“Go to Amazon and sign up as a third-party seller for the United States market and you’ll find more Chinese banks than American ones. Amazon dominates American retail and Chinese third-party sellers dominate Amazon, along with eBay and other American ecommerce platforms. Disguised by its obnoxious billion dollar shows, its founder’s mega-yacht and the ubiquity of its smiley swoosh boxes, Amazon long ago became a platform for Chinese sellers. But China quickly showed the ability to create their own successful platforms like Temu and Shein.”
Back in the beginning of Amazons Handmade we all had which state we were selling out of on our shop pages and profiles. Whenever it was that amazon introduced the change about having a business address being public information and and was wild to see just how many of these “handmade” shops all selling the same thing were based in China. I made many many posts on the forums how is it these sellers are saying they are in California or Texas on their shop profile page when their business addresses were all in Chinese but it fell on deaf ears over at Handmade. Even more hilarious was when Amazon introduced the “This many sold” under items and now these small “handmade” sellers based in the “United States” were somehow making and selling 10,000 beaded bracelets in a month.
Amazon never did anything and pretty much just let Handmade marketplace die.
Periodically, my condo has a brunch out in the hall near the mailboxes.
We get Amazon deliveries almost every day. I asked my neighbors, all of whom are well off, what they buy from Amazon. No one admitted to buying from 3P sellers or buying other than name brands.
I guess we are not the demographic for those Chinese retailers.
Lots of what we buy is stuff we could walk down the block and buy at CVS, and pay a lot more.
I used to buy all of my cheap chinese crap on Ebay, now Temu gets some of these orders. Temu gets points because the refunds on returns come quicker than Ebay or Amazon,
Never bought from Temu or Shien, and getting so buy fewer and fewer items from Amazon. Books, mostly, and brand names they don’t have locally in brick & mortars(usually out-of-season items. Somehow, develop bronchitis/pneumonia in mid-summer. Haven’t been miserable until coughing your guts out when its 112 degrees in the shade,outdoors, can’t stand to cover yourself w/ a quilt/coverlet)
Can buy cheap Chinese junk at every store in town, 5-10 minutes away without paying shipping. CVS, Walgreens, Target, Wal-Mart-started this in their quest for the inexpensive to lure customers. Now it’s Mexican-made, 90 minutes down I-19, Taiwanese-made, India-made.
If America is gonna lure back manufacturing. gonna have to deal w/ the unions. My youngest brother, a Master Electrician for 40 years, specializes in Paint-Robotics at GM, makes a cool quarter mill. yearly. True, he works all kinds of hours and often a 50-hour work-week but still…this is an hourly guy, not salaried. He took off a week to comfort our dying mother and I thought his work-place would grind to a halt, constant phone calls and texts from superiors/replacements.
Manufacturing people, trades-workers, are aging out-and few, despite the potential high salaries, want to replace them If can’t/won’t manufacture it, can’t retail it as AMERICAN-MADE!
I don’t know anyone who belongs to a union other than government employees. But NH is not a state that is known as a union stronghold.
Today’s WSJ has an article about business recruiting in the high schools/ Teases with $70k offers to high school juniors for after they graduate. But one example is a $24/hr offer to a welder. I went to pick up some burgers at Five Guys the other night. Sign says they are hiring with a starting pay of $21+/hr with full benefits including paid insurances.
Is it better to weld than flip burgers? I cannot answer that.
As for the UAW. Hyundai is now the number three best selling auto manufacturer in the US. And as far as I know, the only one to promise no tariff related increase in sticker price. Could it be because they are not a union shop? My local dealership is still moving record numbers of cars - both gas and electric.
I guess it is better to have choices than not have choices, but I have far too many options for what to buy than I need.
I love how people will discuss if something is union or not, before looking at their domestic supply chain as a reason for not being affected by tariffs in their business operations. Talk about letting the tail wag the dog in a conversation point.
As 0.42% of the nations total population, NH does not exactly represent much of anything in regards to demographics in the united states. NH is a stronghold for property taxes LOL
Does not take a lot of heavy research to see where a burger career tops out versus a experienced welder in regards to benefits, retirement and income over ones expected career window of time.
Whew, this thread got away from us! Sorry @SellerFeller.
For those who want to continue any conversations, I sent cannibalism to The Junk Drawer and post-secondary education/training to Educational background?
The Junk Drawer
Whew, this thread got away from us! Sorry