Live data from Hacker News

Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

searchengineland.com

571–580 of 721 posts

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#571
post #316

Good. They're pushing overpriced low-quality junk. If you want to buy from Temu but want a better chance at reasonable prices, shop AliExpress.

IMO Temu and Aliexpress/Alibaba market themselves in a very different way. In many ways I consider Aliexpress to be more reputable just because they don't try to pull the wool over your eyes with their products. With Temu they try to make it seem like the products are just as good as what you get at Walmart. With Aliexpress at least they just straight up tell you they are a "front" for all the factories in Shenzhen.…

The other advantage with Alibaba is you can interact directly with the companies doing the manufacturing.

Several years ago, I was frustrated with the insane costs of hockey sticks. I'd been going through sticks at about a 6-8 month clip since high school and having to buy $300 hockey sticks every six months was not something I was happy about.

I got on Alibaba, sent out several emails saying I was an equipment manager for a US based hockey team. The team was looking to get some stock sticks for backups since players were going through sticks like crazy.

I emailed two companies who did carbon fiber manufacturing. One company made one-piece composite sticks that were blank. You could tell them what length, flex, lie and blade pattern you wanted and then if you wanted 12K or 14K carbon fibre. I got two 12K blanks. They were impressively durable and lasted for well over a year. Almost twice as long as my expensive retail sticks. They were a little more whippy than I was used to, but it was easy getting used to it.

The other company was a bit shady. The first email I got back was someone asking me how many top of the line Bauer sticks I needed. I asked him how that was possible and he just said he had access and just give him the specs and they'll send them out. I ordered two of those to boot thinking it was a pretty big gamble. Turns out they were legit. My buddies who used the same retail model couldn't tell the difference. We went over the graphics and couldn't see any difference either. Ironically, I still have one of these Bauer 1X Lite sticks that I use when I get down to a single stick and I'm waiting for the newer ones to ship.

Interestingly enough, by the time I had gone through three of the sticks, suddenly there were several companies popping up offering "blank" sticks for a fraction of the cost of the retail sticks. Effectively doing the same thing I did, but now as legit hockey companies trying to save players some money. All told, I think I spent around $500 for the 4 sticks I bought. A fraction of what retail sticks would've cost. I haven't gone back and ordered more sticks, just because there's so many pro stock stuff out there and so many other companies selling these blanks now.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tariffs were announced with no plan to bolster on-shore manufacturing.

The main purpose of tariffs is to change behavior for both the consumer and the manufacturers. Auto manufacturers have been doing this for decades when the US started imposing tariffs on Japanese manufacturers back in the 1970's. To get around the tariffs and still get access to the US markets, they would simply assemble the parts of the cars here and bypass the rules of the tariffs. Many companies then started doing…

The Donald tariffs certainly changed my behavior as a Canadian consumer.

For example, i stopped buying US wine, US orange juice and I keep an eye open for any US made thing I could remove from my environment.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love it in terms of consumer experience. I like several products from AliExpress and the like, but sometimes find they're available for the same price or cheaper and faster with better customer service from Amazon. I don't care that they have generic brand names in either case

I'm with you. I don't really understand the complaints, since Amazon's return policy means that you aren't really taking a risk when you buy, even from randomly-named brands.

An easy example of the harm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B90_SNNbcoU&t=1688s

I'll just return the fuses to Amazon after my family burns up I guess.

Now expand that to people buying supplements, bolts holding things in place that can harm people, etc from Amazon.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might have been better reputation-wise than the current game of chicken, but tariffs will always sour economic partnerships, which in turn leads to bolstering alternative economic partnerships...

This is objectively untrue, tariffs exist all around the world and countries are still trading.

That tariffs are in use is not proof that it is untrue. Even with the current dumpster fire we still trade with the US, but that obviously does not mean there has been no harm.

For countries, tariffs is not something that is just shrugged off as it impacts their economy, there will always be political countermeasures to strongly discourage that tariffs are applied that harms them. Retaliatory tariffs, impact on other negotiations and relationships, etc.

For companies, tariffs harm profits and fair competition on both supply chain and consumer side, depending on where the tariffs are located. The company would strategize for maximum profit margins, circumventing tariffs, remove countries from their supply chain, and focusing on more profitable markets.

It wouldn't be a boycott the same way it is now of course. It would be a slower process. But tariffs is a way to force the market and always have wide negative effects. One just hopes that certain long-term side-effects (like high import cost causing focus on driving down local supply cost) is worth the impact (local cost of living increase, drop in investments, drop in friendly reputation).

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main purpose of tariffs is to change behavior for both the consumer and the manufacturers. Auto manufacturers have been doing this for decades when the US started imposing tariffs on Japanese manufacturers back in the 1970's. To get around the tariffs and still get access to the US markets, they would simply assemble the parts of the cars here and bypass the rules of the tariffs. Many companies then started doing…

You’re missing a link for the Ford news. Dare I ask when you read about Ford moving production to Hawaii? Was it in early April by chance? https://fordauthority.com/2025/04/ford-will-avoid-trump-tari... > We’ll have more on this never, because this was our final April Fools’ article for 2025. We hope you enjoyed all of them!

Ooooof. They got me. Ironically, this is the first article in many different search results with several other articles about how Ford will deal with the tariffs. With another article from Ford Authority on the same topic:

https://fordauthority.com/2025/03/ford-taking-broad-steps-to...

In addition to scrutinizing its supply chain, Ford is also in the process of stocking up on parts that comply with the current U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and it’s also taking a second look at its operations in those countries, according to Automotive News. Ford is “strategically stockpiling components where it is cost-effective and parts that are not pending engineering changes,” supply chain chief Liz Door told suppliers in a recent memo.

This is what got me. They had this article talking about looking at its operations in those countries and then the April Fools article which essentially described them doing just that.

Although I already knew Ford does most of its manufacturing in the US, I should've known better.

Thanks for the heads up regardless.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean this is the point of a carefully planned, deliberated, executed, and announced tariff rollout, or do you mean that's the whole point of tariffs as they are currently being implemented in the United States?

The tariffs that were announced during the campaign - the same way Ross Perot did - and the reasoning was to bring us manufacturing back to the US and reduce the tax burden on US citizens? Such as writing off car payments if the car is American? People wigged out over non-reciprocal tariffs, where we tariff at 50% what they charge the US. People wigged out at 10℅ flat rate tariffs. "Heard island penguins get charged…

The tariffs were definitely part of the campaign, described in detail in Project 2025 and will eventually replace higher brackets of the income tax.

This consumption tax is tax policy, not trade policy. That was evident when there was not even any discussion about excepting manufacturing inputs (neither this time nor the 45th administration).

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tariffs that were announced during the campaign - the same way Ross Perot did - and the reasoning was to bring us manufacturing back to the US and reduce the tax burden on US citizens? Such as writing off car payments if the car is American? People wigged out over non-reciprocal tariffs, where we tariff at 50% what they charge the US. People wigged out at 10℅ flat rate tariffs. "Heard island penguins get charged…

The tariffs were announced with no plan to bolster on-shore manufacturing.

Yes, that's because they are a consumption tax intended to replace income tax. the talk of US manufacturing is not completely on-the-level.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#578

I wonder if we can look forward to the end of the letter soup brands on Amazon, it's ridiculously difficult finding real brands in between them. That would be one silver lining in all this mess, at least.

My favorite is all these letter-soup Firewire-to-USB convertors which are just glue and random wires inside and are either completely inert or disastrously damaging to your peripherals:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=firewire+to+usb+adapter

It's fascinating to me that every letter-soup brand is competing on a product that is literally fraud.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#579
post #572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main purpose of tariffs is to change behavior for both the consumer and the manufacturers. Auto manufacturers have been doing this for decades when the US started imposing tariffs on Japanese manufacturers back in the 1970's. To get around the tariffs and still get access to the US markets, they would simply assemble the parts of the cars here and bypass the rules of the tariffs. Many companies then started doing…

The Donald tariffs certainly changed my behavior as a Canadian consumer. For example, i stopped buying US wine, US orange juice and I keep an eye open for any US made thing I could remove from my environment.

Instead of the US government spending away on overcapacity so Canadians can have cheap products, that money should go to public housing and healthcare subsidies. I think this is better for the US long term because agriculture is heavily subsidized and competes with housing and other industries for land and labor.

Re: Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

#580
post #20

I loved temu, aliexpress, and shein. I probably averaged 1 item per day arriving to my house, for years and years. Mostly little electronics parts and specialized tools for my workshop. Buying from Amazon or locally would have cost me 10x as much. Obviously it's over now. Anyone getting a package in May will be hit with a $75-$150 or more bill per package, even a 75 cent envelope will be charged +$75. I feel bad for…

One positive that could still come out of the tariffs is the US consuming less junk. I just spent a few months in Germany, and the trash can for our APARTMENT BUILDING is roughly half of the size of the one at my single family home in the US. And here I see lots of my neighbors overflowing their 96 gallon wheeled tote very week. The world would be much better off with out all of this waste.

Germany is definitely top-tier on reducing waste. Before I left the UK it had got to the point where actual landfill-bound unrecyclable trash was a tiny portion of the waste output.

The sad thing is, UK and Germany are tiny compared to all the other countries that don't give a shit.

Post reply on HN