To ask you to swerve Shein & Temu

[DoNoTakeNo]

This Christmas?
I know it’s mainly a cost thing but if it’s achievable, can people possibly manage with less stuff?

Neurotoxins in the knock off lipstcks clearly having an effect on some posters already.

It’s such a shame children are being exposed to carcinogens and neurotoxins as they aren’t making their own decisions but parents, teachers and relatives ignorantly exposing them to the products of supply chains with no regulation.

Slavery and money laundering aside, I’m constantly surprised people want to expose themselves and their families to things that would not pass regulatory processes in EU or UK and increase their risks of cancer, dementia etc. You can get nice cheap crockery from supermarkets, sparkly lipstick from Claire’s, cheap clothes that last quite well from Primark - all of which have some quality control to make sure they aren’t posioning you.

Both sell cheap crap. Wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

Aibu to ask you to let people shop wherever the fuck they want to?

Jeez the arrogance that we all obey your words.

On another note be great if people bought things in actual shops using actual cash.
I have ordered from temu in past and it went wrong lol.
Now because so many shops closing il do shops and pay cash ( unfortunatley i dont have loads of money though)

I don't shop from anywhere that doesn't have a presence in the UK. Times are hard and while I'm well aware most manufacturing is done in China, its nice to know some tax and wages are being paid from my money in the UK.

I think that notthisagain poster is best ignored. She is just posting increasingly immature comments for attention now. Surely nobody would add crap to a Temu basket in a (failed) attempt to think they are somehow ‘winning’ an argument or getting one over other posters. Young teens perform better in debates.

When did it become the norm for kids to get masses of stuff, mostly plastic tat?

Probably around the 90s/2000s. It's so easy to avoid as well. My kids are all late teens now but when they were primary school age we used to ask that people bought them vouchers or things to do rather than stuff. One year they all did a Go Ape style thing which they loved, another year they got cinema and pizza vouchers, a couple of years ago when they were older we did an escape room, DD got a voucher to take a friend for afternoon tea. None of those things have to be any more expensive. Escape rooms and cinemas are not contributing to landfill and you're supporting the local economy.

I do appreciate that buy good, buy once isn't achievable for many people as very good quality stuff can be expensive. I am looking for a Fair Isle style jumper for Christmas for me, I could get a cheap acrylic one from Shein for less than £20, or buy a 100% wool one from House of Bruar for £110. But the expensive one will last far longer.

Also on a related theme is the lack of willingness to repair. The inability/unwillingness to sew a button back on, stitch a hem which has come down, darn a hole in your jumper. Just chuck it away and buy another one. France gives tax incentives for repairs which is a great idea and has fast fashion tax. We should do the same here.

Finally, really good book for anyone interested. https://www.sustainablefashionweek.uk/shop/p/patrick-grant-less I got my copy second hand in ABE books.

Thank you, Goddess, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
We have a responsibility to take care of the world we have inherited & not to trash it any more for future generations.
We have a responsibility not to exploit other people on the planet, wherever they are.
I don’t live in a cave, funnily enough. However do grow some veg in my small garden. I don’t use much petrol because I am disabled and can’t leave the house very often; for the same reasons don’t fly (once this year, nothing for the previous two).

Should anyone care - and there may be nobody who does, which is just fine, but I’ll mention it anyway - my virtue-signalling full name is Do No Harm, Take No Shit.

Somebody actually made an interesting comment above, but was drowned out with total nonsense.
The average spend on Temu is $100 per month. That’s average, across the board. That’s a lot of money- £75 per month for the UK. I certainly don’t regularly spend that amount on non Temu/ Shein stuff, and certainly not monthly. So is it possible that people are actually buying more and therefore spending more, because each individual item is cheaper? I suspect so, which kind of knocks the “I’m doing it because I’m hard up” argument. A £2.50 here and there, on multiple items, soon adds up.

Modern slavery for starters. How do you think products can be so cheaply made and shipped worldwide?

So is it possible that people are actually buying more and therefore spending more, because each individual item is cheaper?

Of course they are. And buying stuff that is not needed but which they think they want. Stocking fillers, decorations, new clothes for each occasion. These sites are smart - they bombard you with ads and marketing tempting you in at silly prices and offer incentives to spend more with codes, offers, discounts, referring your friends etc etc.

They are quite transparent in that aspect - it is about shifting cheap product in vast quantities, not selling one or two necessities.

Have you seen the Disney documentary called Wall-E?

Eloquently put. Thank you.

"...so not sure why Amazon sellers would be allowed to flog stuff that didn’t meet safety"

There are fake supplements being sold via Amazon.

Pretty much. I'm highly sceptical of the "it's the only place in existence I can possibly buy things I desperately need to live" argument.

Because "things they need to live" usually turn out to be, taking examples from this thread: manicure sets, advent calendars and stocking fillers for adult children, and beauty bits.

When I was hard up I wasn't thinking about buying any kind of manicure set from anywhere, no matter how cheap. Every penny had to go towards food and the gas meter. There was nothing spare for beauty bits, even if they were rock bottom prices.

I suspect I have a very different idea of hard up to some posters on here.

If this buying-&-blaming blitz is true, you’re seriously messed up.

Wow, you’re raising an absolute star here Please pass my admiration on to her.
Its so reassuring that schools are taking fast fashion & the damage it causes seriously. Thank you for letting us know about this.

Here's the thing. For all those banging on about 'I'll shop where I like, I'm free to do whatever', nobody in this country would be willing to get out of bed for the money the people who make these things get paid.

We are exploiting a political and social regime we wouldn't countenance in this country. Everyone's anti-communism until it comes to getting stuff cheaper. Child slavery is a terrible thing we wouldn't accept on these shores, but we'll happily prop up the industry elsewhere.

We won't work in a sweat shop, but we happily pay somebody else to.

You know what I think we should do? Bring it all back here. The rag trade sweat shops of the 1970's, the piss poor worker's rights, your 13 year old stitching clothes instead of in school.

You think it's acceptable, campaign so we can do it here. If your dirt cheap clothes and crafts etc are so important to have, let's give up all the hard fought for rights and regulations here.

I bet absolutely none of you would willing walk into a Primark or H&M if the factory that made the produce was down the road and you saw your friend's kids going to work there, or your mother was ill because of the crap she was inhaling every day.

It's not OK because it's happening somewhere else. It's not OK because it suits you. It's not OK because you haven't got a lot of money. Can you imagine saying, 'but I'm poor and it's so much cheaper' in defence of keeping the sweatshop down the road open,? Would it be OK if it wasn't your daughter, your mother, your Dad having to do it, but another British person, who isn't paid enough to buy the items you, in your declared poverty, think are 'cheap'.

It wouldn't. There'd be an outcry. Nobody would be here talking about their freedom to buy what they like.

They’re learning about fast fashion and sweat shops as part of Geography. She came home saying they’re all shocked at the truth about Shein and Temu at school - of course lots of her friends are saying they’ll still shop there because it’s so cheap 😔

@ObelixtheGaul you just totally nailed it. Thank you.

Tbf there are sweatshops and plenty of trafficked labour in the UK and no-one gives a shit

37 years in education, latter years at a senior level. You are filling gaps that leaders should not be leaving. How on earth would children write without a pencil - if the gap is left, leaders would soon fill it, believe me.
No/poor SATS results because of ‘no pencils’….🤯

I also recognise the risks and impact of children accessing unsafe/untested products on my watch. Parents, leaders, Trust, LA, H&S.

Lots of false logic on here

Firstly the idea that because someone buys things from Amazon/Shein/Temu whatever, that they are more likely to chuck stuff than if they buy from Sainsburys or Smiths and Smyths. Not so. I buy my clothes almost exclusively from Sainsburys and the charity shop. The stuff from the charity shop is a mixture of supermarket brands and Primark and Zara, those are the things in the wardrobe at the moment. And as I peruse around the charity shops tons of things dont even have a label on them so theres no way of telling if they come from Shien or whatever so the idea that charity shops have a blanket policy of not selling Shein items is nonsense

Secondly, although I buy from Amazon as I already have the account and my OH has prime for the postage etc, Im well aware these items are the exact same items as those on Temu and Shein even though Ive never bought from them, I probably have bought from them as has everyone else

In particular that children who have items provided by their school, perhaps within a tendering process by a supplier. Who do you think that supplier buys those pencils, pads, pens, stationary from? Down the chain somewhere will be the exact same factories that the poor struggling teacher is now buying stuff from. Same counts for any Local Authority or care home or any big organisation, they'll tender out contracts for suppliers and way down the line these will be the same items just relabelled and re packaged.

Genuine question. If Temu & Shein close down, what are you going to do with the 100,000 people they employ?

Redeploy them to clean up the vast environmental harm caused by fast fashion?