By Ashland Craig
The United States of America has been driven by a consumerist culture for decades. Whether it be the newest product, the best deal, or the latest trend, American consumerism has driven forward its still-growing economy since the early 20th century; additionally, with the recent rise in online shopping, consumer convenience is the highest it’s ever been. All it takes to order any product is the simple click of a button. The decisions that spenders are making constantly shape not only the international and global economy, but the world around us. With each purchase, Americans are supporting businesses around the world with their dollars― and, in turn, supporting their policies, sustainability, and labor practices. This includes fast-fashion companies, which have recently been centers of controversy relating to their business practices. Companies like Shein and Temu are offering outrageously cheap products while exploiting labor, which is only feeding into America’s consumerist culture and blinding buyers from the reality of these companies’ labor methods. Americans need to break from a consumerist lifestyle and recognize the role that they play in feeding the system by buying from these companies.
TEMU AND THE DE MINIMIS TAX EXEMPTION
There are many fast-fashion companies, perhaps most notably Temu and Shein, that have grown in popularity across America over the last few years. The convenience of online shopping and the increased demand for trendy clothes, especially in the US, has fostered the rapid growth of this industry. One company that has experienced this recent rise in popularity is Temu. Temu is an online marketplace based in China that offers shoppers all kinds of discounted goods, including clothing, decor, and even home appliances. These goods are often offered at record-low prices, and customers even have the option to apply discounts at checkout.
But how― and why― is Temu able to offer such low prices? A combination of factors, including cheap labor and low quality materials, all contribute to Temu’s ability to lower their prices. But perhaps the most important (and most overlooked) factor is the company’s avoidance of high shipping costs. Temu does this by exploiting a United States foreign shipping policy known as the De Minimis Tax Exemption. The National Foreign Trade Council defines this piece of legislation as “a law that Congress passed on a bipartisan basis that allows shipments bound for American businesses and consumers valued under $800 (per person, per day) to enter the U.S. free of duty and taxes” (Citation). But how does Temu use this provision to evade shipping costs when they’re shipping out well over $800 worth of products daily? Primarily, Temu is able to do this by relying on tens of thousands of individual Chinese suppliers, each shipping goods directly to Temu’s U.S. customers. By shipping out of so many different facilities, Temu is able to avoid the $800 cap set by the provision (Citation). De Minimis, which was designed to benefit American small businesses and consumers and low-income and underserved communities, is being used by Temu, a multi-billion dollar company, to cheapen their products. As seen in the figure “The Cost of Losing De Minimis”, this can drastically reduce the price of shipping products to the United States. By using these loopholes, Temu is able to illegally ship billions of dollars worth of products to the United States.
SHEIN AND THE POWER OF TRENDS
The world of fashion is constantly changing. To the dismay of many consumers who are tight on money (and businesses unable to keep ahead of the curve), modern fast fashion is stuck in a perpetual cycle of trends rising, falling, and reviving. The amount of pressure on companies to keep up with these rapidly changing trends is immensely high. However, this is where fast-fashion companies come in. Shein, similarly to Temu, offers extremely cheap and trendy clothing. Like Temu, Shein has been involved in a series of controversies involving their low sustainability and labor practices. A survey conducted asking customers if these factors affected their likelihood to purchase from these companies produced interesting results: “there was a mix of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers, all for varying reasons. One consumer responded, “‘I would say it definitely makes me question making purchases. I acknowledge those working conditions are absolutely unacceptable, however they also have some of the cheapest prices and as a broke college student you do what you have to do to get trendy clothes at an affordable price’” (Citation). And with trends changing so fast, the ability to dress in a fashionable way is becoming less about fashion sense and more about how much money you have in your wallet to spend on the newest styles. In the case of this study, most Shein shoppers knew about the controversy of their business practices, but felt that they had no other affordable options to keep up with the latest trends. “To many it is obvious there are issues that result from constantly being up to date on fashion trends, but unfortunately, sustainability is simply not a term that young people associate with fashion.” (Citation).
POOR LABOR PRACTICES
Perhaps at the forefront of the fast-fashion conversation is the issue of their labor practices. While no two companies are identical, “fast fashion is notorious for using sweatshops—which subject workers to horrible conditions and long hours for meager pay—as well as child labor” (Citation). A 2022 investigation of Shein from Channel 4 and The i newspaper in the United Kingdom only validates this― workers for the company were revealed to not only be working seven days a week, but for so many hours each day that “at some factories, female employees washed their hair over their lunch break due to having no time to do so after their 18-hour-long work days” (Citation). Though this fact is disturbing in itself, the meager pay that these workers receive is perhaps even more unsettling. The investigation revealed that most Shein workers receive $556 monthly, while producing over 500 clothing items daily― meaning that for each article of clothing a worker makes, they only receive two cents of pay (Citation). To get away with these horrible business practices, companies like Temu and Shein avoid the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). This legislation ensures “the prohibition on the importation of goods into the United States manufactured wholly or in part with forced labor” (Citation). An ongoing investigation performed by the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has revealed that “Temu conducts no audits and reports no compliance system to affirmatively examine and ensure compliance with the UFLPA. The only measure Temu reported that it takes to ensure that it is not shipping goods to Americans that are produced with forced labor in violation of U.S. law was that its suppliers agree to boilerplate terms and conditions that prohibit the use of forced labor” (Citation). In other words, all that a supplier has to do to supply for Temu is simply agree to these terms. “Temu’s business model, which relies on the de minimis provision, is to avoid bearing responsibility for compliance with the UFLPA and other prohibitions on forced labor” (Citation).
SALES AND SUSTAINABILITY
In the following two listings pictured _, two similar products are listed on both Shein and Temu: a trendy pair of jeans. While a good quality pair of jeans can cost anywhere from fifty to one hundred fifty dollars normally (varying depending on the manufacturer), these jeans from Shein and Temu are being offered for $23.99 and $12.73. Looking closer at the listings themselves, customers can observe that both items are on a limited-time sale. This creates a higher sense of urgency among buyers to get the sale before it’s gone. Even if we as consumers don’t necessarily need the product, this sale tactic creates a sense of urgency and necessity that results in more buying, and, in turn, more waste. Additionally, when opening the Shein website, users are often greeted by pop ups advertising sales and discounts, similar to the ones shown in the screenshot _. This only increases the “buy, buy, buy” mentality that many shoppers have. The cheap prices of Shein, Temu, and other companies using similar tactics are enabling consumers to buy more than they normally would, thus contributing to an increase in clothing waste. “The unsustainability of fast fashion, specifically keeping up with trends, has become a major problem that many are turning a blind eye to. Fast fashion is unsustainable because “‘fast fashion is, by its very nature, a fast- response system that encourages disposability’” (Citation). When you consider this aspect in addition to the fast cycling of trends, the gravity of this issue becomes glaringly apparent. The spending system encouraged by fast fashion is producing dire consequences: “As of 2018, ‘80 billion pieces of new clothing are purchased each year, translating to $1.2 trillion annually for the global fashion industry’(Bick et al, 2018). Approximately 85% of clothes consumed by Americans, or 3.8 billion pounds of clothing, ends up in landfills. This statistic can be divided up to account to 80 pounds of clothing per American consumer” (Citation).
FAST FASHION BENEFITS
Putting it simply, fast fashion will always provide trendy clothes that other businesses are simply unable to keep up with. The structure of fast fashion companies is genius― they use their tools and resources to put out new clothing faster than any other company, all while seamlessly keeping up with and following all of the latest fashion trends. All this, while offering prices that are affordable for almost anyone. Shein especially is doing this extraordinarily well. Shein (and other fast fashion companies) often use AI to boost their efficiency and reduce waste, ensuring that the clothing produced is on trend and popular (Citation). And by using AI to predict consumer patterns, Shein (and similar companies) theoretically has to produce less clothing that may become unpopular and not sell, reducing overall waste by preventing overproduction. But in reality, this is far from the case. Holding responsibility for “20% of global wastewater and 10% of carbon emissions”, fast fashion is among the top polluting industries world wide, topped only by oil and gas (Citation). Even being able to predict consumer patterns, Shein is still putting out millions of clothing articles annually to keep up with ever-changing trends and such a large consumer base. “Even if Shein established (or has established) steadfast procedures to reduce waste and energy consumption, it’s impossible to be sustainable with such a high production rate. In other words, Shein is inherently unsustainable” (Citation). In addition, it’s hard to reuse, donate, or resell products made by fast fashion companies. This is because their clothing is made from cheap materials such as synthetic fabrics, nylon, and polyester― materials which are notorious for falling apart when washing (Citation). With such low longevity products, millions of clothing articles are bound to end up in landfills.
ENACTING CHANGE
That all being said, what can we do as consumers to help slow the cycle of fast fashion? Finding affordable alternatives that are just as cheap as companies like Shein and Temu can be difficult. As bad as fast fashion is for the environment, there’s no denying that there is no other sound way to get new, trendy clothes at their unbeatable prices. But a great alternative to consider is thrifting. Thrifting can be a fun hobby, a great way to spend time with family and friends, and most importantly, an affordable way to get clothing. It also serves as a way to escape the cycle of abandoning and readopting new styles. Trends expire, but vintage will always be “in”. Another option to consider is buying higher quality pieces of clothing from more reliable companies. Though it may seem like the more expensive route, in the long term, having sustainable pieces of clothing that are going to last years may actually be easier on your wallet. In comparison to cheaper clothing, which will either be out of style or ruined within a few months, investing in higher quality clothing will save you money in the long run.
Buyer habits are the driving force behind the fashion industry. It’s easy to think that the decisions one individual makes have little to no real impact on a business; however, the reason that fast fashion is so successful is because consumers keep buying from them. We, as Americans, are voting with our dollars. And whether you decide to face it or not, the decisions that you make with your wallet are the true determining factors behind which businesses grow and which businesses fail.
References
Donatello, Sara. 2022. “SHEIN: How Immaterial Labor Fuels the Capitalist Fast Fashion
Industry.” Comm-Entary 18, no. 1: 64-73. https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.
cgi?article=1044&context=comm-entary.
Fuller, Kylie. 2023. “The Truth about Shein: How Sustainable and Ethical is the Fast Fashion Brand?” Brightly, August 2. https://brightly.eco/blog/shein-sustainability.
NFTC. 2024. “De Minimis: A Vital Tax Exemption.” NFTC. https://www.nftc.org/de-minimis-a-vital-tax-exemption/.
The Select Committee on the CCP. 2023. “Fast Fashion and the Uyghur Genocide: Interim Findings.” The Select Committee on the CCP, June 22. https://selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/media/reports/fast-fashion-and-uyghur-genocide-inter-im-findings.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 2024. “Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection, April 26. https://www.cbp.gov/trade/forced-labor/UFLPA.
Zweiglinska, Zofia. 2022. “5 Reasons Shein is the most popular brand in the world.” Glossy, December 9.
Ashland Craig is a junior and the Editor-in-Chief of Valley Unveiled. She is the vice president of her class and participates in many extracurricular activities, such as select choir, the Chenango Valley Theatre Guild, Mathletes, and debate club. Her hobbies include crocheting, reading, and writing.
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