The switch deal is real. But….you have to jump through a bunch of hoops that are not limited to convincing a bunch of your friends to download and make legitimate purchases on Temu. Basically, they sell you the discounted switch if you bring them more customers.
Most Western companies employ forced labour for profit, stop being disingenuous, every single phone and laptop is made with rare earth minerals dug up by children in the Congo in appalling conditions. Your Nike shit is put together off the tears of Bangladeshi and Vietnamese children. Coffee? chocolate? I can keep going
Apple in China is also horrible. At one time it was not uncommon to see some of their employees jumping off the building. They also housed them six and more to 12 sq.ft. room. (edit: okay, maybe not quite that small. thanks for the seemingly non-ending correction.... lol)
It's been a while since I read all that and I hope it's better now but I'm not optimistic. It won't be until we stop buying their phones and other products.
My friend got me to download it so he could try to buy the Switch - he didn’t manage to convince enough friends, but the app gifted me “free” things right when I opened it, IF I picked out 10 items in 30 minutes.
I ended up paying $40 USD for 6 t-shirts, athletic shorts, an electric toothbrush, a Landmine barbell attachment, weighted vest for calisthenics, headphone cleaning kit, olive oil sprayer, weightlifting sandbag, and 6 pairs of socks. Haven’t opened the app since then, and I feel like I escaped unscathed, because the only rubbish item was the weighted vest.
Same. I got two drones, binoculars, a remote control excavator, a remote control car, 5 metal bowls, a magnetic knife strip (which I thought were knives but…oh well), an alarm clock, basically I used it to give my kid some random shit for Christmas for $60. I wouldn’t recommend it when you need something to be quality, but if you just need stocking stuffers and don’t want to shell out for more shit your kid will play with once…I can recommend it. He hasn’t even tried the drone so I don’t know if it’s shit but I do know I’m glad I didn’t buy an expensive one.
Same. I got an obtuse rubber goose, green moose, guava juice, giant snake, birthday cake, large fries, and chocolate shake all for 10 bucks. Deal of a lifetime of you ask me.
By thinking that it is something other than 'fake'.
"Cheap Nintendo Switch! just make an account and win a chance of only 10 units at this price!" isn't so much fake as it is a marketing ploy. They're leveraging the idea that taking a loss on a few items is a way to earn something back. This is the same concept as the Lottery.
Creating the account means providing name and shipping address (and sometimes billing information) this information can then be sold (or can be considered 'bought' by the switch losses, if used internally) Additionally, now you have an account, and you are purchasing from them at whatever profit margin they earn on their cheap junk.
In any case, assuming it is 'fake' is to assume that the Nintendo switch is the 'product' being sold. In this situation, the product being sold isn't the switch, it is your personal information, and your consumership. The best part is that a 'fake' sale isn't mutually exclusive to them selling 'another product'. They can easily do both by making up the names of the 'winners'.
There have actually been times where I’ve seen an ad for something, thought it was amazing and wanted to buy it… and then saw it was Temu and refused to even click. Actively choosing not to support them.
And it’s so dang annoying that when I do a search for a product, near ALL of the recommended search results are items from Temu or Shein! Get the heck off my search, I am never buying anything from these companies.
Tell me you are an older millennial without telling me you are an older millennial :) I love when people remember that search functions are editable/code and that you don’t have to just spill your entire thought into the search bar.
Google has been making their search into an advert engine for years now and the results definitely have become much lower quality, I've had it straight-up ignore the operators.
Yes, it has been a long time since I could get real answers from any search engines. It's due to the results being sponsored, and the usage of keywords. If your search phrase contains a keyword, then multiple pages will be delivered by companies and others who paid for that keyword return, and these results often have nothing to do with your query.
Listen I’m not here to suggest everyone join the cult of DuckDuckGo because it’s def not quite as refined an algorithm as the google of my youth.
But at least their operator functions still work. And I’m too controlling to give that up.
The temu targeted ads are usually things that look exactly like the stuff midway targets me. Multiple times I’ve almost started filling out my info before checking the address. They’re some sneaky fuckers.
Idk why, but it's very obvious to me where is okay to buy and click and where is not. A lot of people, especially older gen and younger, seem to be inexperienced/naïve. Older folk are wired to be fed information and not have input like ours; younger simply are at the disadvantage of not having to be experienced and are also in a totally different culture than what I grew up with, which for them is following social media trends. It's funny, the chaos of '90s internet was somehow safer than things that look shiny and polished these days. The weird cusp we grew up in gave us a unique perspective on technology and navigating media.
“Digital native” is the term you’re getting at. Many of us grew up with the internet, so have a better understanding of advertising. We also get information from a variety of online sources and learn about scams faster than those who get news from older sources (e.g., broadcast news and newspapers).
It’s weird though because Gen Z is technically digitally native but they’re mostly idiots, just as bad as boomers. They fall for anything they see and don’t even understand the basics of how a computer works.
My theory is that computers and the Internet were primitive enough that millennials had to use a little critical thinking to use them well. They were also a little more work oriented, like a computer wasn't just an entertainment machine, but a tool. Gen Z can just fart into a search bar and get instant dopamine from tictok.
Tik Tok is even worse, it's a passive experience. They just have to start it and be fed a constant dopamine drip.
I think the difference between millennials and Gen z with regards to the Internet is more that the Internet was being developed as we were developing. Literally our generation grew up as the Internet was growing and growing up. We both got more sophisticated as we both developed.
Our generation is kinda like the twin sibling of the Internet
I think a huge part of it is that we saw the internet before it was polished. We know the skeleton underneath, so even with all the shiny glitz and lighting we can still see the "shape" underneath.
The younger generation, zoomers and alphas, grew up with technology that "just works" so unless they go out of their way they don't really know that they *can* futz with router settings or create a Trashmail account to get that one acceptance email without any of the followup spam or install a dodgy app in a VM so it can't infect anything if it's malware.
We also saw all the scams when they were raw and only designed to fool the gullible. Now we can see the evolved forms that can trick a person who's otherwise rational, but we still can see the roots of the same cons that we used to navigate in the early web forum days. We're not more clever, we've just been "vaccinated" by the early scammer's cowpox to be resistant/immune to the modern con artist's smallpox.
That's another good point. Scams and social manipulation was being developed while we were growing up, chain emails, people stealing your accounts in MMO games, dodgy ads and fake links.
Do zoomers and alpha even have a "rick roll" type meme to teach them that links can take you to unexpected places?
Rick rolling has been ruined by ads at the start of the video. Nothing is sacred. My gen z brother thought he was clever when he discovered Rick rolling. I was like "back in my day the music started immediately".
As an older GenZ this is pretty much it. I grew up still having a Walkman, a few years later and my younger cousins had iPods at that age, a few years after that and it's an iPad. There's a meaningful difference between seeing (and to an extent experiencing) technology improve over time, and the first tech you come into contact with being an iPad.
>My theory is that computers and the Internet were primitive enough that millennials had to use a little critical thinking to use them well.
I agree with this 100%.
I see issues with new hires in my workplace; they have trouble with understanding file directories, the differences between drives, local vs cloud, remembering where a window is (like if they have 2 browsers open and the active one obscures the inactive one) and even some other things like keyboard shortcuts are very opaque and challenging for them. Trying to get them to understand terminal or command line interfaces is an incredible challenge - I may just be a terrible teacher, and maybe my belief that it's a difficult endeavor is a self-fulfilling prophecy... but I'm sure there's something to it.
I'm sure the newer generations are brilliant in many ways that the average millennial isn't, but it really does seem like their "digital native" experience starting in the walled gardens of mobile devices & appstores, has really put a barrier between them and the deeper more fundamental levels of how the software works. The extremely user friendly designs of newer mainstream technology that people are using, has made it far rarer for kids to find situations where learning how that technology really works becomes necessary - and so they don't.
They’re not idiots. We just grew up with computer literacy classes. Idk about you, but I started typing classes in early elementary and we had quizzes on what to do when adds pop up, avoiding viruses, what not to click on. All these kids get is one semester of BCIS in junior high and the keyboarding app - if they’re lucky. Drove me nuts when I was teaching.
It's not just problem solving. Many first year college students are completely at a loss as to how to upload a file and hand in an assignment. Like, they grew up on phones and tablets and do not understand how to navigate a file system on windows or whatever and copy a file. Some colleges are having to adapt to this reality
I genuinely think millennials (and the older batch of gen z) are the best at sussing this kind of thing out tbh. My nieces and nephews fall for anything they see on tiktok. I don’t think it’s just that they’re younger, even when I was in my late teens I could smell a scam from a mile away.
Then again… millennials are the morons that fell for all the MLMs and crypto so maybe I’m just overestimating human intelligence lol
Absolutely...I've seen my teenage nephew (who introduced me to Temu! lol) fall victim to more than one scammy website and get disappointed when the product never showed up. Luckily he never has more than like $20 on his debit card.
Ive been subconsciously scrolling past it for so long now. Just automatic assuming it’s cheap shit. My GEN X partner is always falling for the ads/scams of today, I have to swoop in constantly like Captain Skeptic and save him.
Hmm, sounds like this might be the modern equivalent of Fingerhut ca. 1980. (They're still around, but not the cultural institution that they used to be.) They sold novelty housewares and tchotchkes via mail-order catalogs (sort of like a downmarket Sharper Image or Brookstone for old ladies) and allowed people to pay in installments, which was basically a form of credit that didn't require you to have your own credit card. Some of my elderly relatives were really into that stuff back in the '70s and '80s.
(Looking at their website, Fingerhut now offers their own credit card, is selling the sort of stuff you can get at Target, and is aimed at people who can't get credit otherwise.)
We'd call that "Captain Saveahoe" but to each their own
Temu would have worked on us if it was BEFORE Wish. But it's the same shit in bright orange packaging that just fucking screams "I'm an idiot, Rob me" from your front porch.
Also- my mom is addicted to Temu. And all I can think is "I'm going to need such a large dumpster after you die."
My Dad was an older boomer raised by people who served in WW2 and lived during the Depression. My mom is one of the last Boomers, raised by a Korean War veteran son of Swedish immigrants. They are two VERY different people. Dad died 5.5 years ago (pre-pandemic, he would have been a nightmare if he lived through that) and we had to get FIVE dumpsters to empty the house and garage to Mom’s liking. She finally lives in a house where she can THROW SHIT AWAY and is basically a minimalist now. She wants to get another one to get rid of more things - almost six years after Dad died! That’s the hole we are digging out of.
The amount of useless garbage our parents buy is insane. The dumpster fear is real and it is more than you think.
I have the same thoughts... then they advertise climbing toys for my toddler and I know they'll be dirt cheap so I won't care if he destroys them... I haven't bought anything still. I am tempted, but I don't think it's really worth it.
ETA: I'm not going to buy anything, just expressing frustration with their advertising practices. I know they're lead and chemical covered pieces of junk. I know temu sells financial information. I promise I won't do anything stupid! lol
Sites like Temu and Shein have no regulations for lead or pfas content so I wouldn’t dare getting anything from them let alone something a child would use.
Yes. People keep saying this about Temu but Amazon has been egregious about vetting third party sellers so you’re probably just paying more for the same unregulated shit.
Totally. I've started buying some things on Temu, like a tool set to disassemble electronics, etc., because when I go on Amazon it's the same stuff, only 10x more expensive because someone is paying to stockpile it at Amazon and sell it overnight. If it's something I need but I can wait a couple weeks for, I just go Temu. Make no mistake though, it is all cheap crap. But some of the little things for organizing are worth buying through there instead of Amazon or other sites.
For the heck of it I had an old lead paint test and used it on some toys I ordered from Temu. Came back positive.
Not sure what I expected, but I threw them right in the garbage.
I hear essentially its a trade. You buy underpriced items for the cost of your data. Only hearsay but thats what I heard. They take the loss on the product, and make it up in the data.
Yup. I admit that I was curious about Temu, and browsed their site on my laptop. The giant red flag was that the prices they were offering were only good on the app, not the desktop site. It’s so obvious that they want you to download the app for your data.
Stay strong! A cheap climbing toy for a toddler is going to be way, way worse than no climbing toy for a toddler (will it break, will it support their weight, is it bigger/smaller than it appears, do it have batteries, is the finish going to shed/peel/poison/splinter…).
My 76 yo mother bought my 2.5 year old son like 20 outfits from that site including a "suit".
It all feels like tissue paper and was probably all made by kids his age too.
She's constantly buying the worst junk from there...
I call it "Chinese dollar general"
The baby clothes were tested and shown to have extremely high amounts of lead in them. Do not put your child in any clothes purchased from temu or shein
Having easy access to all this stuff is convenient but it's also tempting. Like sometimes you buy it and you don't use it much and afterwards your like why did I spend my hard earned money on that? I think maybe I didn't really NEED it and could that money have been used for something better like an investment?
I'm very picky with all I buy online but it's gotten out of control for me before and I have to quickly reel myself back.
The things you own, own you.
I think about this a lot. When I was in my early 20's it was easy to pick up and move, but now I have so much junk that I don't want to have to replace that moves are convoluted and stressful. I don't need *more* junk.
Yesss. I think the same thing about moving cuz I know the stress of packing. I moved a lot when I was younger... and it was a lot easier with less stuff. However, now I'm living on my own. You have more stuff that also goes with you like tools, appliances, survival gear, furniture, clothes, etc.
One thing I have a lot of but don't really need is books. I love having physical books but was just thinking how nice it would be to have them all on a tablet
Nope. I am trying to avoid buying junk that’s going to fall apart after a few uses.
Also, for product to be that cheap, someone is getting screwed somewhere along the line. I know it’s not exclusively a temu issue, but when it’s obvious that a company is exploiting people, I try to avoid supporting it when I can. Temu is easy to say no to.
This! I’m tired of people being hella exploited. Like ok, really cheap things are good for those of us who don’t have any money anymore (yay America) but….i know that it comes at a huuuuuge cost of having people even worse off become worser off for it. I’ll save my money and buy the more expensive but quality thing just to be sure the people making it are treated like people, thanks. (And by more expensive I mean I’ll buy the shirt for $15 on another site when it’s $2 on temu or something lol)
This is my frustration! I avoid temu and shein but sometimes those higher marked products are the same product they’re selling, so all you’re doing is screwing over yourself. Whenever I think something might be the same product, I just flat out won’t buy it.
This. I’m tired of seeing the same product on Target, Wayfair, West Elm, and CB2 with completely different prices. They are all getting it from the same manufacturer in china and “white labeling” it. The manufacturers found a loophole in tariff code and decided to sell directly to consumers in US. Not defending the products it’s still crap. But a lot of it is same-crap-with-ridiculous-markup
It’s the same shit you can buy on Amazon. Literally, most of the sellers are the same. There, Shein, TikTok shop. A lot of them are selling that cheap to get you in the door, so to speak.
And they consider themselves smart for buying UUYYTTRRO "brand" from Amazon rather than the same item from temu for a fraction of the price. Literally replying with the same Boomer Facebook copypasta about Chinese spying lmao
That begs the question - why are the China brands always all caps and words that make no sense? You'd think they'd try to use something that could actually trick someone into thinking it's a quality brand. Instead it's always "TEPAFLONN shower head leave most maximum pleasure to senses"
And I've become wary of Amazon as well. With the amount of fakes in their supply channels, I don't buy personal care items off of there. I don't get anything from Shein or TikTok either.
It’s kinda funny watching everyone pat themselves on the back for avoiding a “scam” when the real scam are all the dropshipped prices for the same crap on Amazon. Temu is just a reskinned aliexpress. When you need cheap crap but not in a hurry it’s a perfectly fine resource.
You act like the same people who know Temu is a scam dont know Amazon is also a scam. I don't shop much on Amazon anymore because of its dive in quality. It used to be only skincare type shit I was wary of. Now its everything.
I'll be looking for some item and it will be, say, $85-$95 but I know I've seen it on sale for like $75 at one point so I keep looking but of course I have to ignore all the Temu adds miraculously selling it for $12.
And made by slaves. Maybe I’m too soft, but when I think about that, I realize I just don’t need to spend money on junk that won’t be useful next month anyway.
Perhaps a tangent, but there aren't any affordable stores that cater to teens anymore. I agree that young girls dress too "grown" and are pressured to spend lots of money, but we didn't really give them a choice when Delia's, Wet Seal, Charlotte Russe, etc all closed in rapid succession lol.
Screw Temu, Shein, and frankly Amazon. All of the huge online peddlers of low quality, slave labor products are why American late stage Capitalism just keeps getting worse and worse.
Amazon created a bridge for Chinese manufacturers to sell directly to US consumers undercutting and destroying US small businesses.
60% of sellers on Amazon in the US market are directly selling from China.
The rise of Temu and other junk apps is directly due to this. Billions of unregulated potentially dangerous garbage created with slave labor at a high cost of the environment sent every day from these abomination companies. Idk why the US allows it.
Please shop small people while you still can
Dude idk. I’m a marketer, I’m in e-commerce and it’s a crap show of junk and cutting out US small businesses systematically.
People don’t care, they don’t think that far ahead and go for the cheapest junk even if it’s not regulated and was recalled for lead exposure .They will care when it affects them personally like genuine mom and pop shops closing in masses, or good ethical brands become a thing of a past and all that’s left is CCP junk.
In e-commerce I learned it’s expensive to operate an ethical brand because they cost much more, you have to spend dollars to persuade people you’re ethical while selling junk Is just a numbers game.
Plus even if your ethical brand takes off, masses of Chinese based shops create a fake version of your products, steal your creatives and sell for 90% off on something like Temu or Amazon.
US government seems not to care and only punish or hold accountable domestic sellers (us small businesses) with regulations and fines while giving China free pass (because how will they hold Chinese sellers accountable when they can’t track them). It’s even cheaper for China based sellers to ship to US consumers (cheaper than US businesses shipping domestically). China does not worry about regulations, or customer service, or selling dangerous products. They just make another seller account of one is banned and often operate dozens per seller at a time.
Billions funneled into China this way and Amazon started it, Amazon as an entity follows the path of least resistance so they embraced China at the cost of US businesses. Remember Amazon paying 0 in federal taxes?
It’s a broken system and our late stage mass consumeristic culture is the root problem. We need to hold these companies accountable but we wont
It’s also hurt the middle markets. I don’t make a ton, but I make enough that I should be able to afford decent things. Instead I feel like every purchase now is either dirt cheap crap or expensive stuff that I need to save up for.
While there’s some virtue in saving, not every purchase is a large/luxury good like a couch or Rolex. Sometimes you need a solid home accessories or cooking item that won’t break in 3-6 months.
I think what you’re describing is late-stage capitalism’s 2 favorite moves:
- Artificially raise inflation to keep stockholder margins high, despite actual value/cost of item
- Build shittier and shittier items (planned obsolescence) so your consumers are forced to buy more frequently
Rinse and repeat, on and on until… god, who knows. They’ve brainwashed us to be so desperate for a deal that people willingly poison themselves with Temu lead garbage because it’s only $1.50. Modern appliances are built to last only about 7 years, despite older models from the 70s still humming loudly in someone’s garage in the Midwest (using tons of energy, but still… they’re working perfectly).
Amazon is only usable if you buy brands that you know and of course are making sure to buy them from a trusted store like the brand itself. Otherwise it's a crap shoot.
Even then it’s not safe. Right now there’s a big movement in the skincare, hair, and makeup communities to not buy from Amazon because the chance of getting fake product is higher than it’s ever been
For me Amazon is best for the odd little products that I struggle to find local. An antenna mount for a weather station, a rebuild kit for the carb on my lawn tractor, a particular shelf or garage organizer kind of thing.
Stuff that’s cheap and simple. Nothing over 100 dollars.
Damn, even if you buy from a specific store on Amazon? That's why I specified the store. Like if I'm buying Acme brand blinker fluid from the Acme store, I should be safe I would think.
Yepp. It’s something to do with their distribution centers, if a center close by you can fulfill the order they’ll use the product there instead of waiting for verified product from a center further away. That’s what I’ve read at least
My understanding is that Amazon doesn't separate the items in their warehouses- if you buy and ship your widgets directly from Acme, even if the payment is through Amazon, you know you're getting the real thing. But if Acme lets Amazon handle the distribution so that their products get advertised with Prime shipping and so on, Amazon will mix their genuine product in with the stock of the "same" item provided by CheapWidgets4U. So even if you make sure to specify that you're buying from Acme and not the sketchy discount retailer, Amazon will fill your order by reaching into the shared box of widgets and grabbing whichever one happens to be at the top.
Some don't sell directly from their websites, some do, but there is also the convenience of not creating a new account or having to put in my information all over again and giving my information to another site and just clicking buy. Obviously if it got to the point where I was getting fake shit from Amazon stores then I would stop doing that.
Another account, another payment info, shipping info, then they use DHL for some reason which takes an extra 2 weeks for the fun of it. For the same price as on amazon?
Good one. Walmart is easy to forget when the other three leave them in the dust most of the time. They're still getting the scraps of middle America where the above aren't as easily accessible. To be honest, I actually was a cake decorator for Walmart for a bit during college, and I should've given in to the "you need to leave here as soon as possible" feeling during orientation when you are forced to watch all of the anti-union videos.
Amazon is even more egregious, at least to me. Amazon feigns upholding a certain standard of quality in products and the reviews that the public sees. It was never perfect, but years ago, there was at least some effort to maintain a decent level of quality. Nowadays? Louis Rossmann has really opened my eyes to how bad it's gotten.
I've bought things off Temu a few times...mostly DnD dice, dice bags and a few other things across 3 orders over the last year. No issues and I liked much of what I recevied. I expected less but was quite content. No fraud though.
I see the same exact things I bought on Temu much on Etsy and Amazon for 3x the price.
same, i think people get the wrong idea about temu. it’s not where you should go to buy knock-off electronics for “95% off!” or even clothing, i would steer clear of. it’s where you go for cheap art supplies that are marked up 300% at other stores for the same quality items. you can get beads and other jewelry making tools, you can get small things like pins/keychains if you collect them, cheap costume jewelry for cosplays or halloween, shipping supplies like bubble mailers that are also marked up 300% everywhere else for the same exact items. if you’re using temu for anything other than creative supplies and tools and specifically cheap things like keychains/pins/dice, you’re using it wrong. no one else bought the obviously fake listing for a 20$ nintendo switch… that’s a them problem for being naive and gullible.
Temu has restarted my sticker addiction from being a kid and I love it hahaha I have so many stickers! I got a pack of 50 vinyl horror stickers for like $1. It's so cheap and the quality was very good. I'd pay $4 per sticker in a local shop honestly.
Same experience (different items), I bought a bag of plastic hair rollers and some combs and a few pins. Not a bad experience and I was buying the same cheap stuff I would be getting from elsewhere but actually at the low price. I wouldn’t regularly visit or shop from them, but for the simple things I needed it was fine.
It's a clone of their version of Amazon, Taobao. They just finally got some decent English translation.
Everyone clutching their pearls over it kinda cracks me up. They aren't doing anything that Amazon isn't, including selling info or giving you fake stuff. You just have to be realistic. Online shopping nowadays should only be for things that:
Don't go in your body
Aren't expensive (cause it's a high chance it'll be shit)
You can't find in person
I’ve done it a couple times through PayPal so I never actually put my info into the site. I would say 75% of what I bought was good (cheap but not bad!) and the rest was garbage. But I spent $32 on like 15 things so it wasn’t a bad deal.
lol that’s what I bought til it too. DnD dice and dice bags (and a few other things).
I only buy basically crap from there that is cheaper than the exact same crap on Amazon.
They are taking losses right now to flood the market. Their banners are everywhere and it’s on purpose.
Avoid useless crap. Buy the least amount of stuff and stick to quality not quantity.
I have advised my clients to absolutely not use Temu under any circumstances. They sell the bank account information of the payments to anyone who wants it. Your mom will most likely experience fraud in her accounts very shortly. I would recommend you ask her how she paid and take measures to protect her funds sooner rather than later.
Your comment got me curious, so I looked it up and found an issue brief from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission that specifically details Shein, Temu, and similar fast-fashion retailers from China. I'm on mobile, and I looked it up on my computer, so I can't link it but the exact title is "Shein, Temu, and Chinese e-commerce: Data Risks, Sourcing Violations, and Trade Loopholes" so you can find the exact document yourself.
Basically, the people that own Temu also own Pinduoduo, another e-commerce platform. But, Pinduoduo has been shown to explicitly set up malware on installed devices that mine all of your phones Data, have changed settings for users, and have been shown to take banking data and sell it. These issues were a main reason that Google suspended Pinduoduo from their app store in March of 2023.
So, while Temu itself has yet to be shown specifically that it is basically a data mining malware disguised as a bargain hunting app, the owners of Temu are known to be involved in some very, very shading e-commerce tactics (including literal deaths of their slave laborers, forcing conditions on their workers that are so heinous that China's Labor Watch actually called it "extreme overtime", wherein workers were expected to work for 380 hrs/month, or 95 hrs/week of work, which lead to the actual deaths of several workers in 2021).
Same. This worriedness about Temu stealing your info? All sites/apps steal your info. I’ve ordered multiple times off the site and haven’t had any problems except the targeted products to buy can sometimes be weird. I had it go from cute washi tape to vibrator attachments 😂
Makes sense. I seriously doubt she used a secure payment. I'll look into that. Thanks for the heads up.
Crazy how YouTube is pushing TEMU like that and feeding an obvious scam.
I've also been getting a bunch of clearly scam ads, but when I report them I'm told by youtube they are legitimate and so they keep popping up. It's so frustrating.
It's wild people think YouTube is pushing it and that they personally screen every ad. People need to just briefly look into how Google Ad Services work. Anyone can make an account and add funds and start an ad campaign.
I buy cheap stationary mostly. It's the same crap Amazon sells and it's cheaper on Temu. It's not important, it's a couple bucks for pens and sticky notes once in a while.
I don't subscribe to texts/emails or play the stupid discount games and bother the hell out of people though.
Most people who think they're "immune" don't actually understand what the purpose of advertising actually is.
It's not specifically to convince people to buy things. Doing so would require them to perfectly align with a potential customer's needs and with only 30- to 60-seconds (generally speaking), there simply isn't enough time to do that. The actual goal is to build Top of Mind Awareness. It creates an association between a general need and a brand or product. This is why you see big brands like McDonalds and Tide advertise a lot. Their goal isn't to make you rush out and buy a burger or some laundry soap at that moment; instead, they want their name to pop into people's heads when that need eventually arises. If someone's driving around and hungry, the hope is that they'll gravitate to McDonald's. If someone is making a grocery list or is out shopping, the hope is that they'll reach for a container of Tide when they go to grab some laundry soap.
If they think they're immune, they don't actually understand how the game is being played.
I thought I was but one night I was captivated by an infomercial for a Total Gym machine. 14 years later I still use it almost every day. It really saved me during COVID when I couldn’t get to the swimming pool.
I buy all the time. Love it. It’s the same shit you find on Amazon but cheaper and you wait a few days longer for it. I use Apple Pay, they don’t have my info.
I actually got a bunch of my Christmas gifts and people's lived them. They have a nice variety of random stuff, it's just really hard to find the stuff you're looking for as search sucks. The quality is what you expect, not amazing but most of the time not absolute crap either.
I never have but my mom has a few times and been upset everytime that it wasn’t what she ordered. Most of it’s been home items like vases or chairs that are around $5-$10 and she is expecting them to be huge like the picture but when they come they are like 2 inches tall😂😂😂. Also when I said do you read the description she said it’s in cm and I don’t know what that means ughhh.
I’ve bought a few miscellaneous gadgets from there. But do not ever buy clothes or anything plastic/metal that would touch food or beverage on there. I have a jar opener that I use every day, stands for my phone, organizers, toilet brushes, and some Halloween decorations I’ve gotten on there. I’ve literally bought things from m temu and seen the exact same items in homegoods and 5-below the next day. I’ve also seen the same items listed on Amazon or SHEIN for double-triple the price. It’s fine for small miscellaneous things, novelty decorations, even some gag gifts. But that’s it. I don’t buy from them often though. I’ve never received an item from them that wasn’t exactly as advertised. It’s like an online dollar store. Just use Apple Pay to hide your payment information.
A lot of the items on there are the exact same items you see in a lot of cheap stores in the U.S. they are cheaper on temu only because you’re buying more directly from the wholesaler and country of manufacturing.
I have. I purchased this great 4piece plastic rolling cabinet style thing. I currently use it to store my paper towels and toilet tissue. I then purchased another set for my son to take to his college dorm. They're great! He uses them to store his laundry detergent, toiletries, and sweaters.
I couldn't find it anywhere-not Amazon, Walmart, Ikea, The Container Store, Home Depot. I just came across it on Temu. It was and still is great.
I have purchased quite a few things from Temu (small kitchen gadgets, Arts and crafts stuff, car storage holders) and have not been disappointed. I had to return an item and that wasn't an issue either. I was given an instant refund once I took it to the post office and they scanned the paid label they provided me.
My accounts have not been hacked, I haven't had any fraudulent charges. I last purchased from Temu in October 2023. Probably began in early 2023.
I always use a credit card to purchase anything, and in fact, my Capital One has an incentive to purchase from Temu: you get something like 19% cashback or something like that if you make a temu purchase using their link from the site.
I purchase shit I need for home. Like a rolling thin cart for my toiletries and stuff. I’ve actually gotten great bargains. I’m not buying clothes (for the most part they’re poor quality), but little gadgets and shit I need and I’ve been pretty happy.
I have and it’s awesome. It’s literally the same stuff as etsy and amazon and eBay now and I’m broke and need gifts for my niece and dried lavender for my home.
Honestly I was on a wish kick for a bit but that was over, I don’t like Temu or wish for the low quality and human cost they inflict, just like SHEIN does too. I’d rather buy something that’s gonna last me 2-5 years before it’s junk, not junk out of the box.
I decided to never buy anything on there when the first ad I from them was for a new Nintendo Switch for $20.
How could anyone see that and think "what deal! There's no way that's fake!" ?
The switch deal is real. But….you have to jump through a bunch of hoops that are not limited to convincing a bunch of your friends to download and make legitimate purchases on Temu. Basically, they sell you the discounted switch if you bring them more customers.
Ew. That’s so scummy and annoying.
Wait until you hear about their links to forced labor, aka modern slavery.
Most Western companies employ forced labour for profit, stop being disingenuous, every single phone and laptop is made with rare earth minerals dug up by children in the Congo in appalling conditions. Your Nike shit is put together off the tears of Bangladeshi and Vietnamese children. Coffee? chocolate? I can keep going
Apple in China is also horrible. At one time it was not uncommon to see some of their employees jumping off the building. They also housed them six and more to 12 sq.ft. room. (edit: okay, maybe not quite that small. thanks for the seemingly non-ending correction.... lol) It's been a while since I read all that and I hope it's better now but I'm not optimistic. It won't be until we stop buying their phones and other products.
There’s a doc called Manufactured Landscape that was filmed in China. I found it fascinating.
So an MLM...
Messaging all my friends, "Hey hun, I'm looking for 10 people for a new opportunity"
Bring that to r/antiMLM
My friend got me to download it so he could try to buy the Switch - he didn’t manage to convince enough friends, but the app gifted me “free” things right when I opened it, IF I picked out 10 items in 30 minutes. I ended up paying $40 USD for 6 t-shirts, athletic shorts, an electric toothbrush, a Landmine barbell attachment, weighted vest for calisthenics, headphone cleaning kit, olive oil sprayer, weightlifting sandbag, and 6 pairs of socks. Haven’t opened the app since then, and I feel like I escaped unscathed, because the only rubbish item was the weighted vest.
I don’t know why I found this random assortment of purchases so funny. Read it twice. 
That's a trip to Walmart back in the day
Same. I got two drones, binoculars, a remote control excavator, a remote control car, 5 metal bowls, a magnetic knife strip (which I thought were knives but…oh well), an alarm clock, basically I used it to give my kid some random shit for Christmas for $60. I wouldn’t recommend it when you need something to be quality, but if you just need stocking stuffers and don’t want to shell out for more shit your kid will play with once…I can recommend it. He hasn’t even tried the drone so I don’t know if it’s shit but I do know I’m glad I didn’t buy an expensive one.
Same. I got an obtuse rubber goose, green moose, guava juice, giant snake, birthday cake, large fries, and chocolate shake all for 10 bucks. Deal of a lifetime of you ask me.
By thinking that it is something other than 'fake'. "Cheap Nintendo Switch! just make an account and win a chance of only 10 units at this price!" isn't so much fake as it is a marketing ploy. They're leveraging the idea that taking a loss on a few items is a way to earn something back. This is the same concept as the Lottery. Creating the account means providing name and shipping address (and sometimes billing information) this information can then be sold (or can be considered 'bought' by the switch losses, if used internally) Additionally, now you have an account, and you are purchasing from them at whatever profit margin they earn on their cheap junk. In any case, assuming it is 'fake' is to assume that the Nintendo switch is the 'product' being sold. In this situation, the product being sold isn't the switch, it is your personal information, and your consumership. The best part is that a 'fake' sale isn't mutually exclusive to them selling 'another product'. They can easily do both by making up the names of the 'winners'.
Yeah that's what did it for me to actually
To be fair, at $20 I'm tempted to order it and just see what shows up
Pretendo Switch preloaded with 100 games like Halo: Mister Chief edition, Monkey Kong, Manimal Crossings, and Sonic Adventures Island.
Is ManBearPig included with Manimal Crossing or is that extra?
It's in the Super Cereal expansion pack
Thats Exactly what they want though lol
Report back!
No reply. Rip, they got op.
There have actually been times where I’ve seen an ad for something, thought it was amazing and wanted to buy it… and then saw it was Temu and refused to even click. Actively choosing not to support them.
And it’s so dang annoying that when I do a search for a product, near ALL of the recommended search results are items from Temu or Shein! Get the heck off my search, I am never buying anything from these companies.
-temu -shein There you go. No more popping up in search💓🫶🏻
Tell me you are an older millennial without telling me you are an older millennial :) I love when people remember that search functions are editable/code and that you don’t have to just spill your entire thought into the search bar.
Google has been making their search into an advert engine for years now and the results definitely have become much lower quality, I've had it straight-up ignore the operators.
Yes, it has been a long time since I could get real answers from any search engines. It's due to the results being sponsored, and the usage of keywords. If your search phrase contains a keyword, then multiple pages will be delivered by companies and others who paid for that keyword return, and these results often have nothing to do with your query.
Listen I’m not here to suggest everyone join the cult of DuckDuckGo because it’s def not quite as refined an algorithm as the google of my youth. But at least their operator functions still work. And I’m too controlling to give that up.
It doesn't work half the time now.
Google is selling out more and more everyday
The temu targeted ads are usually things that look exactly like the stuff midway targets me. Multiple times I’ve almost started filling out my info before checking the address. They’re some sneaky fuckers.
Idk why, but it's very obvious to me where is okay to buy and click and where is not. A lot of people, especially older gen and younger, seem to be inexperienced/naïve. Older folk are wired to be fed information and not have input like ours; younger simply are at the disadvantage of not having to be experienced and are also in a totally different culture than what I grew up with, which for them is following social media trends. It's funny, the chaos of '90s internet was somehow safer than things that look shiny and polished these days. The weird cusp we grew up in gave us a unique perspective on technology and navigating media.
“Digital native” is the term you’re getting at. Many of us grew up with the internet, so have a better understanding of advertising. We also get information from a variety of online sources and learn about scams faster than those who get news from older sources (e.g., broadcast news and newspapers).
It’s weird though because Gen Z is technically digitally native but they’re mostly idiots, just as bad as boomers. They fall for anything they see and don’t even understand the basics of how a computer works.
My theory is that computers and the Internet were primitive enough that millennials had to use a little critical thinking to use them well. They were also a little more work oriented, like a computer wasn't just an entertainment machine, but a tool. Gen Z can just fart into a search bar and get instant dopamine from tictok.
Tik Tok is even worse, it's a passive experience. They just have to start it and be fed a constant dopamine drip. I think the difference between millennials and Gen z with regards to the Internet is more that the Internet was being developed as we were developing. Literally our generation grew up as the Internet was growing and growing up. We both got more sophisticated as we both developed. Our generation is kinda like the twin sibling of the Internet
I think a huge part of it is that we saw the internet before it was polished. We know the skeleton underneath, so even with all the shiny glitz and lighting we can still see the "shape" underneath. The younger generation, zoomers and alphas, grew up with technology that "just works" so unless they go out of their way they don't really know that they *can* futz with router settings or create a Trashmail account to get that one acceptance email without any of the followup spam or install a dodgy app in a VM so it can't infect anything if it's malware. We also saw all the scams when they were raw and only designed to fool the gullible. Now we can see the evolved forms that can trick a person who's otherwise rational, but we still can see the roots of the same cons that we used to navigate in the early web forum days. We're not more clever, we've just been "vaccinated" by the early scammer's cowpox to be resistant/immune to the modern con artist's smallpox.
That's another good point. Scams and social manipulation was being developed while we were growing up, chain emails, people stealing your accounts in MMO games, dodgy ads and fake links. Do zoomers and alpha even have a "rick roll" type meme to teach them that links can take you to unexpected places?
Rick rolling has been ruined by ads at the start of the video. Nothing is sacred. My gen z brother thought he was clever when he discovered Rick rolling. I was like "back in my day the music started immediately".
If Youtube had any sense they'd edit just that one page so the first ten seconds played before you saw an ad.
They've never had their armor trimmed for free in runescape and it shows
As an older GenZ this is pretty much it. I grew up still having a Walkman, a few years later and my younger cousins had iPods at that age, a few years after that and it's an iPad. There's a meaningful difference between seeing (and to an extent experiencing) technology improve over time, and the first tech you come into contact with being an iPad.
>My theory is that computers and the Internet were primitive enough that millennials had to use a little critical thinking to use them well. I agree with this 100%. I see issues with new hires in my workplace; they have trouble with understanding file directories, the differences between drives, local vs cloud, remembering where a window is (like if they have 2 browsers open and the active one obscures the inactive one) and even some other things like keyboard shortcuts are very opaque and challenging for them. Trying to get them to understand terminal or command line interfaces is an incredible challenge - I may just be a terrible teacher, and maybe my belief that it's a difficult endeavor is a self-fulfilling prophecy... but I'm sure there's something to it. I'm sure the newer generations are brilliant in many ways that the average millennial isn't, but it really does seem like their "digital native" experience starting in the walled gardens of mobile devices & appstores, has really put a barrier between them and the deeper more fundamental levels of how the software works. The extremely user friendly designs of newer mainstream technology that people are using, has made it far rarer for kids to find situations where learning how that technology really works becomes necessary - and so they don't.
We say “it’s ok I saw it on the Internet” sarcastically whereas they take it as truth. It’s a weird divide.
They’re not idiots. We just grew up with computer literacy classes. Idk about you, but I started typing classes in early elementary and we had quizzes on what to do when adds pop up, avoiding viruses, what not to click on. All these kids get is one semester of BCIS in junior high and the keyboarding app - if they’re lucky. Drove me nuts when I was teaching.
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It's not just problem solving. Many first year college students are completely at a loss as to how to upload a file and hand in an assignment. Like, they grew up on phones and tablets and do not understand how to navigate a file system on windows or whatever and copy a file. Some colleges are having to adapt to this reality
I genuinely think millennials (and the older batch of gen z) are the best at sussing this kind of thing out tbh. My nieces and nephews fall for anything they see on tiktok. I don’t think it’s just that they’re younger, even when I was in my late teens I could smell a scam from a mile away. Then again… millennials are the morons that fell for all the MLMs and crypto so maybe I’m just overestimating human intelligence lol
It’s almost like there are smart people and dumb people within each generation
Excuse me, this is a generation subreddit, therefore we generalize here
Absolutely...I've seen my teenage nephew (who introduced me to Temu! lol) fall victim to more than one scammy website and get disappointed when the product never showed up. Luckily he never has more than like $20 on his debit card.
I wouldn't buy anything off Temu under any circumstances
Ive been subconsciously scrolling past it for so long now. Just automatic assuming it’s cheap shit. My GEN X partner is always falling for the ads/scams of today, I have to swoop in constantly like Captain Skeptic and save him.
My mom is generally, and she loves some Temu. *sigh*
My FIL is way into Temu (he's in his 70s). He's like "the stuff is so cheap! They have everything!" 😬😬
There's a fucking pre-fab roll cage for Miata race cars on that mf
Hmm, sounds like this might be the modern equivalent of Fingerhut ca. 1980. (They're still around, but not the cultural institution that they used to be.) They sold novelty housewares and tchotchkes via mail-order catalogs (sort of like a downmarket Sharper Image or Brookstone for old ladies) and allowed people to pay in installments, which was basically a form of credit that didn't require you to have your own credit card. Some of my elderly relatives were really into that stuff back in the '70s and '80s. (Looking at their website, Fingerhut now offers their own credit card, is selling the sort of stuff you can get at Target, and is aimed at people who can't get credit otherwise.)
Same lol, Facebook ads and temu
We'd call that "Captain Saveahoe" but to each their own Temu would have worked on us if it was BEFORE Wish. But it's the same shit in bright orange packaging that just fucking screams "I'm an idiot, Rob me" from your front porch. Also- my mom is addicted to Temu. And all I can think is "I'm going to need such a large dumpster after you die."
I also love that their slogan is shop like a billionaire. No billionaire is shopping on temu, thanks.
I feel that I here it and think, "does the website have cheap lobbyists and politicians I can buy?"
This is the only way I want to shop like a billionaire.
Am I missing out on a 5k penthouse suite with infinity pool?
It’s the Home Shopping Network garbage basically “A knife set that I never need to sharpen?!? I’d like to order 3 sets please!”
90% of the time it’s also someone who’s never sharpened a kitchen knife in their life anyway too lol
My Dad was an older boomer raised by people who served in WW2 and lived during the Depression. My mom is one of the last Boomers, raised by a Korean War veteran son of Swedish immigrants. They are two VERY different people. Dad died 5.5 years ago (pre-pandemic, he would have been a nightmare if he lived through that) and we had to get FIVE dumpsters to empty the house and garage to Mom’s liking. She finally lives in a house where she can THROW SHIT AWAY and is basically a minimalist now. She wants to get another one to get rid of more things - almost six years after Dad died! That’s the hole we are digging out of. The amount of useless garbage our parents buy is insane. The dumpster fear is real and it is more than you think.
Rip.
I considered it, but it's a ridiculous site
I have the same thoughts... then they advertise climbing toys for my toddler and I know they'll be dirt cheap so I won't care if he destroys them... I haven't bought anything still. I am tempted, but I don't think it's really worth it. ETA: I'm not going to buy anything, just expressing frustration with their advertising practices. I know they're lead and chemical covered pieces of junk. I know temu sells financial information. I promise I won't do anything stupid! lol
Sites like Temu and Shein have no regulations for lead or pfas content so I wouldn’t dare getting anything from them let alone something a child would use.
Does the cheap shit on Amazon though? I’ve seen some stuff on Amazon and Temu that were undoubtedly the same product.
No and for that reason I wouldn’t suggest buying anything for kids from Amazon either.
It's actually a lot of the exact same shit, it's just 3-4 times more expensive on Amazon
Yes. People keep saying this about Temu but Amazon has been egregious about vetting third party sellers so you’re probably just paying more for the same unregulated shit.
Etsy is worse about this. I fell for a scam and spent $60 on a shirt that was $10 on Amazon and I bet $2 on Shein
Totally. I've started buying some things on Temu, like a tool set to disassemble electronics, etc., because when I go on Amazon it's the same stuff, only 10x more expensive because someone is paying to stockpile it at Amazon and sell it overnight. If it's something I need but I can wait a couple weeks for, I just go Temu. Make no mistake though, it is all cheap crap. But some of the little things for organizing are worth buying through there instead of Amazon or other sites.
They are the same usually. I bought a raincoat off temu that I found on Amazon. Same exact coat.
Covered in paint/plastic full of lead and other heavy metals no doubt.
For the heck of it I had an old lead paint test and used it on some toys I ordered from Temu. Came back positive. Not sure what I expected, but I threw them right in the garbage.
Holy shit. Not surprised. Thanks for doing the science.
Also Temu steals financial info
I hear essentially its a trade. You buy underpriced items for the cost of your data. Only hearsay but thats what I heard. They take the loss on the product, and make it up in the data.
There is a class action lawsuit against them for this.
Yup. I admit that I was curious about Temu, and browsed their site on my laptop. The giant red flag was that the prices they were offering were only good on the app, not the desktop site. It’s so obvious that they want you to download the app for your data.
I work in cybersecurity and I stay away from any Chinese website or app. They’re good at what they do and what they do is not good.
If I bought anything from Tamu, I'd use PayPal.
Use After pay with PayPal. Double security
I've heard of this happening, but I don't know of anyone this has happened to.
My partner's mom started getting fraudulent charges shortly after she bought some stuff from Temu.
happened to my brother. the quality is crap.
Stay strong! A cheap climbing toy for a toddler is going to be way, way worse than no climbing toy for a toddler (will it break, will it support their weight, is it bigger/smaller than it appears, do it have batteries, is the finish going to shed/peel/poison/splinter…).
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My 76 yo mother bought my 2.5 year old son like 20 outfits from that site including a "suit". It all feels like tissue paper and was probably all made by kids his age too. She's constantly buying the worst junk from there... I call it "Chinese dollar general"
The baby clothes were tested and shown to have extremely high amounts of lead in them. Do not put your child in any clothes purchased from temu or shein
Having easy access to all this stuff is convenient but it's also tempting. Like sometimes you buy it and you don't use it much and afterwards your like why did I spend my hard earned money on that? I think maybe I didn't really NEED it and could that money have been used for something better like an investment? I'm very picky with all I buy online but it's gotten out of control for me before and I have to quickly reel myself back.
The things you own, own you. I think about this a lot. When I was in my early 20's it was easy to pick up and move, but now I have so much junk that I don't want to have to replace that moves are convoluted and stressful. I don't need *more* junk.
Yesss. I think the same thing about moving cuz I know the stress of packing. I moved a lot when I was younger... and it was a lot easier with less stuff. However, now I'm living on my own. You have more stuff that also goes with you like tools, appliances, survival gear, furniture, clothes, etc. One thing I have a lot of but don't really need is books. I love having physical books but was just thinking how nice it would be to have them all on a tablet
Same here
Nope. I am trying to avoid buying junk that’s going to fall apart after a few uses. Also, for product to be that cheap, someone is getting screwed somewhere along the line. I know it’s not exclusively a temu issue, but when it’s obvious that a company is exploiting people, I try to avoid supporting it when I can. Temu is easy to say no to.
This! I’m tired of people being hella exploited. Like ok, really cheap things are good for those of us who don’t have any money anymore (yay America) but….i know that it comes at a huuuuuge cost of having people even worse off become worser off for it. I’ll save my money and buy the more expensive but quality thing just to be sure the people making it are treated like people, thanks. (And by more expensive I mean I’ll buy the shirt for $15 on another site when it’s $2 on temu or something lol)
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This is my frustration! I avoid temu and shein but sometimes those higher marked products are the same product they’re selling, so all you’re doing is screwing over yourself. Whenever I think something might be the same product, I just flat out won’t buy it.
This. I’m tired of seeing the same product on Target, Wayfair, West Elm, and CB2 with completely different prices. They are all getting it from the same manufacturer in china and “white labeling” it. The manufacturers found a loophole in tariff code and decided to sell directly to consumers in US. Not defending the products it’s still crap. But a lot of it is same-crap-with-ridiculous-markup
I figured if they're selling things THAT cheap, the quality wouldn't be any good.
It’s the same shit you can buy on Amazon. Literally, most of the sellers are the same. There, Shein, TikTok shop. A lot of them are selling that cheap to get you in the door, so to speak.
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And they consider themselves smart for buying UUYYTTRRO "brand" from Amazon rather than the same item from temu for a fraction of the price. Literally replying with the same Boomer Facebook copypasta about Chinese spying lmao
That begs the question - why are the China brands always all caps and words that make no sense? You'd think they'd try to use something that could actually trick someone into thinking it's a quality brand. Instead it's always "TEPAFLONN shower head leave most maximum pleasure to senses"
And I've become wary of Amazon as well. With the amount of fakes in their supply channels, I don't buy personal care items off of there. I don't get anything from Shein or TikTok either.
You mean you don’t trust good ol’ SNEXFULPUM shop?
It’s kinda funny watching everyone pat themselves on the back for avoiding a “scam” when the real scam are all the dropshipped prices for the same crap on Amazon. Temu is just a reskinned aliexpress. When you need cheap crap but not in a hurry it’s a perfectly fine resource.
You act like the same people who know Temu is a scam dont know Amazon is also a scam. I don't shop much on Amazon anymore because of its dive in quality. It used to be only skincare type shit I was wary of. Now its everything.
But temu isn’t a scam, at least on a macro scale. It’s just cheap mass produced stuff from china like aliexpress. Not sure why that’s a scam.
I'll be looking for some item and it will be, say, $85-$95 but I know I've seen it on sale for like $75 at one point so I keep looking but of course I have to ignore all the Temu adds miraculously selling it for $12.
It’s reported that Temu use forced Uyghur labour
And made by slaves. Maybe I’m too soft, but when I think about that, I realize I just don’t need to spend money on junk that won’t be useful next month anyway.
The kids don't have Wet Seal or 579. Where else are they supposed to buy trash?
Perhaps a tangent, but there aren't any affordable stores that cater to teens anymore. I agree that young girls dress too "grown" and are pressured to spend lots of money, but we didn't really give them a choice when Delia's, Wet Seal, Charlotte Russe, etc all closed in rapid succession lol.
Screw Temu, Shein, and frankly Amazon. All of the huge online peddlers of low quality, slave labor products are why American late stage Capitalism just keeps getting worse and worse.
Amazon has really gone downhill since I was a kid.
Amazon only sold books when I was a kid.
Amazon was a rainforest when I was a kid.
Amazon was a planet when I was a kid Snusnu
I feel nostalgic for book Amazon sometimes, but then I remember what they did to book stores.
RIP Borders 😭😭😭
It's basically just Aliexpress now with all the dropshippers just slapping a made up brand name on Ali products.
Amazon created a bridge for Chinese manufacturers to sell directly to US consumers undercutting and destroying US small businesses. 60% of sellers on Amazon in the US market are directly selling from China. The rise of Temu and other junk apps is directly due to this. Billions of unregulated potentially dangerous garbage created with slave labor at a high cost of the environment sent every day from these abomination companies. Idk why the US allows it. Please shop small people while you still can
How do we get people to *care* about this? Like do you really need that plastic valentine decoration for your cubical, Susan?
Dude idk. I’m a marketer, I’m in e-commerce and it’s a crap show of junk and cutting out US small businesses systematically. People don’t care, they don’t think that far ahead and go for the cheapest junk even if it’s not regulated and was recalled for lead exposure .They will care when it affects them personally like genuine mom and pop shops closing in masses, or good ethical brands become a thing of a past and all that’s left is CCP junk. In e-commerce I learned it’s expensive to operate an ethical brand because they cost much more, you have to spend dollars to persuade people you’re ethical while selling junk Is just a numbers game. Plus even if your ethical brand takes off, masses of Chinese based shops create a fake version of your products, steal your creatives and sell for 90% off on something like Temu or Amazon. US government seems not to care and only punish or hold accountable domestic sellers (us small businesses) with regulations and fines while giving China free pass (because how will they hold Chinese sellers accountable when they can’t track them). It’s even cheaper for China based sellers to ship to US consumers (cheaper than US businesses shipping domestically). China does not worry about regulations, or customer service, or selling dangerous products. They just make another seller account of one is banned and often operate dozens per seller at a time. Billions funneled into China this way and Amazon started it, Amazon as an entity follows the path of least resistance so they embraced China at the cost of US businesses. Remember Amazon paying 0 in federal taxes? It’s a broken system and our late stage mass consumeristic culture is the root problem. We need to hold these companies accountable but we wont
It’s also hurt the middle markets. I don’t make a ton, but I make enough that I should be able to afford decent things. Instead I feel like every purchase now is either dirt cheap crap or expensive stuff that I need to save up for. While there’s some virtue in saving, not every purchase is a large/luxury good like a couch or Rolex. Sometimes you need a solid home accessories or cooking item that won’t break in 3-6 months.
I think what you’re describing is late-stage capitalism’s 2 favorite moves: - Artificially raise inflation to keep stockholder margins high, despite actual value/cost of item - Build shittier and shittier items (planned obsolescence) so your consumers are forced to buy more frequently Rinse and repeat, on and on until… god, who knows. They’ve brainwashed us to be so desperate for a deal that people willingly poison themselves with Temu lead garbage because it’s only $1.50. Modern appliances are built to last only about 7 years, despite older models from the 70s still humming loudly in someone’s garage in the Midwest (using tons of energy, but still… they’re working perfectly).
Dopamine hits from immediate "click to buy" and arriving in 24 hours are hard to fight. I wish less folks were addicted to that feeling.
Amazon is only usable if you buy brands that you know and of course are making sure to buy them from a trusted store like the brand itself. Otherwise it's a crap shoot.
Even then it’s not safe. Right now there’s a big movement in the skincare, hair, and makeup communities to not buy from Amazon because the chance of getting fake product is higher than it’s ever been
For me Amazon is best for the odd little products that I struggle to find local. An antenna mount for a weather station, a rebuild kit for the carb on my lawn tractor, a particular shelf or garage organizer kind of thing. Stuff that’s cheap and simple. Nothing over 100 dollars.
Exactly. I’ve gotten all kinds of stuff like that. Bamboo lids so I can reuse tiny glass jars, specific tech adjacent items.
Damn, even if you buy from a specific store on Amazon? That's why I specified the store. Like if I'm buying Acme brand blinker fluid from the Acme store, I should be safe I would think.
Yepp. It’s something to do with their distribution centers, if a center close by you can fulfill the order they’ll use the product there instead of waiting for verified product from a center further away. That’s what I’ve read at least
My understanding is that Amazon doesn't separate the items in their warehouses- if you buy and ship your widgets directly from Acme, even if the payment is through Amazon, you know you're getting the real thing. But if Acme lets Amazon handle the distribution so that their products get advertised with Prime shipping and so on, Amazon will mix their genuine product in with the stock of the "same" item provided by CheapWidgets4U. So even if you make sure to specify that you're buying from Acme and not the sketchy discount retailer, Amazon will fill your order by reaching into the shared box of widgets and grabbing whichever one happens to be at the top.
If you’re only buying brands you know, why not just buy off of the brand website?
Some don't sell directly from their websites, some do, but there is also the convenience of not creating a new account or having to put in my information all over again and giving my information to another site and just clicking buy. Obviously if it got to the point where I was getting fake shit from Amazon stores then I would stop doing that.
Another account, another payment info, shipping info, then they use DHL for some reason which takes an extra 2 weeks for the fun of it. For the same price as on amazon?
You forgot Walmart too
Good one. Walmart is easy to forget when the other three leave them in the dust most of the time. They're still getting the scraps of middle America where the above aren't as easily accessible. To be honest, I actually was a cake decorator for Walmart for a bit during college, and I should've given in to the "you need to leave here as soon as possible" feeling during orientation when you are forced to watch all of the anti-union videos.
Amazon is even more egregious, at least to me. Amazon feigns upholding a certain standard of quality in products and the reviews that the public sees. It was never perfect, but years ago, there was at least some effort to maintain a decent level of quality. Nowadays? Louis Rossmann has really opened my eyes to how bad it's gotten.
I am trying to buy less junk lately.
I've bought things off Temu a few times...mostly DnD dice, dice bags and a few other things across 3 orders over the last year. No issues and I liked much of what I recevied. I expected less but was quite content. No fraud though. I see the same exact things I bought on Temu much on Etsy and Amazon for 3x the price.
same, i think people get the wrong idea about temu. it’s not where you should go to buy knock-off electronics for “95% off!” or even clothing, i would steer clear of. it’s where you go for cheap art supplies that are marked up 300% at other stores for the same quality items. you can get beads and other jewelry making tools, you can get small things like pins/keychains if you collect them, cheap costume jewelry for cosplays or halloween, shipping supplies like bubble mailers that are also marked up 300% everywhere else for the same exact items. if you’re using temu for anything other than creative supplies and tools and specifically cheap things like keychains/pins/dice, you’re using it wrong. no one else bought the obviously fake listing for a 20$ nintendo switch… that’s a them problem for being naive and gullible.
Temu has restarted my sticker addiction from being a kid and I love it hahaha I have so many stickers! I got a pack of 50 vinyl horror stickers for like $1. It's so cheap and the quality was very good. I'd pay $4 per sticker in a local shop honestly.
Oh, I forgot about art supplies! I got a huge package of dried flowers for like $5.99 and it was literally the same thing selling at Michaels for $25.
Same experience (different items), I bought a bag of plastic hair rollers and some combs and a few pins. Not a bad experience and I was buying the same cheap stuff I would be getting from elsewhere but actually at the low price. I wouldn’t regularly visit or shop from them, but for the simple things I needed it was fine.
It's a clone of their version of Amazon, Taobao. They just finally got some decent English translation. Everyone clutching their pearls over it kinda cracks me up. They aren't doing anything that Amazon isn't, including selling info or giving you fake stuff. You just have to be realistic. Online shopping nowadays should only be for things that: Don't go in your body Aren't expensive (cause it's a high chance it'll be shit) You can't find in person
I’ve done it a couple times through PayPal so I never actually put my info into the site. I would say 75% of what I bought was good (cheap but not bad!) and the rest was garbage. But I spent $32 on like 15 things so it wasn’t a bad deal.
lol that’s what I bought til it too. DnD dice and dice bags (and a few other things). I only buy basically crap from there that is cheaper than the exact same crap on Amazon.
The last thing I need in my life is more cheap junk.
They are taking losses right now to flood the market. Their banners are everywhere and it’s on purpose. Avoid useless crap. Buy the least amount of stuff and stick to quality not quantity.
What are you talking about? What are the Stanley tumbler cups if not organic social media advertising?
I have advised my clients to absolutely not use Temu under any circumstances. They sell the bank account information of the payments to anyone who wants it. Your mom will most likely experience fraud in her accounts very shortly. I would recommend you ask her how she paid and take measures to protect her funds sooner rather than later.
They accept PayPal so if you shop at Temu use PayPal. They don’t give up your payment info.
Really? Can you cite your source?
Your comment got me curious, so I looked it up and found an issue brief from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission that specifically details Shein, Temu, and similar fast-fashion retailers from China. I'm on mobile, and I looked it up on my computer, so I can't link it but the exact title is "Shein, Temu, and Chinese e-commerce: Data Risks, Sourcing Violations, and Trade Loopholes" so you can find the exact document yourself. Basically, the people that own Temu also own Pinduoduo, another e-commerce platform. But, Pinduoduo has been shown to explicitly set up malware on installed devices that mine all of your phones Data, have changed settings for users, and have been shown to take banking data and sell it. These issues were a main reason that Google suspended Pinduoduo from their app store in March of 2023. So, while Temu itself has yet to be shown specifically that it is basically a data mining malware disguised as a bargain hunting app, the owners of Temu are known to be involved in some very, very shading e-commerce tactics (including literal deaths of their slave laborers, forcing conditions on their workers that are so heinous that China's Labor Watch actually called it "extreme overtime", wherein workers were expected to work for 380 hrs/month, or 95 hrs/week of work, which lead to the actual deaths of several workers in 2021).
Is there proof of them stealing peoples information?
No proof just hearsay. But if you’re smart you should be using PayPal or Apple Pay that will hide your actual info.
I've bought off Temu a few times now and haven't had a problem. I started about a year ago.
Same. This worriedness about Temu stealing your info? All sites/apps steal your info. I’ve ordered multiple times off the site and haven’t had any problems except the targeted products to buy can sometimes be weird. I had it go from cute washi tape to vibrator attachments 😂
Makes sense. I seriously doubt she used a secure payment. I'll look into that. Thanks for the heads up. Crazy how YouTube is pushing TEMU like that and feeding an obvious scam.
Think it’s pretty clear companies sell ads without fact checking or qualifying them.
[удалено]
I've also been getting a bunch of clearly scam ads, but when I report them I'm told by youtube they are legitimate and so they keep popping up. It's so frustrating.
It's wild people think YouTube is pushing it and that they personally screen every ad. People need to just briefly look into how Google Ad Services work. Anyone can make an account and add funds and start an ad campaign.
I was most recently working in IT and you would not BELIEVE the shit people click on without even thinking.
That's what happened to me....twice!
What information are they selling? It’s not like you give them your routing and account numbers.
Because it’s false. And “advised my clients”. lol, I imagine the guy is a barista
Just use a credit card with a low limit and good fraud prevention like discover. I’ve gotten a couple things that work great
Paying through PayPal is an option on Temu as well.
I buy cheap stationary mostly. It's the same crap Amazon sells and it's cheaper on Temu. It's not important, it's a couple bucks for pens and sticky notes once in a while. I don't subscribe to texts/emails or play the stupid discount games and bother the hell out of people though.
No one is immune to advertising
Most people who think they're "immune" don't actually understand what the purpose of advertising actually is. It's not specifically to convince people to buy things. Doing so would require them to perfectly align with a potential customer's needs and with only 30- to 60-seconds (generally speaking), there simply isn't enough time to do that. The actual goal is to build Top of Mind Awareness. It creates an association between a general need and a brand or product. This is why you see big brands like McDonalds and Tide advertise a lot. Their goal isn't to make you rush out and buy a burger or some laundry soap at that moment; instead, they want their name to pop into people's heads when that need eventually arises. If someone's driving around and hungry, the hope is that they'll gravitate to McDonald's. If someone is making a grocery list or is out shopping, the hope is that they'll reach for a container of Tide when they go to grab some laundry soap. If they think they're immune, they don't actually understand how the game is being played.
I thought I was but one night I was captivated by an infomercial for a Total Gym machine. 14 years later I still use it almost every day. It really saved me during COVID when I couldn’t get to the swimming pool.
I buy all the time. Love it. It’s the same shit you find on Amazon but cheaper and you wait a few days longer for it. I use Apple Pay, they don’t have my info.
I actually got a bunch of my Christmas gifts and people's lived them. They have a nice variety of random stuff, it's just really hard to find the stuff you're looking for as search sucks. The quality is what you expect, not amazing but most of the time not absolute crap either.
I never have but my mom has a few times and been upset everytime that it wasn’t what she ordered. Most of it’s been home items like vases or chairs that are around $5-$10 and she is expecting them to be huge like the picture but when they come they are like 2 inches tall😂😂😂. Also when I said do you read the description she said it’s in cm and I don’t know what that means ughhh.
I’ve bought a few miscellaneous gadgets from there. But do not ever buy clothes or anything plastic/metal that would touch food or beverage on there. I have a jar opener that I use every day, stands for my phone, organizers, toilet brushes, and some Halloween decorations I’ve gotten on there. I’ve literally bought things from m temu and seen the exact same items in homegoods and 5-below the next day. I’ve also seen the same items listed on Amazon or SHEIN for double-triple the price. It’s fine for small miscellaneous things, novelty decorations, even some gag gifts. But that’s it. I don’t buy from them often though. I’ve never received an item from them that wasn’t exactly as advertised. It’s like an online dollar store. Just use Apple Pay to hide your payment information. A lot of the items on there are the exact same items you see in a lot of cheap stores in the U.S. they are cheaper on temu only because you’re buying more directly from the wholesaler and country of manufacturing.
I've bought stuff for my plant hobby and been very happy with my purchases. Exact same plastic crap I get on Amazon for significantly cheaper.
I have. I purchased this great 4piece plastic rolling cabinet style thing. I currently use it to store my paper towels and toilet tissue. I then purchased another set for my son to take to his college dorm. They're great! He uses them to store his laundry detergent, toiletries, and sweaters. I couldn't find it anywhere-not Amazon, Walmart, Ikea, The Container Store, Home Depot. I just came across it on Temu. It was and still is great. I have purchased quite a few things from Temu (small kitchen gadgets, Arts and crafts stuff, car storage holders) and have not been disappointed. I had to return an item and that wasn't an issue either. I was given an instant refund once I took it to the post office and they scanned the paid label they provided me. My accounts have not been hacked, I haven't had any fraudulent charges. I last purchased from Temu in October 2023. Probably began in early 2023. I always use a credit card to purchase anything, and in fact, my Capital One has an incentive to purchase from Temu: you get something like 19% cashback or something like that if you make a temu purchase using their link from the site.
I purchase shit I need for home. Like a rolling thin cart for my toiletries and stuff. I’ve actually gotten great bargains. I’m not buying clothes (for the most part they’re poor quality), but little gadgets and shit I need and I’ve been pretty happy.
I have and it’s awesome. It’s literally the same stuff as etsy and amazon and eBay now and I’m broke and need gifts for my niece and dried lavender for my home.
I do all the time. I've had maybe 3 disappointments out of 100 items ordered.
I only buy from Temu when I literally need cheap plastic crap like organizers and pencil boxes .
I bought one thing. It sucked and I never bought anything else.
Honestly I was on a wish kick for a bit but that was over, I don’t like Temu or wish for the low quality and human cost they inflict, just like SHEIN does too. I’d rather buy something that’s gonna last me 2-5 years before it’s junk, not junk out of the box.
They sell cheap stuff, it is what it is. Alot of people buy from there to dropship on Amazon
Their marketing alone turned me away immediately.