The breadth of items and prices is remarkable, and the site’s aesthetic comes off as something like a virtual dollar store.

A banner brags about items up to 90% off retail prices, thanks to a new year’s sale. Users on the Temu website or app are immediately besieged by deals of all kinds: running shoes for $17.48, universal wrenches for $4.48, talking toy hamsters for $6.99. The better question is what Temu doesn’t sell. Users who turned to Temu this month as a lifeline for holiday shopping in the face of the highest inflation in a generation made it one of the fastest growing platforms in the U.S. Over the last couple months, posts praising Temu have spread like wildfire across Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok-though many of them use glowing language that appears to be recycled from one post to the next.īut, at the moment, Temu is very much a real platform, offering a variety of real, heavily discounted products, from air fryers to wireless Lenovo earbuds ($8.98), computer keyboards ($15) to clothes ($1.69 for five pairs of socks). On top of really cheap consumer goods, Temu boasts opportunities to earn credits through spin-the-wheel games or if you convince your friends to join.

Upon first glance, Temu could leave some users questioning whether it’s legit.

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