The Temu Community Is in Shambles

Will life ever be as good as it was in February of 2024? All in one night, we got Taylor Swift down on the field at the Super Bowl, the first look at Wicked, and the first-ever American commercial for Chinese e-tailer Temu. The brand’s slogan “Shop like a billionaire” was put to a jaunty little tune, inspiring parents all around the country to text their kids, “WTF is Temu?” Shoppers could order a number of home goods, clothing, and appliances on the site — to varying degrees of success — and potentially save more money than they would on Amazon or in person. Like a number of post-pandemic shopping experiences, Temu emphasized convenience: price, speed, and variety. Life was good, and the American consumer was unstoppable. As Zac Efron once said in the DJ movie We Are Your Friends, “Are we ever gonna be better than this?”

The answer, unfortunately, is no. The loophole that once allowed American consumers to buy goods from China and Hong Kong on the cheap is closing on Friday, May 2, which means that Temu shoppers will now be subject to new tariffs. So much for shopping like a billionaire. Users took to Instagram and Reddit to show proof that their once-affordable goods are now subjected to import fees that often eclipse the price of what they’re ordering in the first place. It’d be one thing if Temu customers used this opportunity to join together and protest, but as a TikToker once said, “Ya can’t politically organize on Temu,” and thus the communities have already descended into chaos. On both the Temu and Shein sub-Reddits, users are experiencing all five stages of grief, but mostly anger, arguing over whether or not American consumers are the problem in the first place or shaming each other into not realizing that the tariffs will also affect “brick and mortar” stores alongside Temu. There is no one solution going forward in the ongoing e-commerce tariff collapse, with a number of customers saying they’re going to hold their ground until things “go back to normal.” Until then, the best course of action may be to just “shop local,” some users suggest, like on Amazon.

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