Primark, an Irish fast-fashion retailer owned by British food conglomerate Associated British Foods, is ready to do business in the U.S.A.

The retailer, which sells clothing so cheap that it can make Forever 21 or H&M look like mid-priced apparel stores, opens its first U.S. store in Boston this week, in a historic building that once held the city’s original Filene’s Basement, the discount section of the historic but now-defunct Filene’s department store. 

In fact, Filene’s Basement became a chain of discount apparel stores that was out of business by 2009 after moving well beyond its Boston base, anchored to the department store that supplied its damaged, flawed, or out-of-season goods. Once Filene’s Basement became a chain untethered from its roots and its supplies, it over-expanded and became filled with cheap goods that were a far cry from its original raison d’etre.

That Primark is filling that same space is, in a way, quite symbolic — both of the retailer’s potential and its pitfalls.

The potential

Primark has made a name for itself for its fashion-forward styles, and not just its bottom-barrel prices, getting mentions (including high marks) in Vogue for some of its designs. 

“Here is what you might find,” wrote Vogue writer Lynn Yaeger on a visit during Fashion Week in London about a Primark visit, “a very appealing cherry-blossom photo-printed dress made of some sort of silky fabric for seventeen pounds; a white biker jacket (somewhere between Rodarte and Elvis) and not real leather, but what do you expect for 27 pounds?; a glittery top that unwittingly presages [Tom] Ford’s efforts a few hours hence, for fourteen pounds.”

The limits of discount retail

Still, Primark is coming to the U.S. at a difficult moment for many discount retailers. Dollar stores are experiencing some contraction with the merger of Dollar Tree and Family Dollar, Wal-Mart is making big changes to improve its prospects, and Target is working on a turnaround, to name a few. 

Even fast-fashion retailers, which seemed impervious to much of the post-recession retail funk, are looking to diversify their offerings. And Forever 21 appears to be feeling some pains of over-expansion as it looks to reduce its store space. 

That reduction pursued by Forever 21 could be especially telling for Primark, which has similarly humongous spaces, cheap clothes, and high turnover of goods.

Sustainability issues

Primark could encounter some resistance from an American shopper that is increasingly concerned about how clothes are sourced, from both environmental and a humanitarian standpoints.

The company says its “committed to working toward a living wage” and has discontinued some of its worst environmental practices. 

Yet even before the store’s opening in Boston, union workers and organizers staged a protest at its location over the retailer’s refusal to meet with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445 about organizing its workers. That local was the union for Filene’s workers for nearly 100 years, and represents workers at the local Macy’s and nearby grocery stores.

And while a recent incident, where labels in Primark clothes seemed to contain “cry for help” messages, was found to be a hoax, the incident nevertheless underscored the low wages and poor working conditions for apparel workers overseas, in general as well as specifically with Primark’s. It reminded everyone that the retailer has had to terminate relationships with factories where children as young as 11 were found to making its clothes. 

Other concerns

Primark has a website, but it's not shoppable. Its prices (and margins) are so low that it eschews e-commerce because it has no way of passing the cost of shipping or other logistics onto the consumer. This could be another mark against it as more retailers increasingly smooth out friction between channels. 

Finally, Primark is arriving in the U.S. at a time when consumers have shifted their priorities away from apparel, putting their money into smartphones and travel — things that help them stay connected to friends and create memories. 

The retailer says it wants to be another source of Americans’ clothes, and is not expecting to muscle anyone out of business.

But the question remains — are Americans looking for another clothing store?