Shein is going public. The Chinese e-commerce company filed paperwork for an initial public stock offering this week. Shein is known for aggressively marketing its ultrafast fashion on TikTok and other social media platforms, selling a head-spinning number of garments on its app for as little as a few bucks. The company is also known for being tight-lipped and secretive. Going public will give investors a better look under the hood about how the company is run and its financials.  

How much is it worth? Its last round of fundraising in May valued Shein at $66 billion. However, Bloomberg reported last month that Shein told potential investors it aimed to list the company for as much as $90 billion.  

The gap between those two numbers is significant, especially considering an ongoing federal lawsuit over allegations Shein stole independent designers’ work and concerns that some of its products are being made by interned Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. A Shein spokesperson said this week the company has a zero-tolerance policy for forced labor, but Republican and Democrats in Congress and more than a dozen state attorneys general want evidence to back that up.  

The IPO market has chilled out. November and December are typically popular months for IPOs, but this year and last “the macroeconomic vibes just don’t feel right,” according to Santosh Rao at Manhattan Venture Partners. Plus, investors are likely to be more stingy since many highly anticipated IPOs this year have performed poorly. It wasn’t so long ago that shoe company Birkenstock’s IPO was being described as “red hot,” but when its shares began trading, investors bought them at $5 lower than their IPO price.  

Bonus read: This Rest of World story explains how Shein beat out its competition by perfecting a production scenario known as the “impossible triangle.”  

Smart in a shot

San Francisco hasn’t gotten a ton of good press lately; crime is up, storefronts are empty and homelessness is high. The city won the title of “worst-run” city according to WalletHub’s rankings of 149 large U.S. cities. (In 2022, it ranked second to last.)  

What’s the solution? San Francisco Mayor London Breed recently came on “Marketplace Morning Report” to explain what the local government is doing to turn the city’s image around.  

But business leaders are taking matters into their own hands too, with a brand refresh. A group of San Francisco billionaires have funded a $4 million ad campaign, featuring the slogan “It All Starts Here” along with references to innovations that originated in San Francisco. They plan to install the ads on buses, pole tents, small business windows and digital ad spaces across the city. They hope it will prevent a “doom loop” scenario in which the negative perception of San Francisco fuels even more divestment.  

This kind of pitch isn’t original. Many cities have tried to reframe their image with a catchphrase. “The Big Apple” originally referenced New York City’s horse race prizes in the 1920s, but a nonprofit revived it in the 1970s when the city was more known for its crime and near-bankruptcy. That slogan stuck and has become synonymous with New York City. In 2022, the Windy City tried out a similar campaign to that of San Francisco; “Chicago Not in Chicago” highlighted inventions started in the Midwest hub, however, the slogan baffled more than it impressed.  

What’s your city’s slogan or nickname? How does it square with reality? Send us an email or reply to this message and tell us about both official and unofficial monikers of your hometown. 

The numbers

Did you use “Buy Now Pay Later” on Black Friday or Cyber Monday? You aren’t alone. More consumers are funding their holiday shopping through companies like Klarna, Affirm and Afterpay, but BNPL comes with some potential pitfalls. Let’s do the numbers. 

$940 million 

Of the more than $12 billion consumers spent on Cyber Monday, $940 million of those purchases utilized Buy Now, Pay Later payment plans, according to Adobe Analytics. Between Nov. 1 and Nov. 27, BNPL drove $8.3 billion in online sales.  

28.93%  

The average interest rate for a retail credit card has reached a record high of 28.93%, according to Bankrate. Some retailers are charging as much as 33%.  

It’s no wonder that consumers are instead turning to BNPL; many retailers offer BNPL payment plans with zero interest so long as consumers make their payments on time. 

42% 

That’s the number of people who say they have missed at least one BNPL payment. When that happens, they incur fees of about $7 per missed payment and they can also face overdraft fees from their banks, which are typically $35 per transaction. On the typical BNPL loan of $135, a single missed payment could cost $42, or 31% of the total transaction. 

4x

BNPL installment plans encourage consumers to spend more. One BNPL company called Affirm said they spent nearly four times what they would have spent otherwise. Marketplace podcast “Financially Inclined” delved deeper into the psychological pitfalls that come when using BNPL and how to avoid them.

None of us is as smart as all of us

Tell us what’s making you smarter at smarter@marketplace.org. We’d love to include your recommendation in a future newsletter.

Circular ecology 

This week’s deep dive on the circular economy got Marketplace host Nova Safo thinking about other self-sustaining systems, including the world’s oldest sealed terrarium, which was last opened in 1972.  

Tiny shelter boom 

Producer Dylan Miettinen is reading a Vox article about why more cities building tiny structures for unhoused residents who otherwise are sleeping outside. Is the move a smart, but temporary fix, or does it divert funds from building more affordable housing?  

No extra water needed 

Intern Nilou Shahbandi recommends a Los Angeles Times story about how some farmers use “dry farming” techniques to grow produce without irrigation.  

P.S. It’s Nilou’s last week as an intern with “Make Me Smart.” We are grateful to her for her contributions to the show and wish her great success in the future!