I feel like AliExpress and temu aren’t really equivalent. Temu makes it seem like you’re, well I guess the tagline is shop like a billionaire. Aliexpress doesn’t exactly hide the fact it’s a cheap Chinese market.
Aren't they the same sweatshop slave-labor factory goods though?
Not that it's possible to completely avoid goods which are made via exploitation, but I assumed they're just an alternate outlet / search page for the same distributors and factories.
Skeletons in their closet and actively using slave labor are very different things, not that I blame you entirely, it’s not your fault companies like nestle own so fucking much it’s impossible to keep track of.
So do I, do yourself a favor and find a local candy or chocolate shop. They’ll probably have something that is basically the same thing but vastly superior and not nestle. I know you’re just being a troll at this point but seriously do.
It's a bit different to grab a snack at the counter (that's likely partly produced in your country) than wait 1-2 months for a product to even arrive. Call it a convenience factor or whatever.
That said, I don't know what kind of labor AliExpress goods use. Haven't used them for a couple years but if I knew for sure (maybe someone here knows?) they used slave labor for example I probably would just choose to use some other company (which probably is just as likely to have unethical practices in some point of their supply chain tbf).
Sure I agree to a degree but choosing a product which you know uses 100% slave labor to save a penny is downright evil. (And this is exaggeration obviously before anyone butts in.)
The latest thing I saw from Amnesty International about Nestle was praise for Nestle for publicly announcing unprompted that they had found slavery in their supply chain . Is that how low the bar is to be "the most ethical", or is there an actual report making this claim?
No, we shouldn't throw in the towel. That's just giving up! We should actively pour fuel on our neighbour's house fire and admire the pretty extra destruction it creates while we can. Immediate gratification is worth burning everyone's house to the ground, including my own. /s
Sadly apathy is a common reaction to huge overwhelming problems. And it makes sense, emotionally distancing yourself from the suffering of others can be necessary to still function in horrible emergency situations like natural disasters. Unfortunately it also makes this problem, like many others, worse.
But we all do it, to different degrees. And it's human. We can't fix everything simultaneously. Those of us who are still able to empathise with strangers to some extent will have to do more work, or we become the problem too.
Sorry. This post isn't targetted at you personally, I just am sad about the destruction of civilisations and the suffering people can inflict and this post came tumbling out. My coping mechanism is loud spontaneous complaining.
I sometimes use AliExpress for DIY electronics like microcontrollers and other components. An Esp32 usually costs around 8-12 euros in Europe. On AliExpress I buy them for 3 (plus shipping). Its worth it if you are buying more than just a few. Shipping is usually slow but if its not urgent its cheap and so far of good/ decent quality.
I did also buy a small industrial camera on there which did not work. I contacted the seller and after some troubleshooting they agreed to ship a new camera to me (still waiting on that one) but in principle I am satisfied with the service for the price I payed.
AliExpress is the best place to buy electronics online. If you know you’ll need some stuff, just place an order for a few dollars, wait a month, and have your cheap eletronics for as long as you need.
I buy items from AliExpress all the time. Mostly electronics, but occasionally things like tessa tape, vehicle covers, motorcycle parts, and other random shit. Never had an issue.
I’ve used aliexpress for bootleg lego and have had mixed results. Some sets were perfect copies with all pieces, and others were missing some. I was also able to get some discontinued sets which was nice. The quality of the pieces themselves were pretty good. It is a bit of a risk but hard to beat the price as its wayyyy cheaper.
I mostly buy parts for my woodworking shop at home from Ali. A benchdog is a benchdog and they are absolutely the same to what you get at Amazon,etc. And they are literally 1/3 of the price here even if you add shipping and customs. So if one is truely shit I couldn’t care less.
So far I had no bad experiences really - one shipment was missing a 2 bucks piece but I can live with that. Some things actually surprised me as the quality I got was better than expected.
Electronic wise I bought a Qotom mini PC from them years ago (directly from the Qotom shop) which still works as my UTM.
I buy my body jewelry, earrings etc on AliExpress. Also buying Zirconia jewelry and gold plated works very well since there are hardly any premium charges. it’s also pretty much the only area of goods I’ve found where in 98,9% of the cases the product and materials used is exactly as advertised, meaning no oxidizing, radiation and magnet friendly, etc.
Be aware chinese jewelry might contain metals or alloys that differ from the description and which are bad for your skin/health. And a lot of jewelry sold in the West is from China.
I got a really good Glock 18 style electric water pistol off Aliexpress for this summer, at half the price they were being hawked for on Amazon. It even comes with a drum magazine- it was great for a music festival I went to recently!
Keep in mind that a lot of your local marketplace sellers just order rebadged stuff from alibaba. I’ve found literally the same electronics i’ve bought locally on aliexpress for like half the price.
I’ve bought from aliexpress in the past for obscure electronics that you can’t really get anywhere else for a good price. But I will never shop at temu, I am incredibly suspicious about how they have such an incredibly large advertising budget yet their prices are so low. Either it’s a straight up scam or they are expecting to make a lot of money later down the line
I bought an intel i7-5775c for like £70 about 2 and a half years ago from Aliexpress. Really strong cpu for the price, overclocks well and has meant that I haven’t had to upgrade my motherboard and ram to ddr4 yet.
Some arts supplies are good. I'm very poor and I hate consumerism, but I can't really afford the good stuff so I sometimes resort to stuff like this. They do good acrylic markers and have a huge pack of normal markers that's also really decent.
There are some nice stuff of Ali that was original intended for the Chinese market. But you have to know you get what you pay for in China. If it’s too cheap, it’s going to be crap.
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