Max Writes Sometimes

So, despite having not a lot of money, I've lately been able to get a ton of random stuff I've wanted. Small electronics, art supplies, home organization supplies, more different kinds of purple clothing than I imagined existed - you name it. (The main limitation is that our apartment is very small.)

This is because earlier this year I got on Temu to buy some business supplies, mostly in the interest of divesting from Amazon. Now they are giving me a deal where, if I spend $200 in a sitting, I literally get the entire price of my purchase refunded except the sales tax and sometimes shipping (but not inflated shipping! That would make too much sense!) And then sometimes they don't manage to ship me the items in time so I get credit for delays, which covers the sales tax. It's kind of absurd. 

Why this is happening, I have several theories. I'll share them here, in the order of "most similar to mundane economic activity" to "kinda wild but OK."

I suspect multiple of these are true to some extent.

1. Maybe most people fail to complete the rebate process correctly. The process is rather fiddly. If you miss logging in for a day, you lose a big chunk of the money back. If you order less than $200 at a time, you don't get the full rebate. At that point, you are paying for regular discounted goods, a decent deal but nothing special. 

....BUT I'm completing the process correctly, and they keep giving me the rebate, so that can't be the whole story. (Also note that previous Temu deals have been known to kick people out of the promotion eventually if they claim too much of the money successfully.)

Very well, more theories:

2. This is the equivalent of a brushing scam, without the scam. The algorithm has figured out that I leave useful, honest reviews and leave a lot of them, so they're sending me free shit in the knowledge that I'll likely respond, naturally on my own, by improving the credibility of the platform. This certainly might explain why they're still giving me the rebate deal despite my reliability at claiming the money. 

3. Temu is trying to inflate its Q4 sales figures. There are many reasons why this could benefit them - investment, taxes. 

4. Temu is engaged in some form of money laundering. What form and why, I got nothin'. (Well, okay, I got a wetsuit, a tattoo gun, and a lifetime supply of 2gal plastic ziploc bags.)

4b. The Chinese government is throwing money at Temu, which in turn is throwing it at its customers. This works reasonably well in concert with 3 or 4a.  The motivations could be: undercutting Amazon, establishing monopoly, spiting Trump over the tariffs, or - and I'd bet it's at least a little bit this, because it's the right style of "communism-capitalism cookie sandwich" for them - ensuring the manufacturing economy continues to keep workers employed. 

Anyway, now that I've established that they really are reliably sending my money back & I have most of the fun things I want, I'm ordering useful stuff. This has its own hilarious economic caveat:

- Most of the brand-name practical expendables on Temu are actually drop-shipped from Walmart, Target or Amazon. 

You know how you used to sometimes buy stuff from a US web storefront and find it was actually shipped from a random Chinese seller? Well, now they're doing the opposite. The telltale signs of this are that the item ships from a domestic origin point and costs more than normal. It's harder to find these items on the platform than it is to find clothing and bling, they go fast, and I wouldn't normally order them at this price point, but... yeah, money back... 

For example, I "spent" $35 on an order containing a small box of Tampax tampons, a large box of Band-Aids, and a bottle of Neutrogena body wash. These items would have probably cost a total of $25 in the store. I ordered them knowing that I would be refunded all but the tax. Some 3rd party vendor sent me a Walmart package and pocketed the difference. 

Other things I've been ordering a lot of this way are brand-name supplements and essential oils. (I still want to start doing perfumery again someday.) 

I've also started ordering altruistically, because I'm sure this deal will end eventually and I'd like to make other people happy. One of our homeless friends down at the beach, who deserves a whole post or two on here himself - he's the one who made me realize that Venice Beach is basically a town full of urban fantasy protagonists - is always wanting to borrow my phone to play music because he can't hang onto one without getting rolled for it. I ordered him a music player and speaker. Got a big box of hand warmers and emergency blankets to give out, too.

And I've just picked up a cat carrier to donate to a rescuer who's been doing work to help us gradually resolve a friend's Infinite Kitten Hell problem (poorly educated immigrant parent adopted a bunch of strays without realizing how important it was to spay/neuter. Predictable events ensued & every vet in LA is backed up on spays, so you have to know someone.) 

(P.S. - anyone up for taking on a spare kitten or cat? My friend's family are decent people and caring for the ones they've brought into the world, but it's not really a healthy number of cats to have.)