France announce a levy on SHEIN, TEMU and similar imports. AIBU to want the UK to do the same?

Some stuff is easy to return. But when you pay a few quid for something, if it’s not the right size then it doesn’t matter. You can give it away, donate it or whatever.

Incidentally, did you know you can get your account blacklisted for persistent returns? They are trying to crack down on people who buy different sizes, try and return. I think they call it bracketing. It costs the retailers a fortune and is incredibly wasteful. It has a massive environmental impact as well.

Is it easy and free to return to the cheap Chinese retailers because that to me is a very important thing. That is why I like Next and M&S, they sell a lot of brands and I can order different sizes, pick them up from store, try them on and return everything I don't want. No charity shops in our retail park, though it's a newish nice one with lots of clothes shops and generally a big queue for the car park. I usually walk though.

Well I’m sure that is fab for you, and clearly area dependent. So the thriving internet economy (including the cheap Chinese imports) haven’t negatively affected where you live.

Groups of teens hanging out is one thing l don’t miss on the odd occasion I have to venture into town. In fact, in a nearby city, the groups of teens were a contributing factor to people avoiding the area.

I was also a teen in the 80s and remember going into town etc. Not sure where I said I never did, but admittedly it’s been a couple of days since I was on the thread.

When these retail parks sprung up, businesses were only too happy to move away from the town/city hubs. This was inconvenient and difficult to access for many people before the internet shopping came along.

You can hardly be shocked that people took a more convenient option when it was available.

Now charity shops are starting to spring up in retail parks (even in units previously occupied by big retailers) so they will go the same way as the town centres have.

I only suggested moving because the OP is getting misty eyed about the culture in Europe and how it is disappearing here.

I don’t feel ‘merriment’ - why would I? I don’t care. I like that I have a way to access shopping now in a way that I was previously unable to but that’s it. I don’t understand why people are using such emotive language. ‘Race to the bottom’, ‘chronic isolation’… It is a simple case of supply and demand. Sufficient people prefer to do their shopping online and/or pay little for stuff. It doesn’t mean they are isolated.

Our not "are".

Are city is heaving, the high street is busy all of the time, shops open for younger demographic do you know why because young people do want to feel connected they do value that social hub, they are expressing themselves via fashion, music choices, independently away from the adults, just like I did in the 90s. You may not have any interest in doing that, even when young but I would suggest that's pretty unusual. Your suggestions of moving to Europe if you want this experience are ludicrous! Where I live and when I am visiting parts of London for shops and markets there are hundreds of teenagers and all ages frequenting these places as it's a perfectly natural desire to not embrace this depressing individualism that is defined by chronic isolation and merriment in corroding communal bonds!

I have bought some lovely dresses from Shein that are nice quality and I have worn loads. Recently watched a Facebook post on what ladies at the horse racing were wearing and every other woman was wearing Shein.

for me it’s the style choice I can get that isn’t available in other shops and suits me. Also I have a child that is in mini adult size clothes but doesn’t want clothes designed for men with boring colours, I can get appropriate stuff from Shein.

All very well for you who can afford to buy the 'quality' clothing. But that's not everybody.

Honestly, it's like people can't wait to donate more of their money to the government. do you really think they're doing such a good job at using the money they've already got?? Anyway, a levy on shein or temu won't do a thing about high streets here, it's not going to magic up boutiques selling nonexistent quaint good quality uk-made goods, nor the necessary cash in people's pockets to be able to shop the no doubt high prices at such a place. High streets are exactly like temu -- turn over anything you pick up and you'll see "Made in China" on the back.

Would you really?! I order from other online places if I need something.

Absolutely - go for it, but you don’t have create a fallacy that other people’s complaints are just around a desire to feel morally superior. Otherwise it sounds like you do feel the need to make excuses and you’re right, you really don’t..

I did a masters in real estate stuff nearly 30 years ago and th big talking point them was the impact of regional shopping centres (the Metro Centre, Meadowhall, Thurrock etc) on towns, in particular towns which were “second tier” in an areas anyway such as Gateshead (from the Metro Centre). The internet has just supercharged something that was happening anyway. Some areas will be able pivot and other will have to change - if so much shopping space is no longer needed on the high street then there is no point in keeping it but the local authority might be reluctant to write it off for good if it means forgetting about future business rates.

Speak for yourself. I shop at all sorts of online retailers including Temu because it suits me to, I don’t make excuses.

I could afford to shop for better quality stuff and sometimes I do but I happen to think clothes should form the smallest part of my budget as they are a boring necessity.

Why is giving people choices a race to the bottom? Why is having a high street ‘raising the standard’? People had the chance to keep it but they chose convenience and service over overpriced and limited stock.

I get you don’t approve of the cheap crap etc but my advice would be to move to somewhere in Europe where you can shop in person and people don’t shop with Temu/shein. If the high street was worth keeping, it wouldn’t have faded away.

Clothing retailers are closing left, right and centre because people don’t want to go into town and faff about trying the clothes on, being served by people who don’t want to be there and hoping they can get the right size.

Complain if you like but many people aren’t remotely sorry to see the high street go because they get a better shopping experience online.

Or we could all just create straw men to allow us to do any old shit that we want regardless of the consequences. We’re all hypocrites.

Yes exactly. They want poorer people to suffer so they can feel morally superior.

They wang on about the environment while flying all over the place, having gas guzzler vehicles and not being arsed to recycle.

If people are honest about it then fine. But dressing it up as ‘raising standards’ is horseshit

This is true too. I know people who only shop at very expensive shops, who have so many clothes It's unbelievable. And then there's people who take long-haul flights every couple of months and have a fleet of cars.

It's like that thread that's running at the moment regarding not wanting to pay tradespeople in cash. I know some tradespeople make very good money however when it comes to your 'odd job guy' or your cleaner, getting annoyed because they want cash is pretty mean I think. They might be avoiding paying tax, and that's not good from a legal or moral perspective, but why not look at the huge companies that sit pretty on their thrones paid for by tax-dodging, rather than Mildred from up the road who now has an extra £20 in her pocket to feed her children with.

What I hate most about these shops is how I can no longer trust that what I buy is safe. They have found clothes laced with lead! As far as I'm concerned if you are found to be importing something as actively dangerous as that, a levy isn't sufficient, it should be some form of ban.

Companies were signing up to labour pledges and not using child labour. For most of my life this has been something that I’m sure many companies paid lip service to but if this was uncovered then it was viewed as very wrong. From this thread it feels like this has stopped. I suppose this is what happens as the UK gets poorer, global work place and environmental standards are viewed as an indulgence.

So what’s the answer? What does happen to the labourers if everyone stops buying? I’m genuinely interested if their circumstances improve.

As for the environment, it’s clear from various threads that most people on here don’t really give a toss.

I’ve heard some of the arguments on this thread in the past used to justify child labour - the family would just suffer otherwise. I thought we’d moved away from that. So if the environmental standards of a company are terrible and damaging and the products are actually toxic then it doesn’t matter because to stop this would mean people are out of a job? Is this what we are back to?

We went to a smaller town that pretty much had all surfaces with graffiti. It was an overload.

Was in Rome in the summer, apparently the area we stayed is well known for it’s “street art” 😆 this was graffiti, a shit tonne of it, but way to go for a positive spin.

And why is it ‘raising standards’? Who benefits?

Not the poor souls making the Chinese stuff - they wouldn’t suddenly get better working standards. In fact if their employers are having to pay more, they will be negatively affected even more.

Not the customers who have to pay more in an attempt to force them to buy elsewhere.

Not the high street which is past saving.

So nobody benefits except possibly Amazon etc, which apparently is abhorrent to many people on this thread.

i live in a city with several local neighbour centres. Some are all independent shops and coffee shops and others are vape shops etc. I think places where people go on holiday are more likely to be the equivalent of the coffee shop areas of my city and not the vape shops etc areas so I’m not sure that what is seen on holiday is fully representative. When I’ve been with my DCs to London; I point out to them when you live in London, for the average person(ie me with I lived there) it’s not all Kings Road shopping and Columbia Road flower market