What is TEMU, is it safe to buy from them?

No Temu ever. I read that Temu is a platform for shops to sell their goods. When thing get sold, Temu gets paid and then distributes a percentage to the shops (or manufacturer?) Temu is refusing to pay the shops. Illegal. I would not give Temu any money ever.

I bought a wok from them and they let me know it would take longer to arrive because it was coming from China directly. Normally they come from a local centre.

A TV programme recently was talking about how ethical companies such as TEMU and Shein were (not at all). They said if you decide to use them do not buy electronic goods or children’s toys as they are quite possibly not safe.
Also recently in the news a student bought some clothes from Shein only to find a live Scorpion in the package!

It is so hard. None of us are in favour of forced labour, I am sure.
But global trade is the norm now and the truth is we have very little idea how the things we buy are manufactured. I have bought well known supposedly British brands then looked at the label and found the garment has been made in the third world and I wonder under what conditions. It is virtually impossible to know these things.

And then I ask myself how I might feel if I were the worker with a family to feed .... would any work be better than no work? Is it possible to apply judgements about standards that make sense in the affluent west to poorer areas of the world? Ideally we might wish for global high standards, but it is not the reality. Does that mean we should all stop buying and risk these sources of employment drying up for people? .... not very likely of course, but it is the underlying principle.
I have no idea what the answer is. I do not want to prop up bad practices, but neither do I want desperately poor people to be deprived of work possibilities.
Living in such a "small world" presents moral dilemmas unknown to our predecessors.

I recommend reading "Less" by Patrick Grant. In 6 months Temu went from nothing to half a billion dollars in sales. They spend 4 times their turnover on advertising. They are rapidly catching up with Shein which in 2022 sold 23 billion dollars of clothes and in 2023 had nearly a fifth of the global fast fashion market. Their blueprint is to make vast quantities of incredibly poor quality stuff, sell it cheaply, aggressively acquire customers and swamp the competition. In June 2023 30 percent of ALL small packages entering the US came from Shein and Temu. The only way they can sell clothes so cheaply is to underpay their workers and use the poorest quality materials which are invariably synthetic and ecologically a disaster.
And while this continues more and more smaller brands with higher ethics will disappear

In China if you have no work you can just die on the street from starvation. I have been there a few times and if you have no work, no family, people just ignore you. We saw a dead person just on the pavement and were told not to go near them otherwise we would have to be responsible for them. Any work is better than no work. Not just China, either. We don’t know we are born with the way we live and our entitlements.

eddiecat78 - I agree that the wastage of non-biodegradable materials that is encouraged by these levels of consumption is unacceptable.

I just wonder what happens to the ordinary working people if these outlets for cheap stuff are boycotted on moral and ecological grounds - what then do these people have to live on?

I think that the advertising industry has a lot to answer for by encouraging profligate consumption - I sometimes go on mumsnet and there we have people talking about buying several handbags a year and so many shoes - what for? We are being brainwashed into thinking we need all this stuff and that is behind so much unnecessary consumption.

Threads about Christmas and what to buy people, especially children, make me shudder = so much stuff.

Luckygirl13 I agree completely. I avoid so called garden centres at this time of year as they are full of so much stuff - mainly plastic - which nobody actually needs.

I believe that no matter the quality of the goods we should not deal with morally bankrupt companies.

I got rid of it after I couldn't search for anything, put anything in a basket, etc, without constant messages about discounts! Every time I went to select something, another discount message would pop up. OMG it drove me nuts

DH ordered some steps from Temu. Apart from the fact that they took 5 weeks to arrive, they are OK.
Why he wouldn’t order from them again is more to do with the way he’s been bombarded with offers from them even though he’s unsubscribed.
I’ve never tried, even though some of the adverts look really appealing.

Aldom

Marks and Spencer have men's XL sweaters starting from £20.

And very likely have a label saying 'Made in China'' like most of their clothing.

I've heard many negative things about Temu .
I know three twentysomethings ,who order most of their clothes from Shein and are never disappointed .
Two of them wear a uniform for work so they are going out clothes .
I shall never clothes from Amazon again .
The yoga pants that I ordered were unwearable and unwashable after one wearing .
The seams split .
And far too much colour came out on washing .
They look like ancient dishrags .
The Thai company still offers them on Amazon and the ratings are four or five stars .

order clothes -I meant !

I have bought from Temu. Not clothing but fairy lights and similar. It is very easy to go down a rabbit hole of buying stuff that you don't want or need. I did buy some lovely embroidered cushion covers which were good quality and much cheaper.

In a perfect world I suppose we should be buying any of this cheap stuff from China.

In some ways I feel like I am cutting out the middle man and saving money. Most of the stuff we buy in the shops is from China. I have seen identical items in our local gift shop but with a higher price. Then you could say we should buy from the high street or it will disappear. I do try to do both.

I have heard mixed reports about the sizing and quality of their clothing, which is why I have never bought any. I can't be bothered with having to send stuff back.

What about an online shop like Jacamo. They are specifically mens clothing and go up to 8X.

Sorry - meant to say we should NOT be buying any of this cheap stuff from China

If anyone wants to buy from Temu, after reading some of these, unfounded comments, I would advise signing up online through Googling, and not downloading the nuisance app.

Please don’t buy from Temu - they steal artists’ work and infringe copyright. I know several artists whose images have been stolen and show up on cushion covers etc. very dodgy company

I have brought from TEMU several times. I have always been happy with the items and the customer service team are very helpful. Just remember to check measurements, that my was only error. My first order - I ordered some small blankets for my cats and they were very small, but that was my error.

The Uyghurs are the people interred by the Chinese. I have watched several documentaries on their treatment. Without doubt I would imagine these are the people responsible for anything you can purchase for less than it should cost to make.
It's an ethical matter. You aren't giving poor people low paid jobs, you are using interred people who won't be paid at all.

Well had a couple of orders but cheap and poor quality and took ages to come.

I used it once but like Shein had a job to get rid of them so will keep to British goods from now on - better quality or German in thd case of my Wauldlafer boots or sandals only bought in the sale .

I think you ve answered your own question, if you read the Trust Pilot reviews they are not good, Chinese company, poor quality, poor customer service, personally I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole 🤷‍♀️

i was a bit sceptical at first, one of the first items i bought was absolute rubbish, but fair enough got refund and told to keep the item(which is still in box, in cupboard untouched). Have ordered quite a lot recently mainly because they do very large sizes and have been pleasantly surprised by the fact that the quality is quite good, no better or worse than some retail stores. . Return process is easy with no quibbles

I have bought quite a bit from Temu and returned quite a bit too without any problems, I’ve seen exactly the same item double the price on Amazon.
As I no longer have great mobility or inclination to go out shopping i buy mostly on line.