When you start vocally defending them, you need to reflect on what you're defending.
Do you fundamentally understand why the local suppliers have to mark it up? That the EU retailer has to pay their people a minimum wage, with taxes. And those taxes pay for all the laws, courts, infrastructure, armies that make your life possible?
Temu is taking advantage of old shipping laws/agreement which make it cheaper to ship from China, tax free, than to ship locally. Your local supplier is in fact, in a tiny part, subsidizing Temu to send those packages.
They don't pay pensions, or worker safety. They don't have to make goods safely and risk death or permanent maiming with their products or their manufacturing processes.
So in essence, you're basically exploiting your local shippers and foreign workers for cheap goods. It's you, albeit in a tiny part, who exploits them just as much as Temu.
Yes, I think we all don't really consider it, but that's what's actually happening.
The law's actually about to change in the EU. Potentially these cheap parcels are about to have a flat fee of 2.25 EUR added and no longer be exempt from duty, so you might soon start seeing the true cost of those goods soon that everyone else was paying for you.
Due to the complexity of real world systems, parasites appear. You've been supporting one of those parasites with your purchases. That's not a conscious choice on your part, I get it. We can't go through life and see all the little parasites and injustices the world and its complex systems make and stay sane.
They have EU warehouses now. They're subject to EU legal process at this point. EU consumers can vote with their wallets, and seems like they're fine / appreciate TEMU business model and externality dumping (and middle man cutting). MOST of the world lives on cheap (affordable shit) without everything burning down and collapsing (at a higher rate sure), consumers in developed economies where products are questionably overbuilt - past some point safety is another avenue for regulatory capture - which is just parasitism on other spectrum. Maybe the problem is people don't want to pay 10000% more for "safer" items. Maybe all they're fine with marginal more deaths for significant less costs. The problem with regulatory wank is at regulatory treadmill doesn't always lead to market conditions consumers really want. Maybe most of it is correct, or maybe it is not.
I'm vocally defending our consumers including myself that are being bled dry by our retailers.
Instead of raising doubts about my character, it would be wise to consider my argument intellectually and see how you can justify a 10 eur markup on a 2 eur wine opener.
I've literally just explained it. That wine opener did not cost 2 Euros to reach you, a bunch of other people had to pay for you to get it for 2 Euros.
You're not advocating for consumers, you're advocating for a parasitic company that's subsidising your junk purchases using other people's tax money.
Do you fundamentally understand why the local suppliers have to mark it up? That the EU retailer has to pay their people a minimum wage, with taxes. And those taxes pay for all the laws, courts, infrastructure, armies that make your life possible?
Temu is taking advantage of old shipping laws/agreement which make it cheaper to ship from China, tax free, than to ship locally. Your local supplier is in fact, in a tiny part, subsidizing Temu to send those packages.
They don't pay pensions, or worker safety. They don't have to make goods safely and risk death or permanent maiming with their products or their manufacturing processes.
So in essence, you're basically exploiting your local shippers and foreign workers for cheap goods. It's you, albeit in a tiny part, who exploits them just as much as Temu.
Yes, I think we all don't really consider it, but that's what's actually happening.
The law's actually about to change in the EU. Potentially these cheap parcels are about to have a flat fee of 2.25 EUR added and no longer be exempt from duty, so you might soon start seeing the true cost of those goods soon that everyone else was paying for you.
https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/eu-eyes-2-e...
Due to the complexity of real world systems, parasites appear. You've been supporting one of those parasites with your purchases. That's not a conscious choice on your part, I get it. We can't go through life and see all the little parasites and injustices the world and its complex systems make and stay sane.