TEMU Bargains

[MileyWiley]

Any chance we can have a thread on TEMU items? I keep seeing items I know my (by Xmas) 8 year old girl would adore. So far bits and bobs we have had from there have been good - more luggage and summer based items so far. Have been looking at all the jewellery and bedroom organisers, night lights, etc. Would love to see anyone else’s finds! Also thinking that the whilst deliver is about a week at the moment, this is likely to increase my Xmas.

please no comments about human rights/ slave labour etc. the likes of other Chinese based bargain website, Shein, Amazon, Primark will be no better 🙂

The difference is the quantity. A few carefully curated vs buying loads just because they're cheap.

Oh no I haven't carefully curated my life!!

On another thread today about chicken. If you have enough money you can make homemade goujons, pomme frites and haricots l'orange.

The rest of us plebs can only achieve chicken nuggets, beans and chips.

It’s not snobbery to suggest there should be some consideration put into quantities of stuff being bought. The world is going to burn under piles of stuff because too many people want to own fifty cheap pin badges instead of two quality pin badges because of pure fucking capitalism. The aim of the game has become quantity not quality, and sites like Temu just reinforce that. Their whole business model is based on maximising how much stuff their customers buy.

Buy as many chicken nuggets as you want.

I've never used it and never will. I use Vinted.

My understanding is that because you are buying it directly from China it doesn’t need to comply. It’s being sent to you directly in the post and isn’t intercepted by Customs. There is no one to check if it complies with UK standards.

So much snobbery about cheap tat being made using child labour yet it's overlooked when everyone is typing on their expensive shiny phones that are also made with said labour. Just because something is expensive doesn't make it ethical and like it or not we probably all own something that's made in a Chinese sweatshop.

Are we allowed to comment on the data farming?

I have one phone though. Not 27 because they were only £3. It's not comparable.

Fairphone

And furthermore, yes, the world is complicated and it is indeed difficult in this age of complex global supply chains to ensure that everything/anything one buys is ethically made. But that doesn't exempt us from the duty of at least trying, where we can, to make choices that reduce harm to other people.

Not all those choices have to be expensive - secondhand, refurbished, recycled, upcycled etc etc.
It is not impossible to find ethical retailers either - sites like the good shopping guide or ethical consumer make it quick and easy to find out who are the best/worst/not quite as bad as their competitors.

@Traxz
I mentioned data farming earlier in the thread.

The prices on Temu are absurdly low, even for China. They can’t be making money from the products. They force customers to order through their app. The customers are the commodity. It’s very clear.

I don't actually buy chicken nuggets. I make them myself from free range chicken and my pomme frites are made from low air miles spuds.
I also don't own a car and haven't flown in fifteen years so you can stop pontificating.
You really need to dig deep to find that the sort of 'tat' found on Temu is freely available elsewhere for four times the price.
If being made to pay more for the same 'tat' makes you feel better, fine.
It makes absolutely no difference to the exploited people making them.

Do you smoke? Eat chocolate? Wear Nike, Adidas, H&M? Use anything Microsoft related, own apple devices? All of them use child and slave labour.

@Oliotya I'm sure that the people working in these places will be glad you only have one phone so it's not comparable, I bet they'll all sleep better tonight knowing that, especially the ones who's family members killed themselves at the Foxconn factory.

I think the data mining is a very valid discussion. Although I think that the new Instagram Threads still isn't released in Europe whereas Temu is up and running there, so presumably actually isn't as bad as Threads?

It's interesting that as soon as a post starts about Temu there's a pile on by the more virtuous spenders. Basically trying to shame the OP and everybody else into not buying from Temu because everything is made in China, is cheap so is obviously slave labour. I'd be far more interested in these people petitioning Etsy, Amazon etc to ask them to remove all the Made in China stuff, or to at least remove from sale anything that Temu also sells. Primark, for example, sell large, pastel coloured drinking bottles. Exactly the same are on Temu. So if everything on Temu is from slave labour, don't we now have a record of exactly what not to be buying in all the other places we shop in AND what these shops shouldn't be selling?

It seems some people want to virtue signal by shaming others. If they actually cared about these children in factories, or the adult slave labour, then they'd be raising their concerns with the major retailers who hold far more sway then the mother buying some Christmas presents for her children, five months in advance.

I have one single second hand phone. I don't claim to be perfect.

But there's a very clear difference between having some stuff (a phone is very damn near essential at that) and buying endless themed shit or flimsy plastic crap because just because you can.

Are you deliberately missing the point? Buy cheap ones, buy expensive ones, whatever, but I’m saying buying two is better than buying 50. There are some things, chicken nuggets is a good example, where quantity makes a difference. Owning something because you’re “collecting them” is owning things for the sake of owning things. Which was my original point.

Are you deliberately being rude?
I don't collect anything, just buy things to use.
Paying more for the same 'tat' is not a virtue, just more profits for companies who exploit workers all over the world.

Buying less tat is the virtue. The price is irrelevant. It's the quantities that matter.

So you know exactly what I buy then and you buy less?
Could you let me have the lottery winning numbers for tonight please?

Temu like Shein copy other people’s designs without permission so the stuff you are buying will look like the same thing you are buying elsewhere. It doesn’t mean that they are made by the same people in the same factory. Not everything made in China is made by people who are being exploited. Many are appropriately paid for their work.

Where have I speculated on your consumption?
Less is better than more. That's universal. Not about or directed to anyone in particular.

Where was I rude?

’morality policing’ - as though morality is a private, personal, individual to be practiced quietly but never spoken about to other people. People have moral reasons not only for their own private choices but for speaking out against companies like TEMU and, yes, trying to influence other people’s decisions.

There is academic research that will tell you that Shein, for example, is empirically worse than other fast fashion chains and that if you did nothing else and continued to buy stuff from other retailers, not buying from Shein would have a positive impact environmentally. Some companies are worse than others.

But there's a very clear difference between having some stuff (a phone is very damn near essential at that) and buying endless themed shit or flimsy plastic crap because just because you can.

This.