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

I haven’t looked into the environmental reasons for any tax and whether it would make a difference.

My local high street, deprived Yorkshire from when the mines went is dying. The M&S is moving to the edge and will just be food. There is a next but mostly I see returns from online and I use it because the sizes aren’t available in store. We don’t have the small independent shops that might be on high street near Leeds.

I think it might revive the out of town with free parking. Apparently there was a thriving market but the council decided to close it and it became outdoor, no one goes. There are cafes, mostly chains of that to well and shopping being converted to housing which we do need as have a college.

For clothing, I'd support a financial hit being put against non-biodegradable fabrics. There is so much polyester clothing which is a) sweaty and horrible, and b) doesn't break down like natural fibres.

For shein, temu, etc, I'd love to see them taxed into non-existence. We need to get away from the ideal of buying huge volumes of cheap crap that then goes to landfill. The amount people spend on cheap clothes could buy them a couple of decent items which will last a long time. And of course there's also the risk of buying things that aren't safe.

We can exercise by walking up and down the high street 🤷🏼‍♀️

China has been decarbonising at an absolutely storming rate, precisely to decouple itself from oil.

The NI increase and that in national minimum wage means employing staff in retail roles is a complete nightmare. If you want to support small businesses, making it cheaper to employ staff would go a long way. You can’t have thriving small businesses when employment costs are so brutal.

Sadly my high street and many others across the country already resemble the "wasteland I describe". I forgot to add, our high street is also the entertainment centre for lots of undocumented, military age, single males whose apparent hobby is leering and following teenage girls and women around in groups. It's not safe for any female to go to our high street.

I would support a levy on Shein/ Temu but it won't fix the issues of the high street alone. That requires money, investment, police enforcement of antisocial behaviour and money laundering fronts and the high street stores themselves to stock an adequate range of decent quality clothes, not just a size 8 and a size 22 and then tell everyone else to order online when asked if they have a 12?

Another point. China won't go full on support for Russia because the British market is worth so much to them. Cut that market and it'll change their minds. France isn't as connected to the US as we are. We need the protection of the markets.

Don’t forget fat people. Presumably we have to make ‘better choices’ as we are unlikely to be able to buy decent clothes.🙄

I know there is this idea that cheap clothes are never worn more than a couple of times. That isnt always true. I wear my clothes till they completely wear out. And they are very cheap.

There was a thread recently about local councils not wanting our high streets as retail spaces, there is a drive to make everywhere restaurants and bars, with shopping centers turned into housing. We don't put conditions on businesses, such as offering proper jobs and incentives to keep smaller shops open. Trump was criticised for insisting on tax being paid on money made in the US, while we miss millions in tax, which could be used to regenerate local shopping and provide parking. There was a drive to have everything out of town, but the transport systems wasn't invested in. The will isn't there. Businesses ard profit driven and there was better returns than retail.
Who is going to prevent those working in fast fashion from dying from hunger and extreme poverty?

I don’t know where you live but around here all the high streets are wastelands already. You can’t go back in time. High street shopping was always hell, even back when it was the only option.

The people bemoaning the loss of the high street are clearly in the minority or online stores wouldn’t be the behemoth they now are. Yes Covid sped things up but it was always going to happen in any case because the majority of people clearly don’t want to drag themselves and their families around the shops at a weekend.

Like it or not, it’s progress. If you wanted the high street to survive, enough of you should have continued to support it. But it’s too late now, it’s dead.

So poor people can only use charity shops? They don’t exactly have all sizes or a choice.

How do you stop this? You don't do it by banning Shein imports btw. Anyone who thinks you do is kidding themselves.

This to be honest.
There's a lovely shopping street near-ish to me. Too far to walk, no direct public transport. Parking expensive and oversubscribed.
So I don't go, haven't been for many years.
The lovely independent shops are slowly being replaced with Greggs and coffee shops.

Although if you think it's just temu and shein shipping in cheaply made shite, you're deluded.

Your favourite high street shops do just that, with some tweaks and marketing

It’s cute that you think people care about the high street. They don’t.

Independent local shops are too expensive and have poor choice.

Even if this levy was brought in, it wouldn’t save the high street, because the overwhelming majority of people do not care about it.

I wonder if banning mail order of such poor quality clothing could be one option. Those too lazy to go to a shop or who would feel embarrassed to be seen in places that sell such clothing might choose something better.

Most brands make stuff in China. That doesn’t mean they all use bad quality materials or all pay their workers poorly. Or are all unethical in some way.

We should absolutely put a huge levy on this sort of crap. I refuse to buy from those sites.

I agree. But people will endlessly whinge about how their “haul” of cheap crap is now more expensive.

I don’t want to have to buy my clothes in person and am not prepared to pay for quality clothes.

It’s not always true about the waste. I have cheap clothes that I have worn regularly for the last 8-10 years.

Good for you if you have the time, inclination and the budget to schlep round the high street looking for clothes, meeting your friends for coffee etc. Some of us don’t.

SHEIN and TEMU for certain, absolutely dreadful substandard products, why anyone buys from them is beyond me, do people realise how awful they look wearing them? Hideous. Anyway yes levy those all day long and hopefully encourage people to get back into shops.

Be careful what you wish for.

The events of the last couple of days may mean it is not viable to ship from China at such low prices soon.

Having said that even stuff which is sold by high end retailers often uses Chinese made based products.

There's one outdoor brand who are considered really ethical and make a lot of their stuff in the UK who did a presentation on their environmental considerations which I went to. Almost all their core raw materials were still made in China even if they were then manufactured in the UK. It was eye opening actually.

Shein launched on the Hong Kong exchange I think last week. Their share prices tanked immediately - this was BEFORE The Toddlers started hurling missiles at each other again. This suggests the market doesn't think their model is sustainable and there's too much competition. It will be interesting to see what does happen.

The Chinese economy is going to have some very big challenges with fuel if things carry on for much longer. Ukraine has been hitting Russian fuel and power supplies hard and the Iran - US conflict is stopping China from getting fuel from one of its biggest suppliers. Not to mention the announcement 'closure' of Russian Airspace by Ukraine which will have an impact on any airline flying in Russian Airspace (it will increase insurance costs even if Chinese airlines continue to take the risk). Flying a longer route will also cost more in fuel.

If you aren't paying attention to all this, I strongly suggest you do. This coming winter could be trying worldwide. This isn't about being a prepper - this is about keeping an eye on what's going on. We are in for 'Interesting Times'. It could get a lot tougher for all of us very quickly.

France also have the "ecogeste" tax rebates which give money back when you have your shoes repaired, a hole in your coat fixed or getting a new lining in a dress/suit. I would wholeheartedly support that too.

https://www.service-public.gouv.fr/particuliers/actualites/A16951?lang=en

We woulld also go back to buying less in general which is a positive step. Mindset needs to change. No hauls. No mountains of things for birthday/Christmas. No wearing stuff once or twice - keep it til it literally falls apart and then replace. Repairing what you have. Embracing second hand.

I don't use Shein or Temu but I never buy clothes online unless the High Street store doesn't have the colour I want in stock but only if they do free click and collect.

I detest having to pay for postage and packing and only will if absolutely necessary. I weighed up the cost of going to London to buy Fortnum and Mason chocolates for my Mother's birthday to paying for postage and packing. She's worth it but it still rankles mainly because it was too hot when I was in London in July to carry them home intact.

its a difficult one.

I've never bought from Shein, but I have bought from Temu. I gave in when I realised that a lot of the items sold from The Range was EXACTLY the same stuff as direct from Temu. I looked at some plantpot stands - they were £28 on The Range website, but £12 on Temu. The item photos and product descriptions were identical - so why would I spend so much more for the same thing? That's where the problems come from.

But on the high street, it's too easy to blame online retail. I work a lot in this field, and I've seen first-hand research on what customers want, and people genuinely want to shop in-store still.

But I also think retailers make it far too difficult and unnecessarily put up barriers.

There's a general air of "fuck off, go and do it online" whenever you go into certain stores (Marks and Sparks, I'm looking at you. In my local branch, they had literally two clothing items in size 10-11 for my daughter in the entire children's range. When I asked if they had any more in stock, I was told "no you have to order online" - well don't then complain that people aren't shopping in store)

There's also my local football club shop. My daughter is invited to a friend's party this weekend. I said I would get her mate vouchers for the club shop as a present so she could buy herself a new kit. The club shop is only open 10am-4.30pm Monday to Friday. They also put barriers outside, so you can't park outside. You have to pay in the expensive council car park opposite, so it would be a minimum £3.70 for 1 hour parking - I only need to nip in for less than 5 mins).

But what really irritates me is that there are two voucher types: an e-voucher that you can ONLY use on their website and not in-store. Or an in-store voucher, which you can't use online. But delivery is a minimum of £7 for a 3-5 day turnaround.

So all that tells me, is they are literally saying "go away" - it's not making it easy to shop at all.

And its ironic because we now have a generation where a weekend hobby is a wander around B&M/Home Bargains, because you can park for free, take as long as you need, and let's be honest, you always end up spending at least £25 on useless stuff that you didn't even know you wanted!

Imagine if they got rid of car parking charges, and instead of spending £30 ish every weekend in B&M we were all spending that in our local high streets?