Temu and other sites selling tat - what’s the point?

Bobson Dugnutt

I was reading an article on the BBC this morning about how buying from sites like Temu means you could be supporting slavery and child labour.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67752413

Now it’s very difficult to avoid that site these days - they appear to have spent billions on advertising. It’s also a site that doesn’t let you spend money on it without downloading the app - suspicious in itself.

But when you visit you are struck by just how cheap, tacky and pointless everything is on it - phone cables that will break after a month, knockoff football jerseys, torches, shoes that a Ugandan child soldier wouldn’t be seen dead in etc.

It’s also an environmental disaster. Cheap nasty plastic that will end up in landfill. Why do people buy this stuff? Is it the idea of a bargain? Does buying it give them a fleeting moment of happiness? Something else?

Do you really need 25 microsd adapters for a euro?

NewbridgeIR

Why don't the Chinese respect copyright? What's their problem?

I completely avoid sites like this & Shein. As someone who buys a lot of physical media, wouldn't touch anything that comes out of China or Russia. King of the fakes.

EmmetSpiceland

Is Temu not just for data harvesting and planting mal/spy wear?

Flaneur OBrien

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058328132/temu-and-other-sites-selling-tat-what-s-the-point

Cheap dopamine hits.

Rows Grower

They don't sell knock off gear or fake football jerseys though.

If you read the actual article linked you will also see that Temu strictly prohibit the use of forced, penal or child labour.

Also the reason they have millions upon millions of repeat customers that tell others how great a place it is to shop is because they sell great quality products at unbeatable prices.

But don't let the facts get in the way of a having a good winge on a public forum a couple of days before Christmas.

SEPT 23 1989

The poor at it again I see

we can save this planet by killing them all

Poochie05

Most branded stuff likely comes from the same place but with an inflated price tag

lucalux

I could walk into any phone shop in the nearest towns to get a phone case - spend €15 on it

Or buy the exact same one for €4.50, along with some other things that are marked way up in local shops but have the exact same factory sources, delivered, for free - in about 10 days

That's why I bought from them, and would buy again from there

Loads of crap on the site, but there's also a lot of the exact same stuff you see in Irish shops, but cheaper.

Bobson Dugnutt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121528966#Comment_121528966

Great quality products?

Here’s from the first 50 items on the homepage.

All this is just nasty cheap shíte that is produced, shipped around the world and posted out to someone free of charge for that price. It’s complete tat. It just flies in the face of the EU advocating a move to a circular economy, right to repair, renewables etc.

Rows Grower

Selling that nasty cheap shite and complete tat as you call it has taken them from 5.8 million customers in the US in October 2022 to 104.2 million US customers in April 2023 Bob.

Obviously your opinion isn't shared by too many.

Fr Tod Umptious

Kind of on topic but kind of not.

I was in our local shopping center this week and had the misfortune to have to go into The Range.

My heart sank because I thought back to the time that the unit used to be Debenhams and before that Roaches.

Places where you could buy good clothes, shoes, beauty products, jewelry, all great products, good quality and great gift ideas.

Now it's a shop full of tat, pure low quality disposal tat.

It's such a shame.

Rubberchikken

God no way would I consider buying from any of them wouldn't even download their apps to have a look.

Who in God's name wants to support that sh$te?

It encourages people to buy that and badly made crap that just ends up dumped.

I don't like being taken for a busride by some Irish/local manufacturers or shops but buying only went absolutely necessary and shopping around a bit works for me.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121529828#Comment_121529828

Smoking used to be popular didn't make it right.

Flinty997

Have to agree with all the negative comments. All this low quality disposable tat is horrific waste.

KaneToad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121528959#Comment_121528959

Exactly this. I know people who just love getting parcels in the post. The contents are largely irrelevant.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121529019#Comment_121529019

That you can buy the same tat in Dublin more expensive doesn't make it better.

You have to ask why do they make phones that are as slippery as a bar of soap and/or fragile materials like glass. All of it uneconomical to repair.

One daft thing after another.

Nigzcurran

Maybe if Irish retailers stopped fleecing us we'd actually shop with them more often, I can get branded products delivered to my door from Amazon cheaper than the local shop

Flinty997

What makes it worse is Amazon is now full of the same stuff. Full of fake reviews and impossible to find anything decent.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121528959#Comment_121528959

So true.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121530480#Comment_121530480

That is becoming less true. Amazon is going back to not delivering to Ireland for a lot of things.

Bobson Dugnutt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121530480#Comment_121530480

Irish retailers pay tax in Ireland, pay their staff at least the minimum wage, and many of them maintain a store in the dying main streets of our towns and cities. Bezos has workers urinating in bottles, pays little to no tax, and spends his time firing rockets into space.

Donald Trump

Why is nobody addressing the elephant in the room and calling out the real culprits here?

Back in my day, there was never this cheap unreliable tat. Back then, all these Chinese 4 and 5 year olds know how to make stuff that lasted. We've seen a massive decline in standards. Why can't the Chinese do something simple like bring the previous generation back in to supervise the news ones? That previous generation would be teenagers now and well able to enforce better standards on today's lazy replacements.

Kids are just getting away with too much these days.

T-Maxx

In fairness there are some fantastic bargains, not everything they sell is cheap tat.

NSAman

Yes there is lots of tat, but prices are crazily cheap compared to retail. I bought Christmas lights which were $27 in the local retailer (big box store) for $3.49 same thing as I was replacing some of the ones from last year.

no app download needed, it took time to deliver but still saved a lot of money.

sure children need jobs too, it builds character!

kippy

There's a lot of tat on it but also a lot of really good stuff also or indeed stuff that you find here or on other sites at a multitude of what they are on Temu.

There are a few people here who want to avoid items made in China by the looks of it. It's impossible to do.

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121528935#Comment_121528935

I love Shein. Got so many great bits of it. It's actually very high quality clothes from it so I have no problem buying off it.

Nigzcurran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121530525#Comment_121530525

Have you any experience of Amazon Ireland? I presume they pay at least minimum wage

Flaneur OBrien

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121530526#Comment_121530526

Fat fingers from too much Western food. It's Trumps plan to bring manufacturing back to the USA

Rows Grower

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121530525#Comment_121530525

You need to stop being so angry about things that you just spout untruths Bob.

Between 2014 and 2018 Jeff Bezos paid $972 million dollars in tax.

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121530762#Comment_121530762

Here, did you know there’s a thread in the “Current Affairs” forum where people have a go at Elon Musk?

Bobson Dugnutt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121530762#Comment_121530762

He’s worth approx 170 billion dollars, and makes 1.4 million dollars per hour. He therefore paid less than 0.6% tax. Not quite the win you think. While his workers pass out, aren’t allowed unionise, piss in bottles, and are routinely fired for not meeting targets set by machine learning algorithms.

But the problem is small Irish businesses charging a couple of quid extra.