this post was submitted on 12 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 142 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Except I respect raccoons more than Temu sellers

[–] [email protected] 65 points 6 months ago

More trustworthy too

[–] [email protected] 136 points 6 months ago (8 children)

It's because it's a data stealing company. They require 24 different types of permissions, including keylogging, biometrics (your fingerprint), your wifi network, your Bluetooth, photos, contact info and it saves your payment details, just by using the app. It also was recently flagged for malware. You're getting a good price because you're paying for it in a different way

[–] [email protected] 75 points 6 months ago (2 children)

It's also just stuff from Alibaba. It's all made in China, which has gotten really cheap. You can buy the same things on AliExpress without giving out all your contacts and everything.

Basically you are seeing how stores in the US buy their merchandise. It's extremely cheap, and they are marking it up at least 100%. Shirts and pants are like $3 to $10, maybe a little more for good quality. Places like Target and Walmart buy these and double or triple the price.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 6 months ago (2 children)

It's also just stuff from Alibaba. It's all made in China, which has gotten really cheap

I feel the same about Amazon. Most listings are just US based resellers selling you cheap Chinese merchandise bought from Alibaba and then passing the costs onto the customer by inflating the price they resell it at.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago

True, but with Amazon you are paying more for faster shipping. Stuff actually shipped from China takes a long time.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It's literally just drop shipping

Don't run any inventory. Just take orders on a front-end website. Then buy at wholesale rates and resell at retail prices, while trying to make a margin based on the difference between the margin and the cost of advertising. It works great if you're able to get a bunch of free publicity. So you'll typically see these guys "networking" in hopes of doing an impromptu sales pitch in front the largest crowd possible. Or doing stunts to get literally anyone to look at them.

Amazon is a multi-trillion dollar industry that's functionally built on the idea of drop shipping. Jeff Bezos is just the richest incarnation of those insufferable frat-bros trying to sell you bitcoin.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Aliexpress is the way to go. A lot of the time you're buying directly from the company that makes the product. On Amazon, there are a lot of drop shippers.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Just to be clear on the biometrics, no normal device anyone uses sends your biometrics to apps secured by biometrics.

It’s more that your phone stores a very strong password that’s specific to that app, and your phone will automatically enter that password, but only if the phone can validate the biometric.

This is not meant to detract from anything else you said, just clearing up how that actually works.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Thank you for clarifying!

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

It's not just a data-stealing company, they also exploit tariff exemptions on shipments from China by shipping single orders that stay below the sales amount threshold rather than large shipments of products imported for resale. Using this sales technique they can undercut their competion, while also being even worse ecologically. They've also dumped a ton of money into marketing

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

No kidding. I remember they had like 3 ads at the Superbowl. I don't know what that costs but it's a fortune.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

The raccoons are kind of high maintenance.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I wish it was always this simple, as a poor person if I could sell my data to pay for food or rent I would

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Is it worse than AliExpress?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

Yes and much worse than even Wish.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

OK, great. I occasionally order at AliExpress and was kind of tempted to try Temu, because of the hype. WIll skip it then.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

I only use Aliexpress via my browser. Was tempted to give Temu a try too but that's a hard pass from me now

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

And they steal the design of the products they sell

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Yup, a lot of my cosplay/fashion designer friends have had their work stolen and they can't do anything because it's international and they can't afford an attorney with their small business income.

Those cat paw socks, Danielle Baloo at Toe Beanies created them, several years ago and in the process of getting a patent, they were copied by Alibaba sellers. She was denied her Kickstarter campaign for drop-shipping, and had to fight for months, proving she was the original designer. Screw people who steal designs. She worked her ass off and they're selling her work with cheap foam that's not safe for human skin... I constantly report them.

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[–] [email protected] 91 points 6 months ago (21 children)

By raccoons do you mean Uyighur slaves held by the CCP?

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 6 months ago

What's there to understand? "Avoid." There. That's literally everything you need to know about Temu.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Temu is just new wish, right?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I think Temu has been around a bit longer, Wish just got more popular during Covid

[–] [email protected] 37 points 6 months ago (1 children)

?? Temu is like 2 years old, they did a huge marketing blitz when they first started. Wish has been around since 2010, and I think they were probably most famous well before the pandemic.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Hm so it is, I could have sworn that Temu was around before 2022

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I thought the same thing, at most as old as the 1700s, but then realized I was thinking of emus, the flightless bird.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

LOL if you post like this often you could compile your comments into a greatest hits

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Temu is different because they allow a seller to say I'll make plastic dog shit toys by November 1. So it goes on sale in September and 100, 000 people order it. Now the company makes a single batch and knows exactly how many to make and what materials to buy. It's smart. That's why they want your friends involved because it lowers the price more to make more at once.

I'm not defending the company but it is a smart way and less costly and wasteful than making 100, 000 dog shit toys and selling 10, throwing the other 999,990 in the local river and writing it off on taxes.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago (1 children)

AliExpress is now trying to copy Temu by gamifying the app which is such a PITA.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Well,

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago

"Shop Like a Biilionaire" says their tagline, but I can't imagine Warren Buffett filling his house with flammable plastic tat from China.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago

if that service existed I would buy from them and them alone

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