motivated with a "now-or-never" choice each time they try on a blouse that won't be in-store in a few weeks.  It's the user-generated approach to fast fashion.

Zara is highly successful globally, but the United States is a very different story.  This is a quote from Nelson Fraiman, a professor at Columbia Business School who has studied Zara and the parent company, Inditex:

"Would you expand in the United States?" Fraiman asks.  "Zara to me is a European store with  European style; it's very fashion forward.  And what is the problem in America?  They don't fit in the clothes.  So why do it?  Having to make larger sizes makes production so much more complex."