Temu, Shein et al

[Cluborange666]

What’s the deal with these companies? The things they sell are clearly impossible to produce and sell at those prices. Do you think it’s a way for the Chinese government to access a massively amount of people’s financial data? Or to undermine western businesses? My teenage kids claim that they will never have TikTok because they see it as an opportunity for their data to be stolen.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist, honestly! But something is off about it all.

Such awful companies, ethically and environmentally. I wonder if a large turnover means a profit.

It is so distressing that there are many UK customers, who are willing to disregard human rights and damage to the environment, all for a cheap dress.

The plight of our own high street, including jobs is also a negative impact.
Not the same in the towns and cities I've visited in Europe. High streets much more viable, people still ‘shop’.

I also feel many of us have lost all sense of quality. Clothing that is poorly made, awful fabrics. So easy to spot.

Could be. Also a way of controlling their own population by keeping them busy making widgets to sell to us.

Stops them getting ideas about overthrowing the government or leaving the country for a better life elsewhere.

My 11 yr old told me nog to sign up to temu yesterday when i asked him about it as he said it is go get data. He probBly saw that on tiktok

Shein is awful is you look into it. A proportion of their workers are essentially enslaved. It is not a case of 'all fast fashion is bad' - they are particularly bad. It really pisses me off seeing teachers on TikTok doing Shein hauls. Like, you work with children but are happy for other children to be exploited to a horrendous degree so you can have an extensive choice of clothing. It really is a case of if it's not in our faces, we don't care. We all managed to clothe ourselves before Primary prices came along; it's just greed for too many clothes.

Yes, I agree with all of you. Why is the government allowing it to exist then? They could easily shut it down. Fear of the Big Boys? If nothing else, it’ll have a negative effect on home grown businesses.

The Chinese govt is involved in enslaving certain ethnic minorities. They also make an awful lot of money by selling cheap environmentally disastrous wares by the tonne to greedy gullible Western consumers. Why would they stop?

I meant OUR government. I can’t see any bonuses to us allowing these companies to operate in our society.

I had a chat about this with 10yo DD and her friends in the car the other day. I pointed out that if you're paying pennies, it means someone else is paying the price: either you by having your data harvested or the slaves or people on poverty wages working in death-trap factories producing the goods. Not to mention the environmental impact of shipping tonnes of plastic/non-sustainable cotton clothing around the world to be worn once and thrown away.

Precisely. Why doesn’t the government just block them from operating here. Other countries happily block businesses which they don’t approve of or feel that they are unfair competition to homegrown businesses. Our government just sits on its hands.

Bit late but I too am worried particularly as @mnhq seem to be happy to promote many many posts promoting Temu across many pages. They're all spam, and its outrageous that its allowed to persist. And breathe....

How on Earth would our government have any impact on a Chinese company?
They can’t stop the app being available or you using it, and anyone in China can send to the UK.

Quite literally nothing the Gov can do

Do you have any links to back this up?
I've been using Shein for almost a year and haven't heard anything bad about it. The many items I've received have been excellent quality. Educate me please.

https://yoursustainableguide.com/is-temu-ethical/#:~:text=No%2C%20Temu%20is%20not%20an,potential%20links%20to%20forced%20labor.

https://wear-next.com/news/is-shein-ethical-and-sustainable/#:~:text=SHEIN's%20own%20sustainability%20and%20social,t%20be%20described%20as%20ethical.

There are masses of articles to explain the issues surrounding these companies. These links were just two of many when you Google.

I work with people in U.A.E. They can’t use Skype or Amazon there as the government sees them as a threat to local businesses. They’re literally blocked on the airways. So obviously those things can be done if a country chooses.

It's distressing that so many of us who are struggling financially to the point of having no choice but to buy at an online Chinese sweat shop. Ethics are for people living in comfortable means, some desperate people can't afford to be choosy.

The death of the UK high street is adding to the problem. All the pound shops in my town closed a couple of years ago. I needed an ironing board and trawled b&m, home bargains and Argos. The prices were what I'd previously expect to pay in Habitat a few years back. Cheap shops in the UK are becoming more expensive by the minute. My weekly shop at Aldi is now comparable to the price of the other main supermarket brands. There is nowhere to save money anymore except these online foreign companies.

I block every version of these companies on twitter/X

Once you start blocking every version, and look back at your blocked people, the pattern is very clear about just how many of them there are.

There are literally thousands, all with different versions of the same shite. I imagine, there will be hundreds of thousands all being created in a dark basement somewhere being carefully monitored by a rogue FBI agent.

I don't think those with lower incomes don't deserve 'things', but I do think that people -all people- need to be much more mindful of what they are buying. Every year on MN the Christmas threads are full of posters who have bought an astronomical number of items for their children, but the majority of the items are total crap. We have stopped valuing quality. Noone should buy for the sake of it and people really do need to consider whether they NEED something or just get it because they can. I spend far less than some posters on the Christmas threads, not because I can't afford it, but because I really do not want a house filled with random shit to bulk out a stocking, or some posters on the S&B threads because I don't need a new £7 top every time I go to the pub. This is not about spending because it's what you can afford, it's about spending full stop and sometimes, you just don't need to buy the stuff.

There’s absolutely warehouses worth of good quality / nearly new clothes on Vinted, and there seems to be a massive oversupply of sellers, so prices have dropped low, so nobody needs to buy crappily cut synthetic rags off Shein. And nobody needs to fill their house with Temu knick-knacks that are just soon-to-be landfill fillers. For practical household stuff local charity shops or furniture services for people on low incomes.

@Switcherooza that's all well and good when you're having to choose eggs from barn hens not free range, but people don't need horrid sweatshop clothes from these websites.

Yes, there's two separate aspects to this. People on very low incomes who need low prices (although I'd be surprised if it was possible to get an ironing board delivered from China for less than buying from a UK discount store and I'd question whether anyone actually needs an ironing board). Also isn't it very risky? What if the items don't fit, not like the picture or are rubbish quality, it's not going to be possible to return them is it? So the money is wasted.

But what people are really complaining about is the 'hauls' where people buy piles of stuff because it's very cheap and don't care if it looks like a dishrag after one wash or breaks after one use because it didn't cost much. This is the real issue, because these people buy and waste so much stuff, which is not the case for people who need cheaper prices, because they're not buying most of the stuff anyway.

Haven’t the US done exactly that? If the government can force us to stay indoors for long periods of time I think they could definitely ban an app if they so wished. The next step would be the hoards of human right lawyers trying to overthrow it of course.

People like tat and will be thrilled that the prices are so low. It's very depressing.

Google 'Shein ethics' for endless articles explaining why the company is appalling.

www.google.co.uk/search?q=shein+ethics&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari

It's only distressing to those who have a choice.
If you have a nice income and can add high street prices etc fine but it's much harder to make these choices when your income is very low and shein etc are the only way clothes can be bought affordably