I have the chance to buy some very high quality women's clothing.
There are two sources for what amounts to the same product. I have conducted a very careful Due Dilligence of both companies and they are both 100% legit. I then hire an agent to do a factory audit of both companies. The results are very interesting.

Company 1 is offering me the product at $50.00 per unit.
Company 2 is offering me the product at $30.00 per unit.

The quality of both is very good and the range of colors is similar. I can find no differences in the companies and products except for one.

During the company audit my agent discovered that Company1 pays its workers $2.00 per hour more than Company 2 and that the factory was clean and the workers all look healthy and well fed.

Company2 on the other hand was a dirty warehouse where the workers seem to be sitting working on the flimsiest of chairs. My agent has also dicovered that this company has a reputation of treating it's workers badly.

My dilema... Do I buy the product at the higher cost where I know the workforce is treated well or do I take the cheaper price knowing that the workers are treated badly?

************************************EDIT 1/17/07**********************
To add value to the question an extra 100 points is becoming available for this question. Total now 150 points As well as stating a view on which supplier I should use. Can you give an alternative Business Plan that would make all 3 companies benefit (myself, company1 and company2). Those who have already answered this question are invited to expand their comments as a new posting please.

Due to recent postings containing personal attacks and rebuttals, which are not at all encouraged by Alibaba, I have decided to delete such postings and lock this question. I have left the question open for further comments earlier as this question dwells on an interesting topic and has been rated worth reading by 11 of 11 members. 

May I request contributors to this forum to keep to the topic, remain civil to one another and refrain from personal attacks. ~ macs2005

Replying to [Foow]:of course buy the cheaper one. because foryour benefit, it is better to buy the second. treating the workers badly,it is the thing of the company not yours, if you feel you have the responsibility to help the workers, u'd go to the government to punish that company. in a word, nothing about the products, but the boss.

Replying to [Foow]:the premise is quality must be the same.if you are a businessman,you must choose the C2,if you are a welldoer,you must choose the C2,as the workers of C2 have families to be supported,your order maybe make them get better.if you are a wealthy and like to pay high,C1 is the only choice.
this is my individual viewpoint.

Ammeet, its tru no one will change for small amount of money. But as a buyer making purchases of 25-50K a month you have more control than you think no matter what form of payment your using or who the supplier is unless they want to loose 300k-600k a year.

Ranger

Replying to [Foow]:I have just been involved with three companies under similar circustances, but in the AQUARIUM INDUSTRY.
Due diligence was done and the compaines checked out perfectly.
It was then a major decision as to who to select as our supplier.
Of the three companies, one of them offered us a "SOLE DISTRIBUTORSHIP" for their products in New Zealand; You guessed it, they got the big tick.

T/T and L/C were looked at and we thought they were too expensive, so we paid $25.00 for a BANK DRAFT of $US15000.00.

It's a good thing the Draft was sitting on my desk with the order being finalised to fill the container as I noticed on an auction site in NZ that this companies products were already being sold in New Zealand, dispite them offering us SOLE DISTRIBUTORSHIP.
On complaining and asking for an explanation we were told "They must be entering NZ via a third party". What a load of Trash, they sell at any price to get a sale and do anything at all that they need to, to make it look all above board.

In OUR EXPERIENCE when dealing with ANY COMPANY in China do it at the cheapest cost to yourself and DONT TRUST THEM, as their "ETHICS LEVEL" is on the pavement.

Replying to [Sixer]:Dear Sixer,you say "Buy from the company 2, for uSD 50, with the condition that the USD 20should be provided for the welfare and maintaineance of the factory/labour very celan and good environment
The balance should be kept in the Bank and it should be released only on submitting the certificate from teh same agent that the environment is going better "

*** Mean you are an angel.But this is only a theory. I am sure in real life you will never let the difference of money to another company as long you can use the proffit for your own business .

Replying to [Foow]: I may be seeing the other side now. You say that the companies are both 100% legit. If we take that to mean that no labor laws are being broken and it is not that the workers in one place are being treated badly but are just being treated better in the other. Then maybe we can buy from the cheaper and make more profit. If the workers are being treated badly then the company can't be 100% legit.

Buying at the cheaper company might be compared to buying in China instead of Western Europe.

Replying to [Foow]:
Ammeet,
Nowhere in the original synopsis is the country mentioned. I have INTENTIONALLY left that out so as not to bias the answers.

You should not be making that assumption.....and the points you make rend to mitigate against the assumption you made.

Replying to [Ranger]:Dear Ranger, Our 1 order value generaly starting with at least 100,000 US$, Than i see how factory behaves and how they trouble when you trust them..

Replying to [Foow]: Already ammended

Replying to [Foow]:

FOOW,i am grace,i agree you buy from the worse factory,if you order to them,maybe they will be better,and also the workers,help the poor people,