The problem I see with these online vendors like Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, Poshmark, Mercari even Lowes is that they have intentionally screwed up their searches. If I want something specific, the searches ignore what I have typed in and include tons of things that don't meet the search criteria so I have to page through tons and tons of junk to try to find a specific item. Etsy insists on putting in rows of "sponsored" not related items in your returned searches. They know people have to spend more time at their site and will more likely buy more than the specific item they are looking for.

Etsy does have some great sellers but everyone now expects Amazon speed deliveries for everything and perfection. The person who sells homemade crafts can't compete with ith made to order items can't keep up with Amazon and all of us are spoiled now and expect everything within 3 days. ne of my favorite ever vendors on Etsy was called Cat's Paw Pottery. It was a very small company in the midwest who made amazing items. You could pick glazes and finishes. The stuff was amazing. They ran her out of business as she was very small and could not get items made to order out quickly enough. They also made it impossible to limit her sales. People who actually make items will find it hard to survive anywhere online now.

I completely disagree with this poster who thinks most of us hate living in our "car dependent" neighborhoods. Americans love suburban living It isn't great for the environment but we want to go wherever we want easily and don't want to be reliant upon public transportation.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, so frustrating. Even Goodwill and brick and mortar consignment stores are filled with (used) cheap junk clothes now. Very few well made, nice brands circulating out there to by used.

It’s much more profitable to sell 1,000 cheap sweaters (which the that will fall apart in less than 12 months so that people have to buy new cheap sweaters a year later) than 1,000 high quality sweaters that will last a decade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Inevitable.

Just look at Etsy.

+1

Private equity combined with cheap Chinese sellers taking over online marketplaces has destroyed small businesses. And it’s not because we the people are demanding these items. We are just victims of capitalism that allows this sort of market exploitation.

On the rare occasion I do go on Etsy or Poshmark, I scroll to find someone based out of the U.S. that looks like a real human, not a bot or large company. If it looks like a generic sales photo or I see 10 of the same exact item (e.g. I saw a ton of the same things while searching for a personalized ornament on Etsy recently), I look for something original. It shouldn’t be this hard to shop from smaller vendors.

“We” are, though. Americans are absolutely insatiable for these cheap goods.

American wages have been kept low so that affordability is a necessary driving factor for most people and we are marketed to so constantly that we don’t even realize it anymore. I saw a TikTok recently where a foreigner was shocked at how much corporations have infiltrated billboards, subway ads, news materials, etc. We don’t even recognize it consciously anymore.

So I don’t think we are actually choosing this so much as the system (and the wealthy who run it) are engineering us into accepting our options. Just like most people wouldn’t choose to live in car-dependent areas with ugly strip malls and awful traffic. But this is what is available and what people can afford. See also our junk food supply chain. Even our political system is just corporations making large donations to the 2 candidates we will eventually be allowed to vote from.

If you’re not wealthy in America then you don’t really have much power to change these systems. So here we are with a variety of Temu-quality options to choose from.

Target and Walmart should totally do the reverse and carry some high end items that are pre-owned!

I love Poshmark, Etsy (for clothes) and Amazon (for the rest). I order custom work on Etsy regularly. All these platforms are overrun, as you say, by cheap Chinese crap.

It’s OK. I scroll past.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Inevitable.

Just look at Etsy.

+1

Private equity combined with cheap Chinese sellers taking over online marketplaces has destroyed small businesses. And it’s not because we the people are demanding these items. We are just victims of capitalism that allows this sort of market exploitation.

On the rare occasion I do go on Etsy or Poshmark, I scroll to find someone based out of the U.S. that looks like a real human, not a bot or large company. If it looks like a generic sales photo or I see 10 of the same exact item (e.g. I saw a ton of the same things while searching for a personalized ornament on Etsy recently), I look for something original. It shouldn’t be this hard to shop from smaller vendors.

“We” are, though. Americans are absolutely insatiable for these cheap goods.

I hate Trump but I thought that getting rid of the tariff exclusion for small amount shipments was gojng to start really limiting this . I guess they’ve found a way around it?

I really hate Amazon and hate that I’m constantly ordering from it.

Etsy has some great sellers. I check the reviews before buying. It helps to have been on the plaudern für agile. I usually shop from my saved sellers.

Unless you want something made in the US, often the same foreign factory is making the designer item and the knock off, and is just sewing different labels in. I just make sure I can return the item if I see it’s bad.

Anonymous wrote:Inevitable.

Just look at Etsy.

+1

Private equity combined with cheap Chinese sellers taking over online marketplaces has destroyed small businesses. And it’s not because we the people are demanding these items. We are just victims of capitalism that allows this sort of market exploitation.

On the rare occasion I do go on Etsy or Poshmark, I scroll to find someone based out of the U.S. that looks like a real human, not a bot or large company. If it looks like a generic sales photo or I see 10 of the same exact item (e.g. I saw a ton of the same things while searching for a personalized ornament on Etsy recently), I look for something original. It shouldn’t be this hard to shop from smaller vendors.

Anonymous wrote:Yep that’s why I killed my Amazon prime account. So much crap, I’d rather go shop in person at Target.

Amazon Prime is so much less useful than it used to be. I ordered two pairs of pants from the same manufacturer through them. One pair arrived 3 days later than expected and isn't the size i ordered. The other pair was showing as delayed for 10 days+ and I finally cancelled it for a refund.

This never would have happened in the early days of Amazon--their customer service was great.

You know that if Vietnam and Bangladesh and the rest had higher minimum wage, cheap crap would be made in USA, right? USA doesn't have better garment quality laws.

Yes, so frustrating. Even Goodwill and brick and mortar consignment stores are filled with (used) cheap junk clothes now. Very few well made, nice brands circulating out there to by used.

Anonymous wrote:I can’t stand Amazon doing that. Type in “7 year old girl gifts” and the first 5 pages will be Chinese no brand junk.

Yes! Has anyone gorten around it?

Anonymous wrote:I still love Poshmark, but I don't use it for super high end stuff. I get older J. Crew and Ralph Lauren dresses for work there. I can snap them up for $30-50.

But year, it's kind of obvious when an account is 100% "boutique" that they aren't someone selling from their closet. You can filter out the boutique sellers.

You really can't. I mean, you can, but plenty of trash drop-shippers posing as normal person closets.