[Taf]

Part of my career was spent repairing electronics.

Spares used to go the usual route: producer - exporter - importer - distributor - wholesaler - vendor. Each step of the "Grocer Economy" added-on its own costs and profits.

Then the Procurement Department found that they could follow the model of many supermarkets: producer - vendor.

Spares then became so cheap that we could get 10 of the items for the usual cost of a single one.

Then they looked into repair costs, and instead of employing people to do the repairs, they slashed the technical staff levels to almost zero, and that also meant the levels of staff for administration and storage. They did that by sending the unserviceable items to the Philippines for repair where labour and parts costs were minimal.

This has been a similar story in many Services and Industries, with work exported overseas. Trump has started a campaign to get jobs back onto US soil, but the costs just get transferred to consumers. People seem to think that his Tariffs are a new thing, but they have always existed, and will probably always exist in the Capitalist World, especially since it became filled with multinationals.

The link Inactive Digital posted, highlights the simmering bad feelings towards companies like Temu, especially as there are those who get around the rules.

Hence my prediction that a tax of some sort, along with tightening of the rules, is on its way, and it'll be the customers who will suffer.