According to media reports such as Workers’ Daily, some fast-moving consumer goods chains and well-known department stores have recently launched blind bags for the Spring Festival. Similar to the blind box, the blind bag is a sales model in which merchants randomly place products in opaque paper bags, and customers must pay before they can open the bag to view. Blind bag products include daily necessities, shoes, clothing, books, etc. Because of its unpredictable mystery and low price, it arouses people's curiosity and many consumers rush to buy it. However, some merchants regard blind bag sales as a means of clearing inventory, and even blind bag products have many defective products. For example, a consumer bought a blind bag for clothing, but when he opened the bag, he found a pile of out-of-season socks.
The original intention of the sales model of blind box and blind bag should be that consumers can obtain some commercial discounts of great value for money and variable magnitude on the premise that it is clear that the product and price match or are roughly equivalent. It is an uncertain commercial promotion. Behavior. Nowadays, some blind bag products purchased by consumers are suspected of being counterfeit products or secondary sales products, and some are even suspected of being "three noes" products, which is really depressing.
The blind bag sales model has strong information asymmetry. Consumers usually can only rely on merchants’ propaganda to make purchases, and are therefore easily misled by merchants’ exaggerated product values and fictitious winning probabilities. Some merchants will also exaggerate or publish false advertisements in individual cases, stating or implying that the blind bags contain valuable goods.
In terms of rights protection, blind bag products are often more difficult than ordinary products. If the goods received by consumers have quality problems or do not conform to the merchant's promotion at all, some merchants will often use the reasons that the blind bag and blind box products are inherently uncertain, the attached gifts cannot be returned, and the blind bag products are not returnable or exchangeable. Refuse to provide after-sales service.
As a new business and consumption model, blind bags are conducive to stimulating the market and boosting consumption to a certain extent, but blind bags cannot and should not become a regulatory blind spot. The operation and sales of any product should abide by the rules and have a bottom line. Only in this way can merchants achieve greater development. Therefore, operators who sell blind bags must abide by their integrity and truthfully inform consumers of the general scope and quality of the goods in the blind bags. They must not pass off inferior goods or pass them off as genuine goods. The market supervision department should urge merchants to truthfully disclose the probability of winning various products, product quality and other information in blind bag marketing, and at the same time, promptly investigate and deal with marketing behaviors that infringe on consumer rights.
In response to the chaos of blind box marketing, in June 2023, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Guidelines for Standards of Conduct for Blind Box Operations (Trial)", which clarified that food and cosmetics that do not meet the conditions to ensure quality, safety and consumer rights should not be used as Sold in blind box form. On the basis of relevant laws and regulations, it is necessary for relevant departments to promptly correct and standardize issues related to blind bag sales based on consumer complaints and feedback.
From another perspective, if businesses rely too much on marketing gimmicks such as blind bags to induce consumers to make impulse purchases, it is likely to eventually lead to a decline in consumer trust, damage to the brand image and their own business reputation. For merchants, only by ensuring the quality of the products in blind bags can they win the long-term favor of consumers and gain more revenue.
In any case, blind boxes and blind bags should not become synonymous with counterfeit goods, incorrect goods, high prices and low quality. (Worker Daily)