Too wonder why people shop on temu Shein etc

[HappySunday1]

When we know how bad the environment is how much plastic and stuff ends up in land fill how poor the workers conditions are why are we supporting them. I see so many people doing big hauls of stuff. I know it’s cheap and maybe it’s all people can afford by you buy cheap you buy twice.

Who cares about unethical labour practices, about the environmental cost, about legitimate designers having their IP ripped off or that these places happily sell your data on when you can get 100 colouring pencils 20p cheaper than you can in home bargains.

But it's not 20p. It's often £10-50 which really adds up if you're buying loads of everyday household stuff that you need to buy anyway (hair clips, hair bands, socks, duvet protectors, hats, gloves, storage containers, stationery etc). Again, people's shopping habits are different but I only use Temu for boring household necessities that I have to buy anyway. I don't care which brands these are, they just need to be functional.

Regarding ethical labour practices, read my post above. Chinese factories do not employ child labour because they are all open to visitations from Western contractors and in close competition with each other. They would have to secretly maintain a child labour room whilst having an open showroom for visitors, which is ludicrous. If one factory is rumoured to be using child labour, or other illegal practices, they would be tipped off instantly by their competitors who want their contracts. It's an egocentric and racist POV to state that all factories in China use child labour when it doesn't make any economic sense on a basic business level.

A similar logic works with the claim that they steal your bank details. If you bought from Temu once and had money stolen from your bank, then you would never use it again. Like any business, they want returning customers so it's in their best interest to get you shopping repeatedly and spend more money than what they could possibly "steal" in a single transaction. Temu is a marketplace similar to Amazon and the money goes to individual sellers. It's not outside the realm of possibility that a few bad players do misuse payment data or are simply unlucky and get hacked. But on the whole, they do not take cash from your bank account as a lasting business model.

Designers have their IP stolen at all levels. There were several high profile cases of Topshop and Zara stealing designs, usually created by third party agencies. Aliexpress has been offering stolen IP work for 10+ years, and it's been around much longer than Temu & Shein. Counterfeit and IP theft is a huge problem but it's been around longer than the app and will pop up elsewhere even if Temu gets banned. AI also steals artists work. It's possible to prompt AI to create work "in the style of" any artist and the resulting image will technically be entirely copyright free. So in a few years, companies who want free imagery will all do that instead of outright reprinting existing work.

The big mainstream High Street chains also rip off loads of designs.

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/our-designer-fear-small-firms-alarm-at-impact-of-high-street-copy-cats/

Do you really need to buy loads every day?!

I recently saw a Facebook post from, an American contact, warning everyone not to buy from Temu or Shein as apparently Temu and Shein, who they note are Chinese companies, are making a huge loss on every sale, clogging up search engines and trying to force out all competition. Therefore forcing out many small US businesses and having an adverse effect on the US economy!! The post ends by urging everyone to support their local made in the US businesses! I assume they mean Amazon and the like!! LOL! So it looks like they have the Americans scared!

It's not the same thing.

The high streets aren't literally using the same photos of products with the same brand names and trying to claim it's actually an expensive branded product. Temu/Aliexpress et al are.

It's especially problematic when it comes to things like dodgy electrical goods which often have entirely fake safety marks on them. Happy with one of those next to your bed charging your phone?

Have a dig into the ethical practices of these companies. You are being incredibly naive and assuming things like "they want your returning business" and that claims of child labour are "racist".

Nope. Some people just want your cash and your data.

Nobody is claiming that all such companies operate in the same way, but many are deeply, deeply problematic and it's naive in the extreme to think otherwise in order to save a couple of quid on the kind of essentials you can likely get from home bargains and the like for similar prices.

It's not the same thing but only because you lost the argument so shifted it to talking about unsafe electric products.

When it comes to ripping off the IP of smaller designers, which you talked about earlier, it is exactly the same thing when the big stores do it. In fact it's probably even worse because they have a veil of respectability.

Some people just want your cash

No shit

Here I was thinking shops wanted my friendship and nuggets of wisdom. Heartbroken I am

It's especially problematic when it comes to things like dodgy electrical goods which often have entirely fake safety marks on them. Happy with one of those next to your bed charging your phone?

You can tell by the packaging on many standard (no brand) electronics that they were all made in China. Stuff like cables, LED strips, etc. There's no guarantee that any electronic is safe. Remember the exploding Samsung phones from a few years back? Would definitely not want those next to my bed. Apple iMac batteries can also burst or explode depending on age.

People here are talking about Temu like it's all or nothing. If you use the app then you deserve to get killed by an exploding charger made by little children and the fire department can't find your house because they also stole your identity and changed your address in the process.

In reality it's just a cheap shopping platform and chances are 99.9% of the products you get will be perfect fine. If you decide to order counterfeit Nintendo games for a fiver then don't be surprised if it doesn't work. If you order baby toys that come reeking of plasticisers then don't give them to your kid to chew. Common sense, people.

Of course tested and regulated electronics are safer. That's why testing and regulation exists. Those exploding samsungs were recalled. Random temu junk doesn't come with the same protections - every second gadget could be catching fire and there'd be no recall, no insurance, no warning.
Unless you're doing a chemical analysis, you can't possibly know what those untested, unregulated baby toys are made of. You can't smell carcinogens, lead, endocrine disruptors or whether the battery compartment is secure, or the stitching or if the plastic is liable to snap etc. I'd rather not take a gamble with my precious baby.

And if you don't wash your towel after every use and wear clean pjs every night you're disgusting.

I've looked at Shein a few times and know people who swear by it but whenever I look at the customers' pics of the items the quality just doesn't look great.

I am literally just one person buying. If something is fine and dandy when it's just one person but harmful when it's many, you can't blame the individuals who thought they were doing something fine and dandy. If buying from companies like Temu or Shine is really dangerous at societal scale then outlaw it but don't preach to me!

Not preaching! But buying for fun from a dodgy company is morally questionable like. I buy from Penneys/Primark, and i'm fairly sure they're equally dodge, but i do hold my hands up. I just can't afford anything else.

Our society is so quick to cancel anything mildly offensive nowadays that if Primark, Sheit or Temu were really doing anything dangerous or morally repugnant, there would be a campaign about it.

People are against Shein and Temu....

People have been talking about working conditions in china for decades.

Where have you been?

There is though. There was that channel 4 exposé. The reality is that people are used to cheap clothes manufactured in countries with terrible working conditions, so will turn a blind eye. And also, there are lots of people who can't afford to shop local. So demand is there, and where there's demand there'll be supply.

I didn't shift anything.

It was an example of why buying dodgy ripoff products is not a very good idea.

And there is very clearly a difference between ripping a design off - which I don't disagree is morally ropey - and plain counterfeiting which is absolutely rampant on Temu. You may go into Topshop and see a design a bit similar to one in, I dunno, Gucci, but you at least won't see them trying to claim what you are buying is actually Gucci.

Is Poundland more worthy than shein then?
If order everything online if I could! Can't bear physical shops. Delighted I am that primark has started click and collect!

Eh, it really really depends on what the offending action is and what the consequences would be of cancelling it.

@pastypirate you've kind of proved my point. Poundland sells big brand stationary (Crayola, Sharpies, Bic etc) as well as their "own brand" ones. It's very different from Temu/Shein.
I don't enjoy shopping especially but when it comes to what I call "everyday bits and bobs" (so that's things like colouring pens, sellotape, bubble bath, cleaning spray, a new phone charger, batteries, packs of plasters etc) I can get it all in one shopping trip to Poundland. Obviously if someone lives in the middle of nowhere then ordering online may have to be the way to go but when you live in a town or city there's Poundland (or similar like One Beyond, Home Bargains) everywhere.

You do realise that some people don't want to buy previously worn items? Yes there's BNWTs - but most items are not. People are allowed to want new things.

People can "want" whatever they like.

The entire point - and this really does apply to everyone across the board including me for sure - is that we need to have a massive mindset shift from what we want, because collectively, what we want is destroying the planet. I'm not preaching, I need to make the same shift myself. But we aren't going to make any progress when wanting it is seen as a perfect justification.

You do realise that some people don't want to buy previously worn items? Yes there's BNWTs - but most items are not. People are allowed to want new things.

That's fine nobody can stop you. Don't complain about COL if you insist on buying knew. Even TU and FF clothing is expensive new, you'll waste hundreds in kids clothing mostly