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.

As a small aside, people complaining that Vinted stuff doesn't fit well...do you find brand new mass produced stuff fits like a dream? (If so, get a job right now as a fit model!) Sizing and fit have gone berserk in recent years for reasons too complicated to go into here, but in essence, mass produced stuff doesn't fit many people beautifully. Another reason why I'd really suggest looking into getting stuff made by a local dressmaker. It really can be surprisingly affordable, depending on what you get, and it will actually fit.

How is it different from shein? Where do you think the super cheap stuff in Poundland comes from?

It's not true that it's all the same stuff though.

@pastypirate what I meant is a lot of Poundland products are branded ones. Exactly the same ones sold in supermarkets and the big name retailers.
A pack of Crayola crayons bought from Poundland will be exactly the same as a pack of Crayola crayons bought from WHSmith, Hobbycraft, Rymans or John Lewis etc.

It's all plastic stuff made from the same place. Which is why we should try to consume less.

But at least with Poundland and small shops they provide jobs. They actually contribute something to society.

Yes we should all be consuming less. You could argue though that if you NEED to buy something like pencils or whatever you are better buying from Poundland and supporting a company employing British people and paying tax, and being required to meet minimum safety standards.

@Diamonde most of what I buy from Poundland isn't "plastic" except for the bottles bubble bath etc come in (which are recycled by most council waste services).
What is this obsession with everything cheap that people buy being plastic and therefore "cheap purchases" are bad.
And for some things you want it to be plastic because it will last a long time - and not be replaced all the time.

What is this obsession with everything cheap that people buy being plastic and therefore "cheap purchases" are bad.

It's true that a lot of stuff is cheap because the people who made it haven't been paid properly and it isn't good quality.

It's also true that there's often a hefty dose of classism involved.

https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2023/nov/21/working-class-people-climate-crisis-policy

I will not buy from these places because of the ethics.
But, bear in mind, nearly everything is made in China anyway. I have a cupboard full of oxo kitchen products which have always been plugged as being made in the U.S., but recently I have found out the majority is now made in China. So I do know that although I avoid such places as Temu and Shein, I have bought things on , say, Amazon and they are the exact same things but 5x the price, and China is still profiting from the sales.
Our clothes are mainly made in Bangladesh, Vietnam, india etc... and even a huge amount of fabrics are made in 3rd world countries . I make a lot of my own clothes and source much of my fabrics from Holland and UK, but it can be tempting when you see some beautiful stuff from unethical sources.
So all I am saying is, yes avoid all these slave fuelled places, but you will still be buying the same things elsewhere.

The reality is I guess that unless we all walk around naked, eat foraged leaves and basically revert back to cave man days it's hard to not buy these goods from china at some point.

All we can do is shop mindfully with care, pay attention to where things come from, buy less and when needed (and of course tue occasional treat) and if f we all do that more often (at the risk of sounding like a total tree hugger) things will slowly get better. Demand for shit quality products that are burning the planet and made by slaves will decline.

Declaring it's all on the government/big industry/little old me will have no impact, is just a cop out

As others are trying to say - it's not just the buying. It's the VOLUME of buying. It's the endless hauls, the deliveries every week, the filling your basket with black friday tat, the shopping as hobbies, the desire for a new outfit for every night out or every social media post.

All this STUFF has to go somewhere once you've used it once or got bored with it, and there is no market for your broken plastic tat, window stickers, toothpaste tube squeezers, Shein swimwear, polyester throws etc etc etc. It is just landfill.

Are those brands ethical then?

I don't buy from them but have bought from AliExpress. Why? Because I see something I like on Etsy or wherever, go and check AliExpress and find the exact same item for £20 rather than £70, or £7 rather than £25. Sometimes it's just cutting out the middleman - and I get that they're people who need to make a living as well, but I can't afford to pay £25 for something I can get for £7.

Just like I'd love to support my local independent veg shop, but I can't afford to because they cost more than Tesco who are only five minutes further away - and they're extortionate compared to going to a big Tesco. And I can see that veg shop failing, which would be awful, but I can't magic up extra money.

@pastypirate I would assume that a big brand name like Crayola and the retailers I mentioned are. Obviously I have no 100% guarantee. But there are strict health and safety rules UK retailers have to follow so I would trust buying from Poundland/WHSmith/John Lewis etc more than random Chinese website.
If they aren't "ethical" then where should I shop? I have to shop somewhere - so I trust regulated brands and retailers.

@Stroopwaffels as I said upthread there needs to be more research into methods of recycling. A good quality recycling system in the UK is needed (currently it's a bit half arsed). All these products exist already - but when they do come to the end of their life why is the default "landfill".
We need more recycling.
Interesting fact time - parts of the surface of the M6 motorway was made using pulped books. A large amount of those were apparently Mills and Boon books. Those books are sold on a monthly basis and unsold copies are returned to the manufacture (same with newspapers and magazines). They are then pulped and turned into something else.
That's the standard we (as a country) should be aiming for with recycling. If all this "cheap plastic" currently can't be recycled - why not? Where are the scientists who could be figuring out a method?

I ask because some of the most mainstream brand are highly suspect. Coca Cola and nestle for example.

@pastypirate by the way Crayola crayons are made mostly in Pennsylvania, USA. Not China.
(they also have factories in Canada and Mexico)

@pastypirate so do you literally boycott everything and live off the land ?

No of course not. I'm just interested in the perception that known brand equals a higher level of ethical production. I'm not being facetious as I don't know the answer to the question either way but it's an interesting subject.

@pastypirate that's what I mean by going on trust. There are no 100% guarantee that a company is completely perfect and ethical.
But by buying a pack of Crayola crayons from WHSmith means I know that standards will have been followed. Any issue with the product and recalls are done, the product can be traced etc. The big names want to protect their image - so I make the decision to trust them.
Buying an unbranded cheap pack of crayons off a random bloke at a pop up market stall - I have less of a guarantee that the crayons are 100% safe and not made from dangerous chemicals or something.
It is all about trust really.

More ethical that Shein. At least the person you buy them from will be protected by employment laws. Far more efficient to freight things in large quantities than to post your parcel And just as importantly, if your box of crayons from WH Smiths says "non toxic", you can be sure that they have been tested and are regulated. Who knows what shein crayons might be made of - there's absolutely no accountability

Agree we need better recycling @Needmorelego but recycling comes third after reduce and reuse. People don't seem to want to reduce what they are buying, or reuse what they already have - or buy secondhand - they just want to keep consuming in insane amounts, and expect the recycling system to deal with their excess. It's not sustainable.

This!
this is what I have been saying. People on here going on and on about ‘oh well primark and next clothes are made in China’
Primark and next have been made to follow Uk laws to trade here. Their stuff goes through rigerous testing. Their products will likely be safe. They have some accountability.
Their factories in China won’t be whiter than white I’m sure but they arnt using child slaves. If you download the next app it’s not going to monitor your phone and potentially steal your log in details on various apps.
Temu is on a WHOLE other level here. You can’t compare it to primark or next or even Poundland.
There is no comeback, no accountability, no safety testing of any kind. And people are giving small gifts from here to their young kids!!
When I search for anything at the moment gift wise almost every result is Temu. So infuriating.

👏👏

The fact of the matter is that we've all been conditioned to want a lot of stuff we don't really need, and that's been what most of us have been used to since we were kids.

This is a big change over the last three generations. My grandparents growing up had a few outfits, maybe one warm sweater, they tended to wear the same few things all the time.And if you bought good quality it could last.

Companies don't want us to have good quality, they want stuff with a short life span, and customers used to a consumerist lifestyle.