The Amazon middle man is usually providing a service I will pay for: fast domestic shipping, easy returns, some level of reliability on listing accuracy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I figure Temu shoppers are entirely without scruples and/or common sense. Same with TikTok users. No one should be letting Chinese companies into their lives like that.

But I'm sure you have no issues shopping from Amazon. When I see plenty of the same Temu products sold on Amazon for a huge markup. But it's okay if it's amazon, right?

So there are 4 amazons

1) Amazon that sells books. That’s mostly the original Amazon, though self publishing is rapidly corrupting that as well.

2) Amazon branded goods and integrated brands like Anker — they have a brand of products and they carefully curate the Amazon presence

3) other brands like Apple or Sony etc on Amazon. Sometimes can be sold by Amazon. Sometimes by 3rd party sellers. All inventory is mixed by SKU. Good luck.

4) Drop shippers with random character “brands” selling dodgy probably toxic goods. Yes same as Temu.

I still occasionally buy some books of Amazon if I can trace their ISBN. Just be sure seller is Amazon.

Business is about profit. You know how that's achieved people? Buy low, sell high. That's pretty much the magic secret. So let's apply this...

You have trash you buy wholesale or through a cheap manufacturer and pitch it at a higher price and make the difference. That's really all Amazon is. They are a middleman and the platform for consumerism. There's nothing better than being a middleman as all you have to do is put the buyer and seller together. You don't have to make or sell. You just take a cut of all the biz.

So all you folks who hate Amazon, you can absolutely find the same products elsewhere it'll just be less convenient. As the middleman, Amazon has to ensure the purchases happen. They don't have to guarantee the sale is good they only need to connect the seller and buyer. They are a branded middleman and offer a convenience few middlemen do. So buyer beware.

Temu is like Amazon but their shipping takes forever. It's cheaper because it's not US based. The whole concept is the same though. You can do a drop ship business and start an online shop with Temu products and be Amazon as well!!

Amazon is evil.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I figure Temu shoppers are entirely without scruples and/or common sense. Same with TikTok users. No one should be letting Chinese companies into their lives like that.

But I'm sure you have no issues shopping from Amazon. When I see plenty of the same Temu products sold on Amazon for a huge markup. But it's okay if it's amazon, right?

Is Amazon Chinese-owned?

Amazon is allowing Chinese garbage to flood their website through third party sellers. They could prevent Chinese fake products on their site by banning third party sellers who sell it.

Anonymous wrote:Amazon is basically a middleman for the plastic crap you buy on Temu. I just get my plastic nonsense from Temu and cut out the middleman. The best thing would be not to buy these things at all.

Amazon sellers buy in bulk from Chinese companies like Temu and Shein and triple the prices.

I think I bought something from Temu or one of those type by mistake. It is a cat bed. I try to only buy from online stores connected to box stores like IKEA, Crate and Barrel. But this was called Fuzzy Pets or something and now I found out it’s coming from China. I’ll be more careful in the future.

Democrat

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t purchased anything from Temu, but I do reverse google image searches when shopping a lot and find the exact same images on Amazon and Temu (Temu being a fraction of the price). Doesn’t that mean they are being produced in the same Chinese facilities? What makes Amazon so much more acceptable? (Legitimately asking)

I don’t actually find Amazon much more acceptable (don’t shop there either) but reasons people might feel it’s marginally less reprehensible imo are:

- some of the warehouse workers are unionized — although very few and this doesn’t affect the people making the products

- if you buy Amazon or other American brands there is a fairly good chance the product you’re buying is likely to be made to American industrial standards (eg no more likely to poison you than anything else, some sop to at least the appearance of human rights in the supply chain, etc) — but if you’re buying some random garbage brand on Amazon they don’t check or enforce *anything* so yeah it’s likely the exact same thing as on Temu

- you data is being harvested and fed into complex behavioural models by American capitalists (who will likely sell the data to whoever pays them) as opposed to Chinese communists (who will give the data to their government) — to me, this is much of a muchness but some people might feel more comfortable with one or the other

Mostly agree, except nothing made in China has any industrial standards. Anyone who believes otherwise is simply naive. Most Americans have no actual experience with Communist regimes and how they control just about every detail. The Chinese Communist Regime has exactly zero concern for foreign industry standards or for the massive toxic waste getting dumped into the environment. every. single. second. Zero.

I assume Temu is just like Shein -- trash from China.

I’ve bought a couple things. Clothing is awful.

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t purchased anything from Temu, but I do reverse google image searches when shopping a lot and find the exact same images on Amazon and Temu (Temu being a fraction of the price). Doesn’t that mean they are being produced in the same Chinese facilities? What makes Amazon so much more acceptable? (Legitimately asking)

I don’t actually find Amazon much more acceptable (don’t shop there either) but reasons people might feel it’s marginally less reprehensible imo are:

- some of the warehouse workers are unionized — although very few and this doesn’t affect the people making the products

- if you buy Amazon or other American brands there is a fairly good chance the product you’re buying is likely to be made to American industrial standards (eg no more likely to poison you than anything else, some sop to at least the appearance of human rights in the supply chain, etc) — but if you’re buying some random garbage brand on Amazon they don’t check or enforce *anything* so yeah it’s likely the exact same thing as on Temu

- you data is being harvested and fed into complex behavioural models by American capitalists (who will likely sell the data to whoever pays them) as opposed to Chinese communists (who will give the data to their government) — to me, this is much of a muchness but some people might feel more comfortable with one or the other

dumb question here. This site is very left.

Amazon is basically a middleman for the plastic crap you buy on Temu. I just get my plastic nonsense from Temu and cut out the middleman. The best thing would be not to buy these things at all.

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t purchased anything from Temu, but I do reverse google image searches when shopping a lot and find the exact same images on Amazon and Temu (Temu being a fraction of the price). Doesn’t that mean they are being produced in the same Chinese facilities? What makes Amazon so much more acceptable? (Legitimately asking)

It doesn't! I'm asking the same questions and no one wants to answer this.

I haven’t purchased anything from Temu, but I do reverse google image searches when shopping a lot and find the exact same images on Amazon and Temu (Temu being a fraction of the price). Doesn’t that mean they are being produced in the same Chinese facilities? What makes Amazon so much more acceptable? (Legitimately asking)

Dem. Have shopped there once. Exact same stuff you see from the Zdgrhvjbsjk brands on Amazon.