The company's first shop, named Penneys and still in operation today, was established by Arthur Ryan in June 1969 on behalf of the Weston family (who in 1935 founded Allied Bakeries Limited, later renamed Associated British Foods) at 47 Mary Street in Dublin.

[5][20][21][3] In 2015, Primark opened its first United States shop in Boston, later expanding into New York City, Philadelphia, Danbury and Chicago.

[29] In 2017, Primark posted a photograph and video of male model Georgie Aldous wearing its make-up products on its Instagram page.

In June 2021, Primark opened the first shop in the Czech Republic in Prague, occupying the area of 50,590 sq ft (4,700 m2) and serving as a flagship for the region of Central and Eastern Europe.

[40] The click-and-collect service was launched as a trial in 25 shops in north-west England, Yorkshire and north Wales for children's products only.

The result is a new and even faster kind of fast fashion, which encourages consumers to buy heaps of items, discard them after a few wears and then come back for another batch of new outfits.

[56] ETI members commit to working towards the implementation of a code of conduct based on the International Labour Organization's core conventions.

[57] On 9 January 2009, a supplier was forced by ETI to remove its branding from Primark shops and websites following a BBC/The Observer investigation into the employment practices.

The investigation alleged the use of illegal immigrant labour and argued that the workers were paid less than the UK legal minimum wage.

The programme was an undercover investigative documentary examining poor working conditions in Indian factories supplying Primark.

[62] In June 2013, two labels both stitched with alleged SOS messages were separately found in garments purchased from a shop in Swansea, Wales.

[63] Also in June 2014, a customer from Ireland allegedly found an SOS note wrapped in a prison ID card in the pocket of trousers purchased from a Primark shop several years earlier.

[64] The letter was written in Chinese and said to report that prisoners were forced to work "like oxen" making fashion clothes for export for 15 hours per day and that the food they were given would not be fit for animals.

[65] A year and a half later an alleged SOS note from a Chinese torture victim was found in socks purchased from Primark.