Temu, Shein, and the people who make them millions

So I'm an American, a poor American. I can't buy expensive long lasting clothes because I don't have the money. So when I do get the chance to buy new clothes, I try to go to the thrift store or shop online like many people do. But the things is that I know what goes on in making many of the clothes that I love. Slavery.

Now I've never bought from shein or temu, but I have bought clothes off of amazon, and fast fashion stores like hot topic and spencer's. Yes, they sell fast fashion, this shouldn't be a surprise. But one thing I noticed is that poor people like me aren't keeping these businesses afloat. Because we're buying so little and we're doing everything we can to make these clothes last longer.

I wax my jeans, I handwash almost all of my clothes. This is because it makes them last longer despite being made to be worn once and then thrown away because it can't handle the washing machine.

I also make my own alt clothing. I DIY a lot of stuff especially accessories. If I really want a band shirt, I'll probably just buy it, but if it is too expensive for me, I will try to make it. This has had varying degrees of success but still.

But like I said, people who are poor and just trying to find cheap clothes aren't keeping these businesses afloat. No. It's the people who do 1000 dollar shein hauls every week that keep them in business.

I still see some shein hauls on my feed and I just think, "You spent 1000+ dollars on fast fashion when you could have just bought something arguably better in quality and probably cuter with that same money because you clearly have the money to do so."

It's rich people who keep this business alive. Poor people know the problems with fast fashion, we don't want to support it. But because we don't have the money to buy good sustainable clothes (if it even exists anymore) we have to buy from amazon and shein for our clothes. We don't want to, but the unfair system forces us to.

And with the fact that charity shops/thrift stores are raising prices and getting greedy, it doesn't help us. Goodwill, was supposed top be the place where we could buy a bunch of clothes with the 20 dollars we had left over from our paycheck, but I went into a goodwill recently and they were selling a handbag that was not even real leather for 400 dollars all because it had a channel logo on it.

I am so serious when I say, that wealthy influencers who do weekly shein and temu hauls are the reason why these companies make money, not us poor folk who only buy clothes when needed. I have many friends who do the same things as me to keep our clothes and shoes looking good and not falling apart because we can't afford for them to fall apart.

Also, most real alternative people that I know, not just famous tiktokers jumping on a trend, make their own band merch, accessories, and patches. This is because we can't afford it and also we hold the values of pervious alternative generations. Find and make what you can, and if you need to buy it, then that's when you buy it.

I try very hard to make my fast fashion slave labor clothes last longer because I have to and I don't want to give these companies more money than they already have.

Ethical consumption under capitalism is officially dead. No longer are the days where you could trust that the made in America tag really meant made in America. But I do think that if we make changes and help the people more, such as raising the federal minimum wage, ethical consumption can come back. Maybe not as big as it used to be, but certainly there.

Thank you for listening to me rant. I know not all rich/wealthy people do shein hauls, but the ones that do are the ones who are keeping these companies in business. And I also know not all poor people do the things that I do to keep their clothes lasting longer. I just wanted to share why these businesses make money, are still around, and why poor people shop these websites despite what we know of the working conditions.

And even if I were to buy from a small business, if they outright say the have a manufacturer somewhere across the ocean or drop a name that I can google, I'm probably not gonna buy from them because even if they last longer and are higher quality, they are made the same way.

Have a good day everyone and feel free to tell me if I'm wrong with evidence of course because just saying "your wrong" doesn't prove to me anything unless there is evidence.