What’s on Temu, the weirdest shopping app
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
We installed it so you don't have to. Photo: Lam Yik/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Temu, the hot new online store that became the most-downloaded app in Apple’s store this year, is headquartered in Boston.
- It had ads all over social media, mobile games and even the Super Bowl.
Details: The retailer is owned by Chinese company PDD Holdings, which also owns online agriculture platform Pinduoduo.
- The company is listed at 31 St. James Ave Suite 355 in the Park Square Building downtown by the Plaza.
The intrigue: A quick browse through the app shows that it's a clearing house for dirt-cheap products from overseas. We thought we'd "shop like a billionaire" like the ads say to test the Massachusetts bona fides of this new "local" company.
- A search for the word "Boston" has some surprising results. Surprising in that they don't make any sense at all.
The intrigue: This "Cozy crop tee" has a Boston emblem with the words "Positive Los Angeles" on it.
- That shirt, and several other pieces of clothing, say "EST. 1997" or 1998, indicating that our nearly 400-year-old city is only in its mid-20s.
If you search for "Massachusetts," it starts out with some items that do actually relate to the Bay State.
But then, it serves up what appears to be Snoop Dogg as a Christmas elf and labels it as a "St. Patrick's Day Irish Gnome Doll." So if you've got a blunt to share, come into the parlor.
Deehan's thought bubble: My personal favorite find was this $7.64 white tee that gets the city's founding year right, yet somehow fails to capture true New England sentiment in its slogan.
