In a post-Rana Plaza world, one can only wonder how best to gauge the ethics and worker safety behind our garment-manufacturing industry. The Goliath that the fashion industry has become begs the question whether it's even possible to ensure suppliers do the right thing.

To most people, and even many C-level retail executives, warehouses are those large, far-flung structures where raw materials and manufactured goods are kept. They're the places where forklifts move pallets around and guys wear hardhats.

So the Chinese are gearing up to sell their branded merchandise in the U.S. But what about the other way around? Can American manufacturers capture a healthy share of China's burgeoning consumer market?

Chinese brands are aiming for a hefty slice of the U.S. consumer market. And they're liable to succeed a lot more quickly than you might think.

RFID start-up Senitron has installed a fixed RFID solution at two American Apparel stores, enabling the retailer to view the real-time locations of all tagged items within predetermined zones throughout both sites.

Movie heists often involve sophisticated tools and brilliant plans that depend on crack timing in order to succeed. Not so in real life.

Li & Fung - the most important company that most American shoppers have never heard of - has long been on the cutting edge of globalization, chasing cheap labor to garment factories first in China, then elsewhere in Asia, including Bangladesh. Now, with sweatshop disasters there drawing international scrutiny, the business is looking for the next best place - perhaps South America or sub-Saharan Africa - where it can steer apparel buyers seeking workers to stitch clothing together for a few dollars a day.

A group of 17 American retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Macy's Inc., have signed on to a five-year agreement to help improve safety at garment factories in Bangladesh.