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Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

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

#681

Post by Nursie »

vachina wrote: post #310
Nursie wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the outcomes here are insane - Here in Australia I can order a $10 (AUD) item from aliexpress and get free shipping from China. But as a consumer or small busines, if I want to send anything bigger than a letter within Australia it's likely to cost me way more than $10 just for the postage. It doesn't make sense and it must distort retail trade in China's favour. I'm honestly not surprised the US withdrew from t…

If you’re a consumer, I’m not sure why you’re not singing praises of this arrangement. If someone in China can sell me exactly the same stuff for 1/4 the price you’re charging, shipping included, then why do you even exist?

> If you’re a consumer, I’m not sure why you’re not singing praises of this arrangement.

You misunderstand my point a little - As a consumer, I want access to that pricing! Why does it cost me tens of dollars to post something across my own country? But it costs someone in China almost nothing to post much further, including the part in this country?

And the answer is that treaties mean that we're all paying for it in other ways. In fact my expensive parcel may be directly subsidising the cheap parcels from overseas. I'm not a fan of this idea.

> If someone in China can sell me exactly the same stuff for 1/4 the price you’re charging, shipping included, then why do you even exist?

My partner briefly tried to sell handmade items within Australia. The postage cost more or less killed the idea as it added 50% or more to the price of a small-ish item. Yes, a mass-produced item from China would likely cost about 10% as much and be shippable for nearly free, but the audience is different. AFAICT it's largely other people who make stuff, and some who just value handmade and want to support local. They don't want the thing from China and are a little less price sensitive, but still within limits.

For items that are directly equivalent, I would prefer to buy from an Australian company, not least because of the consumer protections. Market distortions that favour overseas sales over domestic seem like a bad plan all round.

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

#682

Post by maxwell »

ceejayoz wrote: post #651
maxwell wrote: post #603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice, you found Canadian wine and orange juice?

The former is very much a thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_wine

Impressive scale actually, didn't realize there were over 500 Canadian wineries.

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

#683

Post by _heimdall »

turtlebits wrote: post #613
_heimdall wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ended up drastically cutting back on Amazon purchases when they started getting flooded with brands like that. Its absolutely on Amazon to maintain quality. There are certain brands and types of products I'll order there because they're just harder to find otherwise, but its mostly a last resort these days given that Amazon doesn't care to curate what is on their "shelves".

If the quality sucks (or at least doesn't match expectations), return it. Shipping is fast and returns are easy. The vendor takes the consequence of the return. Rarely do I buy product that has subpar quality that I need to return it. Just do your research. This is why I still buy from Amazon.

Hah, well easy may be in the eye of the beholder. The closest dropoff for Amazon returns is about a 20 minute drive, its a CVS that has lost one return I tried to send back. I often don't leave our farm more than once a week, mailing off a few returns a year isn't a big deal but I don't want to make a habit of it.

My research, and experience with Amazon, just left me avoiding it when I can. That's not always possible and there's plenty of good stuff to buy on Amazon as well, but 2 day delivery can mean a week here and returns aren't as simple as dropping it off a block from an office in the city.

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

#684

Post by geor9e »

simgt wrote: post #328
geor9e wrote: 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…

> I loved temu, aliexpress, and shein. I probably averaged 1 item per day arriving to my house, for years and years. > I feel bad for the unaware people still ordering. I personally feel bad for the environment and all the people on the losing side of cheap low quality junk production. Good if the beneficiaries are gone from your part of the world.

You remind me of Chamath Palihapitiya. He's this billionaire who likes to call things "cheap low quality junk" too, but for him it's anything is under like $5000, or not made in Milan or the French riviera. He's hamming it up for the audience but the point is the same. Every strata of wealth has the luxury of not buying the "cheap low quality junk" of the strata below it. To you, they are temu possessions, but to another person they are just their possessions. Everyone would love to be wealthy enough to never check a pricetag. And even then, plenty of products last just as long no matter what you spend on them. Many things are literally identical and just marked up 10x by the middleman who imported it to your local store.

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

#685

Post by 1over137 »

walls wrote: post #481
1over137 wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And doing the last mile yourself is a lot more inefficient than a post service doing it. How do you figure?

One guy driving a route between 100 places is probably more efficient than 100 people all driving to and from a place.

Ah, you're assuming the customer is driving a car. That had skipped my mind, but this story is about the USA so it's probably a valid assumption.

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

#686

Post by BobbyTables2 »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #544
zamalek wrote: post #411

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.

It's easy to find "real brands" if one looks outside of Amazon, Alibaba, etc. Surprisingly, I find I am more pleased with purchases I make outside of Amazon despite all of Amazon's perks. "Platforms" like Amazon and fake "brands" aside, online retailers that only sell "real brands" are still around; they never disappeared despite Amazon's meteoric rise. Many sell through Amazon but also sell outside Amazon, too. Some…

I hate the letter soup brands but also not willing to pay $200 for an LL Bean branded windbreaker or such.

Maybe just spoiled from the early days of Walmart and now Amazon.

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

#687

Post by evan_ »

mvdtnz wrote: post #632
evan_ wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sites like Amazon and probably aliexpress/temu require a documented shipment before you can write a review. Shippers sometimes send extremely inexpensive stuff like seeds to random US/overseas addresses and launder the shipping receipt into a fake review for something more expensive.

This sounds fake. Why send seeds, of all things? Why not some equally cheap item like electrical wire insulation off-cuts, a piece of scrap bubble wrap or just a note (or just nothing)? Seeds are likely to set off alarm bells for biosecurity at many borders for no benefit.

It is real, it's called brushing:

https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/brushing-scam

They send all sorts of things but there was a big wave of seeds that got a lot of news coverage because of biosecurity fears.

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

#688

Post by rasz »

bitmasher9 wrote: post #679
kristopolous wrote: post #628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I went to Shenzhen I found some of these brands with stalls in their vast malls. They're real places. As you walk through you navigate around an obstacle course of dollies, hear endless packing tape and occasionally point out, "oh look, there's Owawuwo, I got a cheap projector from them". Americans can get a Shenzhen-only 5-day Visa on arrival (VOA) from Hong Kong through the Luohu entry at the LoWu station via…

I went a decade ago (on a standard tourist visa, was easy to get but I had to plan far ahead ). It was neat, but I wouldn’t say it’s a must visit, or a top 5 Chinese destination. The one cool thing was seeing new products at Shenzen, and then a couple months later starting to see those products in American retailers. Seeing the markup and the flow this way really opened my eyes to how the American consumer is exploit…

Sounds like Akihabara in the nineties.

https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/backnum.html

For example AMD Athlon. Official announcement June 23 1999, official shipping date August 17, 1999. A week after announcement reservations started at Akihabara https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/990703/p_cpu.ht... https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/990703/price.ht...

>"AMD Athlon 500-600MHz (bulk) price display. The product is scheduled to arrive in mid-July, and reservations are being accepted. However, there is no specific arrival schedule for compatible motherboards yet."

>"the K7 revised "Athlon" has been given a price and reservations have also started. The estimated price is 44,800 yen for 500MHz, 69,800 yen for 550MHz, and 89,800 yen for 600MHz."

A week before official AMD shipping date retail Athlons arrive in Japan https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/990813.html

>"AMD's latest CPU "Athlon" will be sold in Akihabara without waiting for the official release date on the 17th is started. All products on the market are imported products, and 3 models of 500MHz/550MHz/600MHz are on sale. The sale of compatible motherboards has also started, and it is possible to obtain it alone, including Athlon"

https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/990813/newitem....

https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/990813/image/at... https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/990813/image/at...

US 4 days later on August 17 Alienware was merely teasing pictures of Athlon system https://www.shacknews.com/article/1019/wheres-my-athlon According to Anand "OEMs will start advertising Athlon based systems starting August 16, 1999" https://www.anandtech.com/show/355/24

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

#689

Post by cyanydeez »

idle_zealot wrote: post #484
cyanydeez wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> At this point it's basically capitlism against authoritarianism Ha. You say that as though those things are incompatible. Some capital is putting up token resistance to the rise of authoritarianism, but it can't be a strong counterforce because that would risk retribution. Instead more and more capitalists bend the knee in hopes of favorable treatment. That's why I say the likes of CNN and NBC will switch to bootli…

I mean, they are in the interim. I fully understand capitalists can make money on cruelty.

But we're talking about the statement made and transitions.

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

#690

Post by Aurornis »

crazygringo wrote: post #324
Aurornis wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that complicated. They don't pay the tariffs. The person receiving the package does. Many carriers will slap you with the tariff charge, a brokerage fee, and then send you to collections if you don't pay it. The vendors don't care because they're making the sale and the tariffs are the other person's responsibility. Caveat emptor.

But the person receiving the package doesn't receive the package until they've paid the tariff. You don't have to pay it -- if you don't, the package gets returned to sender or destroyed. The post office delivers you a slip with information to go to your local post office to pay it and pick up the package. With UPS and FedEx you get a notice to pay online, and they deliver it once you do, as far as I know. I've never…

It depends on the carrier. As multiple other commenters have explained, you can absolutely be hit with a tariff fee after receiving the package.

They do not care if you didn't want to pay the tariff. They don't want to deal with warehousing it, offloading it, or returning it to sender. They want to get it into your hands and deal with the logistics later.

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