The “blind box” of card cards is eyeing the student market and be wary of minors’ addiction to purchases.
Expert: Parents and schools should do a good job in guiding education to prevent children from breeding comparisons and gambling mentality
In recent days, many elementary school students spent thousands or even 3,000 yuan in large sums of money for buying Ultraman cards, causing family conflicts, and some even triggered alarms and complaints.
A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily found that in addition to Ultraman cards, there are more blind cash boxes and stationery blind boxes that are eyeing elementary school students’ wallets, and most of these products are of poor quality. It may make the child's pocket money worthless.
In this regard, the Consumer Protection Committee recommends to be wary of "stationery blind boxes" triggering children's addiction to purchase.
Parents should do a good job of guidance and education, and schools should also pay attention to the comparison of various limited edition probabilistic products that appear on campus to avoid children's gambling mentality.
In addition, businesses that produce and sell all kinds of blind box products should not conduct research and development, promotion and sales of such products, which will affect the mental health of young people.
dispute
10-year-old kid spends thousands of new year's money to buy Ultraman cards, store denies inducing sales
A few days ago, Ms. Fan in Hangzhou discovered that there were many more cards in the room of her 10-year-old nephew. It turned out that when his parents were on a business trip, he took the new year's money they saved to buy cards, and spent thousands of yuan in less than a month.
She said that this kind of card sales is similar to "blind boxes". Merchants continue to introduce so-called rare cards. The more expensive the card pack, the greater the chance of getting a good card. This inductive sales method can easily fascinate children. .
"My nephew made large purchases many times without the parents' knowledge. Not only did the merchant fail to stop it, but there may even be incentives for consumption, and the money should be returned."
The shop owner said that he always asked about it, and the children said that the family members agreed. It is impossible for a child to buy a one- and two-yuan card and call the other parent first.
The children bought so many cards to go home, and the parents didn't find out in time to stop them. It should be a problem with the family education, and the business should not be blamed.
Ms. Fan can only choose to report to the police station in her jurisdiction.
The police officers discovered through on-site surveillance that Ms. Fan's nephew spent hundreds of yuan on the latest purchase at the store, and all he used was the whole hundred yuan.
After the police brought the two parties back to the police station, they contacted the market management department and the street mediator to conduct mediation together.
In the end, the owner Zhao returned 1,000 yuan and apologized, and the dispute between the two parties ended.
Compare
Want to be recognized and liked and consume
The seller is suspected of "selling dog meat"
Coincidentally, another parent said that his child is currently in the third grade of elementary school and has always liked to buy Ultraman cards, spending thousands of yuan each year.
Under the strict prohibition of the school teacher, the trend of Ultraman cards in the class passed.
However, now the class has begun to popularize stationery blind boxes. In order to get a certain hidden money to give away, the child actually bought 20 sets of 24 pen sets, the total price is more than 2,000 yuan, and he is completely addicted.
After investigation, the children did not really like the product or bought it for the practical function of the product, but because the students who have hidden or rare models in their school have the right to speak among peers, and the social interaction between students is because The blind box has changed.
A child's desire to be recognized and liked by others may be stronger and simpler than an adult.
They chose the easiest shortcut, which is to have the rarest blind box stationery, and use it to exchange friendship and the right to speak.
A reporter from the Beiqing Daily found that the blind card box is very popular among students. Some students said that they had purchased several thousand yuan of cards for this reason, but they still did not have a complete set of cards.
Cards can also be used in battles, and a game and comparison culture has also formed among students.
On the e-commerce platform, the price of this card ranges from 2 yuan to 399 yuan, and there are many shops with monthly sales of more than 50,000 yuan.
However, searching for "Ultraman cards" on social networks is more about accusations of "pirated", "low price" and "poor quality" cards.
In addition to Ultraman cards, there are more such as blind cash boxes and stationery blind boxes that are eyeing elementary school students' wallets.
A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily saw that a merchant selling "cash net celebrity blind money draw boxes" sold blind box gift packages with a price of more than 100 yuan including 100 lottery boxes. The seller claimed that there were cash at various prices.
However, the consumer who bought it said that the goods he offered were not renminbi in circulation, but printed matter with the word "sample" printed on the lower left corner of each banknote.
Another buyer commented: "Blood loss."
In addition, there is also a blind box of stationery that has also targeted the student market.
According to a store’s introduction, depending on the quantity of stationery included, the price of the blind stationery box ranges from 7.8 yuan to 26.8 yuan, and you can buy 50 pieces at a time.
"It's not the pen in the picture at all, the pen received is only worth one yuan."
The buyer who received the goods expressed dissatisfaction and believed that the seller was suspected of "selling dog meat".
sound
Expert: Consumers are wary of false propaganda
The operator must bear the statutory quality guarantee responsibility
Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the China Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association, told a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily that this blind box game is a form of entertainment or game, which induces consumers to pay high fees, but they can’t get it. Pay to match the value.
And many of these buyers are young people with relatively weak self-control, and some are even minors, and they are easily induced to consume irrationally.
Blind box consumption reflects the irrational consumption concepts of some young people who are overly pursuing novelty, speculation and stimulation.
Young people are relatively weak in self-control and are easily induced to consume irrationally.
Some young consumers invest a lot of money in so-called blind box consumption such as "blind boxes" out of curiosity or blindly following the trend, and often fail to buy goods of corresponding value in the end.
Consumers should spend rationally, and don't be fooled by some so-called blind box gimmicks, lest they spend a high price, neither buy a happy mood, nor buy value-for-money goods.
According to a reminder issued by the Ningbo Consumer Protection Committee of Zhejiang Province, several inquiries and complaints have been received recently, all of which are related to probabilistic products-blind box stationery and Ultraman cards.
In order to select special models, hidden models, and limited models with small and medium probabilities, children frequently ask parents for pocket money to buy blind box products, which leads to a trance that affects learning and even causes family conflicts.
Here, the Ningbo Municipal Consumer Protection Committee issued a consumer warning to be wary of "blind stationery boxes" triggering children's addiction to purchase.
Parents should guide and educate their children in the early stage of the impulse to buy blind boxes, get in touch with schools and teachers when necessary, and cultivate their children's correct social concepts and sense of honor and disgrace.
Schools should also pay attention to the comparison of various limited-edition probabilistic products that appear on campus, and work closely with parents to cool the blind box fever to prevent children from breeding a gambling mentality.
In addition, businesses that produce and sell all kinds of blind box products should not conduct research and development, promotion and sales of such products, which will affect the mental health of young people.
Earlier, the China Consumers Association also issued a document stating that because businesses from all walks of life have found that the blind box market is profitable, they all hope to get a share of the pie. In addition to the original toys, many consumer areas such as catering, beauty, stationery, and books are also involved. The "blind box style" has been set off, and blind boxes can be seen everywhere in the consumer market.
However, there are also many problems in the blind box market, including: merchants are suspected of false propaganda, and the goods on hand do not match the propaganda.
Compared with ordinary products, blind boxes have strong information asymmetry. Consumers can only rely on merchants' advertising to buy, which is easy to be false by merchants such as exaggerating the value of products, fictional probability of winning, and inconsistent colors and styles. Misleading by publicity.
In addition, over-marketing by merchants makes consumers "addicted"; product quality is difficult to guarantee, fake and inferior products, and "three noes" products appear from time to time; consumer disputes are difficult to resolve, and after-sales service needs to be improved urgently.
Regarding the merchant’s rejection of the "7 days no reason to return and exchange" service due to the particularity of the blind box, the China Consumers Association also stated that the basic attributes of the blind box itself are commodities, and the operator must bear it regardless of whether it is sold as a genuine product or an accessory. Statutory quality guarantee responsibility.
On the one hand, it is necessary to ensure that the product source is reliable and the chain is complete, and to prevent "three noes" products and counterfeit goods; on the other hand, actively fulfill the operator's obligations such as return, replacement, repair, etc., and no excuses such as "gifts" and "lottery" Exempt from the obligation of quality assurance and after-sales service.
This group of articles / our reporter Wen Jing co-ordinated / Yu Meiying