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> It makes me wonder why Aliexpress doesn't have more warehouses in the US My guess would be liability. A lot of what's sold on Aliexpress is... questionable.
by wombat_trouble 4y ago
> It makes me wonder why Aliexpress doesn't have more warehouses in the US
My guess would be liability. A lot of what's sold on Aliexpress is... questionable. Fakes, products that are patently unsafe or don't meet US regulations, fraudulent specs, etc.
What's happening right now is basically a bit of a laundering operation where small "front" businesses in the US, often registered to residential addresses, import small chunks of the inventory, collect markup, and resell it domestically on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, walmart.com marketplace, or whatnot.
And if their USB chargers keep catching fire or a big brand gets uppity about trademark infringement, the retailer disappears, and a new one pops up. Amazon gets some flak in the media every now and then, but they are several steps removed from the phenomenon.
If you had a Chinese megacorp with a large US footprint, they would likely soon find themselves in hot water with all kinds of regulatory agencies. Partly because there would be a single party with gobs of money to go after, and partly because of anti-China sentiments.
- saurik 4y ago> My guess would be liability. A lot of what's sold on Aliexpress is... questionable. Fakes, products that are patently unsafe or don't meet US regulations, fraudulent specs, etc. I wonder how much further Amazon can go in this direction before it runs into the same problem?
- wkat4242 4y agoYes my neighbor is one of those resellers. He's had several shipments from Alibaba vendors intercepted by customs for non-compliance. If Aliexpress would do this, they themselves would be liable. Here in Spain that do have stores but they have a highly curated inventory.
- lazyeye 4y agoAnd the obvious side-effect which nobody really wants to talk about is the destruction of the manufacturing industry in the US and the off-shoring of jobs to China. This is why it's so galling to see people in Silicon Valley moaning about the recent round of IT retrenchments. The f*king nerve of them.
- astrange 4y agoUS manufacturing output is up, though, just not jobs. That's generally good, just like it's good we aren't all subsistence farmers anymore. US unemployment is of course currently the lowest it's been in 50 years. China got low-value-add final assembly work, and it's now starting to leave them as their wages have risen.
- lazyeye 4y agoUp relative to what?
- astrange 4y agoItself in the past measured in real dollars.
- georgeplusplus 4y agoLooking at what time periods?
- wardedVibe 4y agoAs long as there's Fred data, so 2005 [0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_St...
- astrange 4y agohttps://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/25/most-americans-unaware-that-as-u-s-manufacturing-jobs-have-disappeared-output-has-grown/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/25/most-americ...
- throwawayytr 4y agoExactly. These are the ones who gave us ads most of which are outright scams.
- 4y ago
- ge96 4y agoHere's a 60TB external usb hard drive for $60!