Everyone has heard of eBay and Amazon. Those two are the internet giants of online shopping (or maybe just Amazon is the giant). Free shipping, great deals, and finding items to fill our needs and wants.
However, my daughter’s mother-in-law gave me a real nifty pair of bling rubber slippers – but they were one size too small. Fortunately, it still had the info tag, which I searched on Amazon and eBay. No luck. A google search turned up a site called Mercari.com.
Hmmm. This was uncharted territory but it looked like eBay without the traffic. The bling slippers were listed at $3 with $6 shipping from a seller named Mixit. I took the chance, signed up with a user name, password, etc. and ordered it. Lo and behold, it came in brand new, tags on, perfect condition, and fast!
Temu
And then, while sitting in the dentist chair getting my teeth cleaned, my dental hygienist, the loquacious and beautiful Liane told me about Temu.com. She said that it is just like Amazon, but cheaper. And shipping is free for the first 3 orders so take time filling up the cart before finalizing and paying for an order. Temu.com took over Alibaba, the Chinese version of Amazon and thus it sells discounted items with more discounts.
Granted, this was a one-way conversation because my mouth was open and Liane’s fingers and probes were restricting my speaking, but I did manage to ask “what kind of stuff they sell?” And she said “Everything”.
So, I went home and checked it out.
At first, it looked like cheap stuff – like what we used to find at the Dollar Store (when we had that one in Hawaii Kai). But then, they had stuff like solar lights (which is my favorite) and flexible garden hoses (which I like), and Dremel blade and sanding attachments, skin tag remover stickers, sewing clips, gardening stuff, and after awhile, I was so tired of looking, I stopped adding things to my cart, took out some stuff, and hit the pay button. I had 10 items which totaled $36 with free shipping. I wasn’t expecting much, and it did take awhile to get to me, (10 days) but the other day I had a big package delivered with all of them in good condition and felt like I did a big score!
I was VERY happy with this order – but I did notice that some of the prices went up (if I wanted to re-order) but I actually don’t need to re-order anything. Temu also likes to send me emails and today, I had a “gift” email which was a choose it game, so I played it and chose window #1. This opened up another window of choose a box and I won a 25% discount on one item of my choice, which they immediately doubled to 50%! So of course I scrolled until I found an “expensive” item which was a human sensing solar wall light that was already discounted 46% ($17) and with my 50% discount, I paid $8.74! I might be hooked. And I hope free shipping is NOT just only for the first 3 orders.
It has been fun. But I need to take a break from online shopping. My garden needs weeding and house needs cleaning. And I know, as I go about my daily tasks, I will find that I need this or that. And if Amazon or eBay doesn’t have it, I can also look at Mercari.com and Temu.com. If they don’t have it, then it is not meant to be. Or I have to pay full price – B@(%?*&#!
A shout out to Liane, my favorite dental hygienist at the awesome Dr. Hideki Kurokawa’s office.
Now you’ve got me really curious. That sounds like so much fun. You know I’m going to have to look. Thank you for telling us about this.
One of the biggest reasons that “Amazon” is getting more expensive is that it is mostly a third party broker to each sell taking a piece of the profits. Back in the day, they bought the items at bulk discounts and stored them in warehouses and then sold them to you. Now they just facilitate your purchase through some third party, they never receive or store the product and for that take a cut of the proceeds which means the third party hikes their prices up to cover. Amazon still sells things and those things are still as cheap as any site, but they aren’t as plentiful as they used to be.
I remember when all they sold were books. And now they own Whole Foods and who knows what else! I actually find things in our local stores that are cheaper than Amazon nowadays. Times sure are achanging.
Very, very cool!!
I know, right! The very first order I placed, things were ridiculously cheap – like 39ยข for dremel cutters and $5 for watering hoses. Now that they know they have me hooked, prices have gone up. So the lesson is, take your time looking in the beginning because they are really putting out bait. And it is fun!