Can someone help me out here? Ana's sister owns the factory where the dresses are made. They were selling the dresses to Bloomingdales for $18 a pop and Bloomingdales was selling them for $600 a pop. What is stopping Ana's sister from taking those dresses and selling them directly for less than what Bloomingdales is selling them for? With the internet (probably ebay) and the help of a digital camera, they could probably make a killing.
shareI think you missed the point of the movie a little. It was about being happy with yourself, but in answer to your question. Several times during the movie Ana's sister talks about not being able to pay the bills. I think that money is so tight for them that if they sold the dresses independently the people who make sure that the electricity bill, water bill, etc. is paid would stop paying the bills and then they couldn't make more dresses and then on top of it all they would have broken the trust of the people who were making sure the bills were paid. It's the domino effect.
-Amanda Marie
This is how things work in the manufacturing/wholesale/retail world. Estela manufactures the dresses, sells them to a wholesaler/distributor who has the ability to get her product distributed to the stores, and also goes out and gets orders from the stores in the first place. The wholesaler buys the dresses from Estela for $18 each, the wholesaler probably sells them for about $300 to Bloomingdale's and Bloomingdale's marks them up to the retail price that you'd pay to get one - $600. The extra money in between goes to profit, operating the businesses (the wholesaler's office rent, electricity, phone calls, trips to stores, etc. and the retailer's rent, electricty, staffing costs, profit, etc.). Not necessarily a fair world to the workers out there, but this is the sad truth. People make profit out of the blood, sweat and tears of many other people out there.
The wholesaler and retailer really don't care if the people making the dresses get a living wage or not - they have their eyes on their own profit margin.
I believe the paly and movie are ment to be in the earliy to mid 80's or at least when i heard the writer talk about the play-- she was saying that it was from heer own life story... so i dont think e-bay could have been an option espically since the were just getting there green cards and new to america...
shareif it were set in the 80's then they wouldn't have the computers and the computers that they were using didn't look like they were from the 80's to me
shareI also have a question. I was confused at how Ana didn't want Jimmy to call or e-mail her after he was in teacher college. Did this mean that she never wanted to see him again? I hope not, because Jimmy was like, the perfect guy.
Can someone answer that for me?
I thought she was just protecting herself. Like, if she tells him not to call and he doesn't call, then she won't feel bad because she rejected him first. I think at that point in the movie she hadn't decided to go to college yet, so maybe she was afraid he'd find a "college girl" and forget about her (Ana).
shareI don't think the realtionship would have worked out anyway. The fact that she brought a list of things to talk about on the first date, pretty much means that she knows from the start fully compatible with the boy. She seemed more flattered,(who could blame her, her mother says she is fat, she is going to the first person who is nice to her) then attracted to him.
shareHonestly, yeah... did you see the Dell notebook or whatever it was that Jimmy was using on his lap in bed? Def not an eighties film. Although I definitely think that the theme is timeless and could have been set in absolutely any era. However, modern Latina women are gaining more and more confidence and encouragement necessary to follow their dreams.
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even if it was in the 80's, estela still could have opened her own shop. maybe even used the same factory and blocked off half of it to create a boutique. i realy thought this out while i was watching the movie. but i realized, estela is scared. ana was the brave one. ana would have started her boutique from the beginning. estela, on the other hand, knew her place in life. she liked her life and she was frightened to step out of her circle of comfort. people like estela keep those big fashion companies in business.
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