It’s like when I go to ~~vendor halls at conventions and half the vendors~~ any store that's not a mega-department store all the items are repackaged aliexpress/temu items

ftfy

TBH, the US has been middle-manning economically depressed labor for cheap goods for decades. It just turns out that China is way better at it than we are.

Alibaba/express just made it a marketplace where companies could do it with zero friction.

I'm fine with the massive Chinese booths like that at our flea market. We get some useful stuff for cheap. But in general it turns me off. Our local Goodwills now sell bottom-of-the-barrel Chinese imports for the same prices as the next better sort of thing.