Meaning:
Lit. “Onion deals“, the latter word being loaned from English while the former is the vegetable that built Egyptian pyramids, one very rich in vitamin C and also popular in Central European cuisines. At the same time for most Poles it’s a symbol of being uncool, ultra-frugal, envious, a miser.
So “cebula deals” are offers for Polish people wanting to save money at any cost. The source of such offers is obviously AliExpress which got popular among this target group a couple years ago. The expression conveys contempt for people spending hours searching for stuff they don’t need, paying 20 PLN (free shipping) for it, then waiting a couple weeks for a piece of plastic to arrive from China and, finally, ranting about the low quality.
In a wider sense, “cebula deals” can be used for any offer that is too good to be true or any commodity with a dumping price. At least some people use it to stress their superiority – ability to pay high prices for high quality, unlike the masses.
Onion is featured in multiple other derogatory nouns. For instance, a “(Polak-)cebulak” is a typical backcountry dweller, “Cebulandia” stands for Poland while “cebulion” is Polish złoty/the PLN.
Examples:
Najlepsze zniżki i promocje w internecie! Oszczędzaj swoje pieniądze razem z Cebula Deals!
Cebula Deals – czy warto? Wiele z Was na pewno kuszą oferty azjatyckich sprzedawców na AliExpress – bluza za 3 dolary? Laptop z Windowsem za $23? BIORĘ! Ale czy to tak naprawdę ma jakiekolwiek szansę dotrzeć do naszych drzwi?
Gearbest wspólnie z AliExpress i Banggood stanowił trio spod znaku cebula deals. Skupiał się głównie na elektronice i bardzo często oferował telefony w najniższych cenach.