Ryan Knudson

Thanks for listening.

See you Monday.

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 at low prices.

In November, Shein opened its first permanent store in Europe, in a popular department store in Paris.

Tell me about what happened when Shein opened a store in Paris.

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 Sheen out of their city.

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.

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Ryan Knudsen.

It's Wednesday, January 7th.

coming up on the show, how Europe replaced the US as China's new favorite customer.

For decades, China has been the world's manufacturing floor, and America was its biggest customer.

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 hundred bucks.

Companies like Shein have sold clothes to Americans for low, low prices.

I just got all this stuff for literally $0.

And Americans love this stuff.