Not For Sale

by Duane Swierczynski

After every Thanksgiving holiday, you can count on seeing a dozen stories about shopping mall spending trends on Black Friday. Sometimes sales are "up." Other years, they're "down." This year, according to the Associated Press, sales were "unimpressive."

Don't you love stories that could have been written with a Magic 8 Ball?

We have a shopping mall story for you, too. But our reporter didn't go to the boutiques or chains or outlets.

Instead, she focused on nail salons and the women sitting on the other side of the manicure tables—the anonymous Vietnamese women who don't speak much English and whom most customers forget by the time their Chick Flick Cherry polish has dried.

These women were silent victims, according to Helen i-lin Hwang's shocking cover story, of a multi-million dollar industry that will enrage you—and possibly make you think twice about some of the things you buy in shopping malls. "I'll bet that many of their salon customers don't have a clue about the difficult journey that brought these former sweatshop workers to this country to do manicures," says Helen.

The epidemic is known as "human trafficking," a cruel bait-and-switch in which corporations promise foreign workers a chance at a better life but instead place them in overseas jobs in conditions that make them wish they were dead.

What does this have to do with shopping malls? Ask certain retail giants, who profit from this new form of slavery. (And who, according to the AP story, were "pleased" with weekend sales.)

Philly has become an unofficial haven for many human trafficking victims, but it took Helen several months to find women willing to share their stories. "They're insular," she explains. "They like to keep to themselves and other trusted members of their own Vietnamese community." I'm glad Helen persisted and that you'll have a chance to hear their stories.

Managing Editor Brian Hickey supplements Helen's story with a tough look at a local pilot program that is trying—with some difficulty—to stop modern-day slave traders. Personal experience also sparked his interest; in his case, it was an interview with a massage parlor worker who'd been arrested in Atlantic City. "She told me about how she'd moved to Texas from Korea with her serviceman husband, who later divorced her and took her for what little money she had. You could see life had taken its toll on her."

Brian's story sparked some sympathy, but "I felt as if she was quickly forgotten. I knew we as a newspaper had to take a stand by making sure people heard the stories of victims—which Helen so eloquently does—and keeping the issue on the forefront."