Or hoarding goods and increasing prices or selling them in the name of "medical equipment"
Electronic cigarettes will be "banned sweet" and some merchants play "fancy" clearance
The "Measures for the Administration of Electronic Cigarettes" was officially implemented on May 1 this year.
Among them, the management measures clearly point out that the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes other than tobacco flavors is prohibited.
A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily learned that the main products of electronic cigarettes on the market are still fruit flavors.
In the face of the imminent "banning of sweets" in electronic cigarettes, some merchants have also come up with ways to "change their vests", suggesting that they can be traded privately.
Electronic cigarettes "no sweet"
Some flavors of existing brands have been discontinued
On March 11, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration issued the "Measures for the Administration of Electronic Cigarettes", which will take effect on May 1, 2022.
Among them, Article 26 stipulates that it is prohibited to sell flavored electronic cigarettes other than tobacco flavors and electronic cigarettes that can add atomizers by themselves.
This also means that fruit and other flavored electronic cigarettes will no longer be available for sale from May 1, 2022.
Different from ordinary cigarettes, e-cigarettes have also developed products with flavors such as grapes, lemons, and cola by adding flavors, e-liquids and other ingredients.
After the promulgation of the "Measures", a number of e-cigarette brands have responded, expressing their active implementation of regulatory requirements, and announcing that the production of fruit and other flavored products will be discontinued in the domestic market.
"It is true that the shipment volume has been larger recently, but compared to the inventory, I am still a little worried." A regional distributor said that the brands he represents belong to the waist, and the manufacturers' ability to resist market risks is average.
Ideally, these stocks can be sold out before the deadline.
In a less than ideal situation, the brand may disappear.
"This brand is basically a non-tobacco-flavored product, and it relies on various young people's favorite flavors to drive sales."
"Now some flavors are out of stock in the store. At present, what is in the store can be sold, and if there is no display, it will not be replenished." In a shopping mall in Chaoyang District, Beijing, the owner of an electronic cigarette brand store The clerk told reporters that nearly ten pods of the brand are no longer available for sale.
"The country has new regulations, some flavors have been discontinued, and now it is just digesting the inventory."
Some sellers create "out-of-stock anxiety"
There are also price hikes
In the market, however, it is a different story.
A reporter from Beiqing Daily noticed that non-tobacco-flavored electronic cigarette products are the "main force" of various brands.
Among the products launched by some of these e-cigarette companies, there are basically no tobacco-flavored products.
As soon as the "Measures" came out, some sellers raised their prices by taking advantage of the "banning sweetness" of electronic cigarettes.
A reporter from Beiqing Daily visited the market and found that compared with the price of 99 yuan per box in a brand store, the price of some fruit-flavored cartridges of this brand has risen to 120 yuan in some cigarette stores.
Another brand's previous "preferential price" of pod products of 68 yuan has also "restored" the suggested retail price of 99 yuan.
In some cigarette shops or e-cigarette brand collection shops, some buy-and-gift activities such as buy three get one free have also been cancelled.
A salesperson said, "You can still choose flavors when you buy them now, but you may not be able to choose flavors later. If you want to stock up, hurry up and stock up. It is estimated that they will not be sold by the end of April."
Not only that, some merchants also create "anxiety" on some social media, such as "These flavors can only be recalled in the future", "A small amount of stock is in stock, and if you don't stock it now, it will be gone" and so on.
change the vest
E-cigarettes are still being sold online
In addition, a reporter from Beiqing Daily noticed that although major e-commerce platforms have blocked e-cigarette searches, some merchants still bypassed this block and came up with other similar words to continue to promote e-cigarette products.
Some stores even sell electronic cigarettes under the name of "medical equipment", and some electronic cigarette products also have the word "student" in the title.
Beiqing Daily reporters consulted some merchants as consumers, some of them asked reporters to buy from the e-commerce platform, and some of them can also place orders directly.
When asked why e-cigarettes can still be sold, the customer service staff said that their products are "smoking cessation bars", "herbal aerosols" and so on.
Not only that, during the visit, some brick-and-mortar merchants also hinted that they are not worried about the arrival of the May Day time limit.
solve confusion
Why should e-cigarettes be "banned sweet"?
A reporter from the Beiqing Daily learned that electronic cigarettes first appeared on the market as a smoking cessation product. With its barbaric development for several years, it has become a product that some young people pursue novelty.
In October 2021, the "Research Report on E-Cigarette Marketing and Its Impact on Adolescent Health" released by the Institute of Health Communication of Fudan University showed that nearly half of the surveyed teenagers started to use e-cigarettes for the first time in the junior high school stage between the ages of 13 and 15. , the flavors most used by teenagers who have used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days are fruit flavors.
China Merchants Securities has published a research report saying that under the new regulations, the ban on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes other than tobacco flavors is expected to increase the pressure on young consumers and female consumers. In the short term, the total demand of my country's e-cigarette industry will face Downward pressure.
However, some people in the industry worry that the sale of flavored e-cigarettes other than tobacco flavors is banned in China this time, and a large number of "flavored e-cigarettes" may enter the domestic market from illegal smuggling channels, and later supervision still needs to keep up.
This group of articles / reporter Zhang Xin
Coordination/Photo courtesy of Yu Meiying/Visual China