To ask you to swerve Shein & Temu

Why? All these retailers purchase from them and charge double the amount.

You don't want to be
You are looking for a gotcha
I am not responsible for educating you
I don't care if the conversation moves on, my point was valid.

Of course they do, it would be madness and completely inefficient as a business to fly each order over as its done

The issue is that there are unofficial warehouses in other businesses which take the goods in, sometimes peoples homes.

Exactly.
This and forecasts.
There's actually train freight from China to Europe now too. Then onwards from there. It was a massive breakthrough in servicing Europe from China, but it doesn't fit the Netflix narrative so no-one ever looks at that.

Ok. Educate me then. If you work in import should be easy for you to correct me. Tell me how carbon efficient air freight is.

Sorry but that's delusional. Do you know how many different things Temu sells? You seriously think they have every item stored in every country they sell in? Of course not. They don't even claim to. They fly stuff from China.

That's not facts

I work in import so I'd say I have a much better idea than most of the people on here that just watched a documentary.

Carry on though my dear, you're doing great.

I've tried explaining to this poster that Temu and Shein transport goods by sea. Flying goods is more expensive than sea freight, so it figures these budget marketplaces are going to ship rather than air where possible. Temu seems similar to Amazon in that they have 'local' warehouses from what I can gather from their website. I would presume they sea freight in bulk to local warehouses in this country rather than flying individual hairbrushes from China each time someone makes an order.

Who has a 'haul' mentality? Don't think I've seen anyone claim that.. & I see that no-one else has volunteered info that they don't have a car / fly / get nails done.. Glass houses?

Shein/temu goods are almost always flown over here. How else do people think they are getting here from China so fast? I believe they do now have some UK warehouses, so presumably (hopefully) that stock is sea freighted.
Of course most UK retailer's stock is sea freight.

What makes you think goods are flown over, very very little goods we buy are flown over, most is shipped.

That's my point: you don't truly know who's causing what misery. Assuming you haven't actually visited a Shein factory OR one producing garments for a higher end brand, that could well be using the same practices, you have literally no evidence.

Sure, but then for the person making that stuff feeding their family, not inhaling toxic chemicals or being treated like shit is probably something they want to do? I'm not speaking about Temu or Shein because I have never used them, but in general.

Also, @Jumpingthruhoops, there is absolutely no need for you to simply accept what any company says. There are many third party organisations evaluating the ethics of companies. Goodonyou.eco, for instance, evaluates on people and supply chain and employment ethics, and environmental impact. There are many ethical consumer sites like this. It's really not hard to research if you give a fuck. That doesn't make affording what you need simple. But not being able to afford and not giving a fuck aren't the same thing.

Ah okay, so it's totally not a matter of degree then. A huge amount of misery caused is identical to a minimal amount. May as well not bother than I guess.

In this case, the fact that sea freight is much more carbon efficient than air. And that is an unarguable fact. Current convo is (or was) transport. Keep up.

Yes I agree, it is the same for toys and clothes, especially with the finishing sprays and materials used. The cheaper products often aren't registered safe for the UK meaning they contain harmful chemicals. They may look exactly the same, but that is often not the reality. I personally wouldn't take the risk for my child, I'd rather she had slightly fewer toys for Christmas, but ones I know are safe.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly1qr6z40po.amp

Another example, from two days ago, of the risks these products pose.

"it just came on, the brush flew off.. and just sucked her hair in"

This is just not true Toys sold in Argos, Tesco or Primark have to meet basic safety standards. These businesses have buying departments and agents and do not want the adverse publicity of selling dangerous toys, children's clothing or anything else. Trading standards can and do inspect toys on sale in shops and ban the sale of things which don't meet standards. Border force seizes imports of fakes/dangerous items.

Now the stuff you buy on shite sites like Shein or Temu might LOOK like the same toy you can buy elsewhere but you have no guarantee that it is. You just don't know because nobody is checking every single package which is being sent.

It's a massive, stupid risk to take.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/20/eu-commissioner-shocked-dangerous-goods-sold-shein-temu

https://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=254810 - this was only 5 days ago and the headline is "Children's Costumes from AliExpress, Temu Contain Harmful Substances Above Safe Levels".

But knock yourselves out with your "cheap bits" and stocking fillers.

What facts?

Supply chain is literally collecting certificates to show auditors. They don't check the validity of them. As I said before, it's all "trust me bro"

You should see the absolute shit show that is ensuring Russian steel doesn't enter the market. It's a pyramid scheme. All of it.

As someone else said, unless you own the factory, you have no idea of origin really.

They sell the same sort of stuff as many other retailers. Basically they're Chinese manufacturers trying to remove the middleman.

I think if you read all my posts I’ve covered all that.