“What hell?”
It was the question asked at the top of his lungs by my 15 -year -old niece, who had just discovered that his favorite online retailer, Shein, would no longer sell clothes at incredibly low prices.
Over the past two years, when she has become more aware of fashion and more marinated in Tiktok, my niece has become in love with Shein, an innovative Chinese online retailer who, until last week, has been able to use a flaw in American trade law to sell clothes and accessories at criminally low prices.
The flaw, known as the “exception of minimis”, allowed packages evaluated at less than $ 800 to enter the United States without being subject to prices. This allowed China, in particular, to flood the American market of super cost with minimum customs supervision, to delight consumers and to injure manufacturers and national retailers.
The closure of the escape is one of the rare cases of bipartite harmony these days; The two parties support him. President Biden had asked the congress To do it. President Trump has just continued and did it by decree. It is perhaps the only price movement that deserves its “beautiful” label.
So, how cheap are they – these clothes? Try $ 6.79 for a graphic t-shirt, $ 2.79 for a pair of high-waisted female shorts, $ 2.85 for a mobile phone with leopard print. (A “wardrobe” of mobile phone cases is apparently one thing.)
My niece likes to watch “Shein Hur“Videos, where (mainly) teenage girls and 20 -year -old women display the many items they bought for almost nothing – sometimes trying them, sometimes just opening delivery boxes and throwing everything on the ground. It's a bit exciting, but also a little disgusting.
Reaction to these features is the mind in a numbness similar.
“Oh, my God, look at how cute. “”
“I bought it because they looked so cute together.”
“Can you bear how cute It is?”
(I'm sure Roget would be mortified by their anemic vocabularies. Or disturbed, grieved and perhaps even disturbed. But I get lost.)
Until my niece brought me, I resisted the purchase of these retailers. At the risk of seeming puritan, I really think she already has enough thing. Does she really need 20 additional hooded sweatshirts?
And, it turns out that there is a very high cost at these low prices.
Chinese online retailers have been largely accused of engaging Inconsistent commercial practicesthe most obvious of Use forced work Uings to pick cotton in the Xinjiang region in China. (Despite overwhelming evidence, China continues to deny that it oppresses and operates the mainly Muslim Uighur population.)
In the thousands of urban clothing factories where clothing is sewn, workers are subject to long hours at low wages in sometimes dangerous conditions.
And then there is the disastrous environmental impact of “rapid mode”, that Shein and its competitor templifie.
Massive quantities of raw materials are quickly transformed into trendy and inexpensive parts which can be launched as soon as the next trend is hit. The fast fashion industry is One of the largest polluters in the worldEmitting more carbon than international flights and combined maritime expeditions, according to Earth.org.
The rapid fashion world has radically reshaped American consumption habits, and not in the right direction. In 2015, around 153 million minimis plots were dispatched to the United States. This number reached more than a billion in 2023, according to a Congressal Research Service report. The average package value, according to the report, was $ 54.
“Buy like a billionaire,” said Temu in his 2023 AD of Super Bowl. The Reddit Forums have been flooded with consumers deploring new higher prices (which, to be honest, are not even really high compared to American manufacturing products).
“Shopping like a billionaire with shopping like a peasant in one day,” said a user.
“It was good, for a brief moment, to be able to afford all the little things we need and also some cheap treats,” wrote another. “Back to the soul that crushes the reality of poverty, where they want us.”
Shein and Temu, which sells household items in addition to clothes, provided for the end of the exception of minimis. They are aDejust their commercial strategies. Among tactics: American warehouses and sellersallowing them to “send local”.
Last year, swept away in the enthusiasm for low -cost clothes, I decided to place an order with Shein. I bought a pair of jeans for about $ 30 and a cashmere sweater For about $ 80. I was surprised by the good quality of the two.
And I felt guilty of having violated my principles. About a month after the arrival of my mini-haul from China, a dog I was taking care of for a friend chewing a huge hole in the sweater.
I felt sad about it. But I also felt that the universe punished me. I deserved it.
Bluesky: @ rabcarian.bsky.social Subjects: @rabcarian
