A stuffed animal ordered for $3 on Temu goes around the world

A teddy bear ordered for $3 on Temu traveled the equivalent of a trip around the world by plane, boat, truck and train, between China, Canada and the United States, an ecological and economic “aberration”, experts denounce.

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Our Investigation Bureau ordered four items from Temu last summer, which it fitted with geolocation tags. We were thus able to show the long return journey of these items, including a small children’s teddy bear.

In six weeks, our package traveled approximately 750 km by truck to Ontario, 4,000 km by train to Vancouver and approximately 10,000 km by boat to China.

Our stuffed animal has therefore returned home to the province of Ganzhou, much to the surprise of the specialist in sustainable mobility and logistics at Coop Carbone, Caroline Marie.

“It’s absurd. The price of the stuffed animal is exceeded by the cost of the trip. It has nothing to do with the price paid by the consumer,” she complains.

These findings are in addition to those presented yesterday on the show. Iwhich revealed that the Temu platform was using deceptive practices to push Internet users to consume more and reveal personal data.

41,000 km

A few weeks after arriving in Asia, our plush toy flew back to the United States where it was delivered to another customer.

According to our estimates, our cub has traveled a total of more than 41,000 km, which is the equivalent of the circumference of the Earth.

A developing supply chain

Temu appears unable to locally resell items returned by its Quebec customers, because storage facilities are needed to store packages returned by consumers while they wait to be reintroduced to the market, notes the expert.

The return of our package to China indicates that “the company has not yet taken the steps to consolidate its supply chain in Canada,” believes Caroline Marie.

Conversely, Amazon has a vast network of local warehouses, as well as a network of North American partners to manage merchandise returns.

“Often, goods that have a high added value can be resold, repositioned on the market with local resellers, who will manage unsold items and returns, and who will transport them in a different way to the end consumer,” explains M.^me Married.

In the air, rather than at sea

To meet tight delivery deadlines, the Chinese giant relies primarily on air delivery to deliver the majority of its packages to you, rather than sea delivery like Amazon does.

“I did the exercise, and the emission factor [de CO₂] “The weight of the boat compared to the plane is 15 times lower,” says Caroline Marie.

“It’s surprising to see something that has no value take the plane,” she adds. “Usually, the plane is reserved for fresh products, for what has value, often the low-value goods can be stored and therefore will rather come by boat.”

Conversely, Amazon’s well-oiled supply chain allows it to reduce its dependence on air freight. The American giant nevertheless remains a major polluter, delivering several million packages per day across the world.

In an email, Temu defends his model by saying that shipping “products only when they are purchased, directly from the factory to the consumer, thereby eliminating unnecessary transit, reducing emissions and avoiding the overproduction and waste often associated with traditional retail.”