Small businesses have long resold wholesale merchandise at a markup to stock their stores. Lately, some have come under fire for their purchases of fast fashion items and items produced overseas for pennies on the dollar.
The Copper Closet saga has revealed to many in the Jacksonville, Fla. area that one of their favorite local boutiques is selling clothing purchased from Chinese online retailer Shein at a significant markup.
Clothing purchased from Shein has also flooded vintage and thrift stores, where items are often sold for a much higher price than what they would go for online. The same is happening on Amazon, where items appearing to be identical are appearing for wildly different prices.
Now, eagle-eyed shoppers are on the lookout for items they recognize online being offered in-store at a high markup. One shopper says she purchased a pair of earrings from online discount retailer Temu for $0.79, only to walk into a boutique in her community selling the same earrings for $10 each.
In a video shared to TikTok, user Andrea (@copleys.mom) says she was out to lunch with her mother, who told her she had found her inexpensive earrings being sold for more than 10 times the price she paid for them in a local boutique.
The poster says she has been following the drama associated with Copper Closet, and found the situation an entertaining parallel.
“I go to lunch with my parents today. My mom has these cute little St. Patrick’s Day earrings on, and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, those are cute,'” she says in the video. “She says, ‘Thanks, they’re from Temu. But listen…’ Mom’s like, OK, drama, tea, let me see, let me hear it.”
Andrea says her mom told her she found the exact same earrings for sale at a much higher price in a boutique.
“She goes, ‘I was shopping this week, and I went into this cute little boutique, and I see these earrings that I bought for $0.79 on Temu for $10 on their packaging,'” Andrea recalls. “She keeps going in the boutique, and she finds five things that she bought on Temu, for like, triple the price. $0.79 to $10, that’s way more than triple the price.”
“You think you’re supporting small business,” she concludes. “You’re supporting Temu, baby.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Andrea via TikTok direct message regarding the video.
Several viewers commented on the video that they found the poster’s take odd, as purchasing low-cost items wholesale and selling them at a markup is a standard business model in many industries.
“This is literally how all retail works and it’s wild that you can’t imagine this at your age,” one commenter wrote.
“It’s almost as if all stores, including small businesses, source their inventory from wholesalers…” another said.
“Have people not been doing this for years with the photo search features on SheIn and AliExpress?” a third commented. “Most stuff at boutiques is also on those sites.”
Others wrote that they had observed similar habits in their local shops and markets, where items purchased from Temu are being advertised as from a small business, or in some cases, handmade.
@copleys.mom Have I been getting got??? #shein #temu #coppercloset #boutique ♬ original sound – andrea
“I walked by a little boutique in my area and saw the same cheap night set I had from Shein in their display mannequin,” one commenter wrote. “The price was $70.”
“I see ‘jewelers’ at local markets just flipping jewelry from temu and as someone who actually makes their stuff it’s so upsetting,” another commented.
“I’m a victim of buying cute earrings from a “small business” that were .60 on SHEIN and $25 at the boutique,” a further user wrote.
One TikToker even urged Andrea to call out the specific boutique. “I’m on to you @Francesca’s,” the user wrote.
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