Temu Tat…

I have never bought anything from Temu or Aliexpress or any company on Amazon that has links to China.

How do you know it was bought from Temu?

I’ve been gifted Temu tat this year, went straight to the Charity shop. Awful smelling candies and rubbish I would never want. Feel like that person doesn’t know me at all!

i must admit i'm terrible for online shopping on these places (more especially tiktok shop), but i would never buy cheap plastic tat for kids, it could be dangerous depending on what way it breaks. in your position i would tell them i was trying to declutter toys and instil a love of reading so could they please buy a book or two for presents.

There are, and anything sold by an actual retailer whether that's John Lewis or Argos or Poundland, online or in store, will have to meet safety requirements.

Small packages being sent direct from China by Temu or Shein - or even all those random jumble of letters 'brands' sold through Amazon (eg the same baby rattles being sold be 'Vicloon' 'Syid' and 'Infinno') - avoid any safety testing or regulation.

No wonder they don't like them if they buy crap from Temu!

No, you can return the whole order if you want. You can't do more than one return per order, so basically you have to send all the returned items together.

No, you can return the whole order if you want. You can't do more than one return per order, so basically you have to send all the returned items together.

Nope.

if things are being imported in large quantities by a reseller then there is a chance that the shipment will be intercepted and inspected by customs. Single packages bought from shite sites like Temu are not checked. You have no idea what you’re buying.

still. It’s cheap.

I thought thal there were quite stringent healrh and safety UK laws in chidren toys?

Does this not apply to stuff bought online on the Web?

I've purchased lots of stuff from Temu, not toys, but clothes and all been really nice and washed well. Also a few household items all great and nothing has broken. Clicks together carpet tiles are great.

There is no justification for buying from these sites. The excuses of poverty being a reason are ridiculous. Why should less fortunate children be exposed to utter crap; let alone the children that have been abused to produce it.

Yes I just don’t understand this, why do parents want piles of tat in their houses

Didn’t people used to buy from Argos as it was budget friendly before Temu?

I wouldn’t buy anything from them and I’d rather buy my Dgc one decent toys from JL. At least they are checked for safety standards

But cheap, and you can access vast quantities of the crap at low prices. Shop like a billionaire!

Except billionaires are not filling their homes with plastic tat made by slaves. Sooner they stick massive import tariffs on these awful companies the better. That's what the French have done, and also give tax breaks for repairing items and buying second hand.

I absolutely detest Temu. It’s just cheap rubbish that ends up going to landfill. It’s made in factories that don’t give a toss about workers rights or the environment, then shipped half way round the world. Should be banned!

But you have no idea which are being used and by whom. The “approved” suppliers know how to tick all the boxes on paper, but frequently outsource to sub-suppliers to meet the demand and this is hidden from clients. They cannot make a good enough margin if they meet all the standards because their clients are all about driving down costs. These sub-suppliers use cheap labour / slavery / children.

An example of the disparity in the narrative between the expensive brands and those called “cheap tat” is the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh. This was widely reported as the “Primark factory” and its cheap fashion was seen to be to blame for poor working conditions. This is despite the fact that brands such as Zara, Benetton, Gap, and even Versace and Prada used this factory. The top that costs £5 to supply is sold for £8 at Primark, £50 at the Gap and £200 by Prada. Who is the bigger crook there? Incidentally, the brands who have signed up to pay reparations to families and improve working conditions and monitoring of these suppliers are largely the cheap brands. Primark has a large number of staff working in these countries. They are investing in improving standards which is benefitting the designer brands making much larger profits.

To suggest Fisher Price (and their parent brand Mattel) are doing anything differently and that their toys are safe and made using ethical labour is laughable and ignored evidence to the contrary. They have recalled toys due to lead paint being found, their “rock and play” was on the market for a decade until 2019, despite them being warned about babies dying (50 in ten years). The factories they use have repeatedly been investigated and found workers being paid less than £1 an hour. Instead of holding their hands up and saying they will do better, their statements deny there is a problem, saying they monitor suppliers and are committed to ensuring good working conditions. The detail they give on how they do this is sorely lacking.

Cheap tat isn’t great. We need less of it. But expensive tat has just the same ethical concerns and avoiding Temu in favour of Smyths isn’t any better for reducing exploitation of workers overseas.

Say you don’t like your in-laws without saying you don’t like your in-laws….

You're not bothered about poor children having dangerous toys, clothes and craft then?
They don't deserve the same protection as other children 🤔

How can you tell if the toy or electronic item is exactly the same just cutting out the middle man?
Or a copy made with inferior materials, cheap toxic paint and not safety tested?

I meant false economy in the way that it won't last, and you could buy a better quality "x" second hand which would last way longer.
If you want to replace the item, you could end up spending more than if you'd bought a decent one in the first place

Said it before but I think for a lot of people it's all about the warm fuzzy feelings at the sight of a big pile of wrapped gifts. If you're cash strapped you could choose to just buy one, maybe smaller, good quality present but you don't get the same satisfaction.

I buy second hand 95% of the time and sometimes that includes buying things from temu etc that have ended up on Vinted. It’s not false economy if you like the stuff and use it, it’s false economy if you don’t.

Just when I thought I’d seen everything. What an utterly ridiculous and dramatic post. I’m actually embarrassed on your behalf. Cringing.

You're being fucking ridiculous. There are plenty of affordable ways to buy clothes and toys without buying shit from Temu.