China's Cheap Goods Are Europe's Problem Now

Over the past year, there's been a huge influx of Chinese goods into the European market. One of the biggest companies selling these goods is Shein, the company famous for fast fashion and low prices. In November, Shein opened its first permanent store in Europe, in a popular department store in Paris. Tell me about how what happened when Shein opened a store in Paris. Chaos. Absolute chaos. That's our colleague Chelsea Delaney. It was chaotic because there were tons of people lining up, eager to shop. And right next to them, angry Parisians who wanted Sheehan out of their city. It was intense. You know, a lot of French retailers and politicians were very upset about it. Some department store workers held a a strike outside or held a protest. They went on strike for a day. So even just the announcement that this is coming had caused a huge stir in Paris and in France. The flood of cheap Chinese goods into Europe has been swift, and there is one very specific reason these companies are suddenly so focused there. After the tariffs went into effect into The US, China needed new places to sell all that stuff. It was no longer selling to The US, and Europe looked like the perfect place. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knudson. It's Wednesday, January 7. Coming up on the show, how Europe replaced The US as China's new favorite customer. This episode is brought to you by Zoom. The way we work is changing, and Zoom is leading the way with meetings, chat, docs, AI companion, and more together on one powerful platform. With everything connected, teams can stay focused, share ideas faster, and actually enjoy getting things done. From smart AI features to tools built for real collaboration, Zoom helps make your workday work for you. Ready to join? Visit zoom.com/podcast to learn more and zoom ahead. For decades, China has been the world's manufacturing floor and America was its biggest customer. They make everything. They make clothes. They make vehicles. They make phones. They make laptops. There's very little in our lives that we, you know, interact with that does not have a Chinese component to it. And increasingly, one of the biggest product categories that China makes is known as low value packages, which is basically anything that's less than a few $100. I think it's underappreciated how big a part of, you know, China's export sector has become these low value packages. So in 2024 and also 2025, they've exported about a 100,000,000,000 of these low value packages, so it it has become really enormous. Companies like Shein have sold clothes to Americans for low, low prices. I don't think I've ever had a Shein haul this big before. I just got all this stuff for literally $0. And Americans love this stuff. This is, like, the biggest package I've ever gotten from him before. I ordered a …