One person snapped up 100 servings of the set meal only to throw away the blind box if the food could not be eaten up
"Food +" marketing, the popularity has risen, why waste
● In recent years, there have been many commercial marketing behaviors that only focus on promotions and ignore the consequences, such as "toys + catering", "blind box + catering" and other marketing models. By improperly stimulating and inducing consumers to irrational excessive consumption, it is easy to cause unnecessary of food waste
● The reasons for the frequent occurrence of food waste due to business models are, firstly, the problem of waste is not well characterized, and there is no clear standard for whether it causes waste; secondly, there is no direct victim; in addition, the punishment is very limited. In reality, anti-food waste mainly relies on ethics Constraints, rarely implemented at the level of supervision and punishment
● Relevant government departments should further clarify and refine the supervision and punishment basis for anti-food waste, establish and improve the anti-food waste supervision and inspection mechanism, and increase daily inspection and supervision; industry associations should formulate industry guidelines and industry standards for anti-food waste , strengthen the leadership and guidance of the industry; the enterprise itself should have bottom-line thinking and awareness, and the business model innovation should follow the concept of anti-waste, otherwise it should bear adverse consequences
□ Sun Tianjiao, a trainee reporter of this newspaper
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
Recently, KFC and Bubble Mart, a blind box seller, jointly launched the "DIMOO Co-branded Blind Box Package". Buy a 99 yuan package and you can get a joint blind box.
As soon as the event was launched, consumers immediately snapped up.
Some netizens posted on social media that they spent 10,494 yuan to buy 106 packages at one time.
In order to collect all the blind boxes, they are competing to buy fast food sets, but after getting the blind boxes, what to do with a large amount of food?
The waste problem that may exist behind this arouses attention.
A week after the event, the China Consumers Association named and criticized KFC for the food waste that the joint blind box event might cause.
In fact, this marketing model of "toys + catering" and "blind box + catering" is not the first case. In recent years, there have been many commercial marketing behaviors that only focus on promotion and ignore the consequences, which directly or indirectly lead to food waste.
Experts interviewed by a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" believe that some unreasonable business models can easily lead to unnecessary food waste by improperly stimulating and inducing consumers to conduct irrational over-consumption, which not only deviates from the traditional virtues of strict economy and anti-waste. , is also suspected of violating relevant laws and regulations, the supervision and punishment of this behavior should be strengthened, the market should be strictly regulated, and similar behaviors should be avoided from happening again.
Blind box package sparks panic buying
Overbuying leads to waste
"Usually a blind box of the same series costs 69 yuan a piece, but now you can buy both a blind box and a KFC package for 99 yuan. We, the baby circle, think it's too worth it." 26-year-old Wang Ying (pseudonym) is reading in Beijing A graduate student, a senior fan of the blind box class, she said that the circle of blind box fans like her is usually called "baby circle", and in early January this year, KFC and Bubble Mart jointly launched the limited edition DIMOO blind The box is the "big news" of the "baby circle".
It is reported that this 99 yuan KFC package includes 3 small cups of Coke, 1 small portion of French fries, 1 old Beijing chicken roll, 1 spicy chicken drumstick, 5 golden chicken nuggets, 2 Portuguese egg tarts, and then Comes with a KFC China 35th Anniversary "KFC×DIMOO" limited series figure.
According to the rules of the event, there are 6 regular models and 1 hidden doll in this series of blind boxes, 6 in 1 box, and a total of 263,880 copies will be sold nationwide. Among them, the hidden models are more precious due to the low probability of winning.
Under the banner of limited edition, the event immediately triggered a frenzy in the "baby circle".
On January 4th, the day of the event, in order to grab a co-branded blind box, Wang Ying deliberately got up early and went to a KFC store near the school. Later, I found that there was already a long queue in front of the store.
"When the time came, everyone squeezed in, basically buying the whole box (6 pieces), and some even bought a dozen copies by one person." Wang Ying recalled that because of the amount of goods allocated by a store It was limited. When she was shopping, the clerk reminded her that the remaining blind boxes were not enough for a whole box.
After thinking about it, Wang Ying bought two packages and finally got two blind boxes.
According to Wang Ying, in her "baby circle", there are many people who are "crazy" because of this activity.
Someone posted a bill saying that he bought a blind box of nearly 5,000 yuan in 3 different stores, only to win the hidden one.
Behind the madness is the huge appreciation potential of the limited edition blind box.
After searching for "KFC blind box" on a second-hand trading platform, the reporter found that there are a large number of blind box dolls of known styles that are resold. Among them, the cheapest price for a single blind box is about 80 yuan, and the most expensive hidden "Ace Fried Chicken" is. Prices range from 750 yuan to 920 yuan.
On January 10, a week after the event, the reporter visited three KFC stores in Chaoyang District, Beijing, and were told that the related event products in the stores were sold out on the day the event started.
A KFC staff member told reporters: "About 10 minutes after the event started, the blind boxes were sold out. Many people came in their cars, and there were many people who walked away with more than a dozen packages."
The event leads to frantic buying, what should I do if I can't finish a large number of packages after grabbing it?
Wang Ying was still living on campus, and returned to her dormitory with two sets of packages to share with her roommates. In the end, she still had two cups of Coke and one chicken roll left to eat. Because it could not be stored, she had to throw it away.
Wang Ying said: "The people who participated in the event are definitely going to the blind box. Whether the final package can be eaten or not is not considered. According to the circle friends, some KFC stores have storage activities, and they can exchange packages later. But the clerk I went to didn't give any hints."
The possible food waste caused by the joint activity of the blind box and catering has aroused concern.
On January 12, the China Consumers Association issued a document criticizing KFC by name, saying that some consumers did not hesitate to spend 10,494 yuan to buy 106 set meals at one time; there were also consumers who bought "eat-for-you" services to "seek a baby" and hired someone to buy it on their behalf. Get a blind box by eating a set meal, and even throw away the uneaten food directly.
As a catering company, KFC operates fast-food products that are limited-use products. The characteristics of these products are that they can be purchased on-demand and eaten immediately. Consumers usually do not over-buy. "The means to stimulate consumption can easily lead to impulsive consumption by consumers in order to obtain limited-edition blind boxes, and cause unnecessary food waste due to excessive purchases.
The problem of waste is not well defined
Penalties are very limited
In recent years, this "toy + catering" and "blind box + catering" model has long been commonplace.
In January 2021, Hsu Fu Chi and Bubble Mart jointly launched a New Year gift box, which includes Hsu Fu Chi products and Bubble Mart BUNNY winter limited blind box.
On January 21 this year, after being named by the China Consumers Association, KFC launched the Doraemon package again. Any purchase of related packages starting from 39 yuan can get a Doraemon zodiac toy as a gift.
There are 12 toys in total, which are distributed randomly. The total number of sets is 2,079,999 copies nationwide, while stocks last.
According to Zhu Xiaojuan, director and deputy secretary general of the China Law Society's Commercial Law Research Association and associate professor at China University of Political Science and Law, business model innovation is the freedom of operators and the driving force for business development, but the bottom line should be followed and the boundaries should not be exceeded.
Merchants can promote promotion through the "toy + catering" and "blind box + catering" model, but it is easy to lead to food waste, which is contrary to the traditional virtues of strict economy and anti-waste in my country, and even violates the basic value orientation of the Anti-Food Waste Law. Excessive food waste is regulated.
In addition to the "blind box +" model, in recent years, driven by economic interests, some unreasonable marketing activities directly or indirectly lead to frequent occurrence of food waste.
For example, after Big Stomach’s food broadcast became popular, this type of video became a “traffic password”, and many food broadcasts created the illusion of a lot of eating by inducing vomiting and fake eating in order to attract viewers to “monetize traffic”, which not only led to A lot of food is wasted, and it also spreads a bad atmosphere.
In May 2021, a video of dumping dairy products attracted attention.
In the video, a large number of undrinked beverages of a certain brand were taken apart and poured directly into the ditch.
The drink involved is a partner of a talent show. After purchasing it, the audience can vote for the contestants of the talent show. The QR code that needs to be scanned for voting is inside the bottle cap, and the bottle can be scanned to vote.
"As long as the bottle cap does not need milk" has become the consensus of fans, resulting in a lot of waste of drinks.
Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, believes that if companies induce or mislead consumers to buy a large amount of food through marketing activities, exceeding the normal consumption, it is likely to cause food waste.
This is not a moral issue, but is suspected of violating the law and should bear the corresponding consequences in accordance with the law.
On April 29, 2021, the Anti-Food Waste Law was promulgated and implemented, which clearly stipulates that catering service operators consciously resist food waste, remind consumers to consume in moderation, and must not induce or mislead consumers to consume excessively, resulting in food waste.
Under the law, why is the phenomenon of food waste caused by business practices still frequently occurring?
Chen Yinjiang analyzed that the reasons for the frequent occurrence of food waste due to business models are that the waste problem is not well characterized, and there is no clear standard for whether it causes waste, resulting in insufficient understanding of food waste by many people; second, there is no direct victim, The parties spend money to buy food and cause waste, and generally will not cause direct damage to others.
"Although the Anti-Food Waste Law stipulates that any unit or individual who discovers food waste, such as food producers and operators, has the right to report it to the relevant departments and agencies, but from a practical point of view, in order to avoid trouble, few people will take the initiative to report others. or food waste by food operators."
In addition, Chen Yinjiang mentioned that at present, the regulatory authorities are not clear about the problem of food waste caused by commercial behavior, and the punishment is very limited. In reality, the anti-food waste mainly relies on moral constraints, and it is rarely implemented at the level of supervision and punishment.
"The Consumer Rights Protection Law is mainly an advocacy regulation against food waste, and there are no specific penalties. Although the Anti-Food Waste Law has clear prohibition clauses and penalties, the penalties are limited. Generally, they are ordered to make corrections or given warnings. , only those who refuse to make corrections will be fined accordingly. Therefore, the current penalties for food waste in the relevant laws are not enough to deter relevant operators." Chen Yinjiang said.
Enterprise innovation should keep the bottom line
Relevant departments must strengthen supervision
In recent years, the issue of food waste has received more and more attention, and the state and relevant departments have also successively issued relevant laws and regulations.
In addition to the Anti-Food Waste Law, in December 2021, four departments including the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Anti-Food Waste Work Plan", proposing that commercial departments at all levels take measures to encourage catering service operators to provide meal-sharing services and disclose their information to the public. Anti-food waste situation.
In order to curb food waste in the catering industry, the plan proposes to promote the catering industry to issue group standards and industry self-discipline norms against food waste.
Recently, seven departments including the National Development and Reform Commission have researched and formulated the "Implementation Plan for Promoting Green Consumption", which regards food conservation and anti-food waste as an important part of green consumption, proposes to strengthen the whole chain of food conservation and loss reduction, and clarify the responsibility requirements for various consumer entities.
In addition, relevant policies and regulations have also been introduced in various regions to firmly say "no" to the phenomenon of food waste caused by commercial behavior.
On January 14, the local standard "Code of Conduct for Catering Service Operators Against Food Waste" issued by the Market Supervision Bureau of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province began to be implemented. This is the first domestic standard on anti-food waste behavior.
It clearly stipulates that catering service operators shall not set the minimum consumption amount, and shall not induce, mislead or set the minimum consumption amount in disguise by means of private room fees.
All catering units should also establish regular training mechanisms and assessment records, and strengthen the training of catering practitioners in anti-food waste business knowledge and professional ethics.
Hu Gang, deputy secretary-general of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Internet Society of China, told reporters that to prevent food waste caused by commercial practices, we should insist on equal emphasis on development and regulation, and take into account both competition and innovation.
Regulatory agencies must adhere to bottom-line thinking, make good use of transparent supervision, and issue guidance documents in a timely manner to stabilize the expectations of operators and consumers.
Give full play to the effectiveness of flexible measures such as administrative guidance interviews and rigid measures such as administrative inspection and punishment, and combine rigidity and flexibility to create a fair and orderly market environment.
"Relevant departments can make it clear that food and catering services must not be operated in unreasonable business models such as the blind box model, and must not induce or mislead consumers to participate." Hu Gang said.
In Chen Yinjiang's view, relevant government departments should further clarify and refine the supervision and punishment basis for anti-food waste, establish and improve the anti-food waste supervision and inspection mechanism, and increase daily inspection and supervision.
Once a food waste problem is discovered, not only should it be supervised and rectified in a timely manner, but it should also be punished according to the law and publicly exposed to the public.
朱晓娟建议，市场监管等部门应主动执法，对发现的食品浪费商家主动约谈并责令整改。行业协会应制定行业指导规范与反食品浪费行业标准，加强对行业的引领与指导。企业自身则应有底线思维和意识，进行商业模式创新应遵循反浪费的理念，否则应承担不利后果。
最后，陈音江呼吁，消费者应摒弃讲“面子”和讲“排场”思想，不攀比、不炫耀、不浪费，适量点餐，理性消费，对商家的诱导消费行为要擦亮眼睛，真正把勤俭节约美德落实到实际行动中。
漫画/高岳