Reporter's investigation | Strictly prevent the rebound of "high-priced moon cakes"
The website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and State Supervision Commission Qu Peng Wen Ziyu
The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and moon cakes are here.
The reporter's investigation found that with the continuous deepening of the construction of the style, the "high-priced moon cakes" have been effectively curbed, and the market consumption has become more rational, but there are also some "edge balls" that push up the price through packaging and mixed sales.
While celebrating the festive season, we must remain vigilant to prevent the "high-priced mooncakes" from rebounding.
The sales of boxed mooncakes with a unit price of more than 500 yuan accounted for less than 1%, a significant decrease compared to previous years
In late August, the reporter visited the moon cake markets in Beijing Xicheng, Hebei Tangshan, Fujian Jinjiang and other places and found that under the environment of "practicing strict conservation and opposing waste", "highly priced moon cakes" are hard to see, and the phenomenon of luxury packaging and extravagance has improved significantly. Mooncakes continue to gain popularity.
Ding Jing is an employee of a food company in Anhai Town, Jinjiang City. She and her colleagues are much busier than in previous years during the "Mid-Autumn Festival" this year.
"During this time, I worked overtime every day to make mooncakes." Ding Jing introduced that the company has been producing simple mooncakes with ancient and early flavors with southern Fujian characteristics for more than 20 years since its establishment. Even the mooncakes in gift boxes use the simplest carton boxes to keep the packaging cost to a minimum.
Some customers have suggested that the packaging box is "too earthy", can it be made more "high-end"?
In Ding Jing's view, the most important thing about moon cakes is to taste good, not to look good; what customers buy is the moon cake itself, not the box. Only "cheap and large portions" can attract more consumers.
"According to my observation, there are far fewer gorgeous gift boxes on the market this year, and more people choose cheap plain mooncakes." Ding Jing told reporters that their sales data has not been counted, but judging from the overtime situation, "The business must have been good in the past year. "
The person in charge of Tangshan Zhongcheng Pastry Factory also believes that the main reason for the high prices of some moon cake gift boxes is the exquisite packaging, and compared with the past, "this year's situation is much better."
"Our factory has been in operation for 27 years and mainly produces mooncakes with classic flavors such as five kernels, red bean paste, and pineapple. Each is priced at 2 to 3 yuan. Because it is economical, it is more popular with local consumers." The person in charge said that mooncakes are China Traditional food, sticking to the attributes of popular food is the way to operate.
A staff member of a five-star hotel in Beijing told reporters that this year, the number of high-priced mooncakes ordered by large companies and large enterprises has decreased, and the purchase volume of the hotel has also declined. "Now the sales of high-priced mooncakes are more sensitive."
According to Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, the moon cake market has become more and more rational in recent years, especially this year. Packaging and other chaos is not unrelated.
In June this year, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four departments issued the "Announcement on Curbing "Sky-High" Mooncakes and Promoting the Healthy Development of the Industry", which put forward requirements on the sales price and packaging of mooncakes.
For example, it stipulates that key supervision should be implemented on boxed mooncakes with a unit price of more than 500 yuan, and operators are encouraged to produce and sell high-quality and inexpensive boxed mooncakes, requiring "no tie-in sales of other commodities in any form; neither can mooncakes be combined with other products in the form of gift boxes. Mixed sales of other products".
From August 15th, the No. 1 Amendment to the National Standard "Restriction of Excessive Packaging Requirements for Food and Cosmetics" was officially implemented.
According to the regulations, the number of packaging layers for moon cakes and zongzi shall not exceed 3 layers at most; for moon cakes and zongzi whose sales price is more than 100 yuan, the proportion of packaging cost to the sales price is reduced from 20% to 15%; precious metals and mahogany materials shall not be used for packaging ; It is forbidden to mix moon cakes with other products, etc.
"After years of governance, the mooncake market has been generally stable in recent years, and the price level has become normal. Especially this year, according to preliminary statistics, the sales of boxed mooncakes with a unit price of more than 500 yuan accounted for less than 1%, which is a significant decrease compared to previous years." The relevant person in charge of the Price Supervision and Inspection and Anti-Unfair Competition Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation told reporters.
The 499 yuan gift box is on the rise, and some merchants try to evade supervision
The reporter visited some supermarkets and high-end hotels and found that although the unit price of moon cake gift boxes did not exceed the key regulatory red line of 500 yuan, there are still some brands whose prices are as high as 400 yuan, far exceeding other brands sold on the same stage.
In the mooncake sales section of a supermarket, most mooncake gift boxes are priced between 100 yuan and 300 yuan, and two others are 468 yuan and 498 yuan respectively.
The 498 yuan gift box is named after "Fortune Dangtou", which is a combination of Beijing-style and Cantonese-style mooncakes, with a net weight of 1.7 kg, a total of 18 pieces.
Among several high-end hotels, the highest-priced Mid-Autumn Festival gift box launched by a five-star hotel is priced at 428 yuan and has a net weight of 0.8 kg. 8 in total.
Compared with physical stores, the pricing of mooncake gift boxes on e-commerce platforms is more worthy of attention.
An obvious change is the sudden emergence of "499 yuan", which is not only numerous, but has also become the price ceiling for high-priced mooncakes.
The reporter searched for "moon cake gift box" on an e-commerce platform and found that there are as many as 2,000 kinds of commodities priced between 499 yuan and 499.99 yuan.
On another e-commerce platform, there are also a large number of mooncake gift boxes between 498 yuan and 499 yuan.
Neither of the two e-commerce platforms sells gift boxes of mooncakes over 500 yuan. Even if some styles are priced higher than 500 yuan, the "discounted price" and "arrival price" displayed in the form of icons are also lower than the "red line".
Some products also indicate information such as "group purchase priority" and "flexible invoicing" in the icon.
"The appearance of a large number of 499 yuan and 498 yuan moon cake gift boxes shows that some businesses are well aware of the 500 yuan key supervision red line set by the relevant departments, and try to evade supervision by playing 'edge ball'." Chen Yinjiang believes that this kind of supervision is below the red line. The wandering behavior reflects that some businesses have impure business motives, and related products should still be included in the scope of key supervision.
The reporter noticed that, whether in physical stores or e-commerce platforms, high-priced mooncakes are almost always accompanied by exquisite packaging.
The "Diana · Feast" mooncake gift box sold by an e-commerce platform is 390 mm, 260 mm, and 180 mm in length, width and height, respectively.
The "Yifeng Guoxiang" moon cake gift box sold in a supermarket is priced at 398 yuan, with a net content of 0.42 kg, including 7 moon cakes. .
"The cost of fillings for different brands of mooncakes is not much different, and the big price difference is mainly due to different packaging costs." The person in charge of a pastry manufacturer in Heilongjiang said, for example, a mooncake gift box he is familiar with sells for 598 yuan, and its packaging cost At around 200 yuan, it accounts for about 33% of the sales price, far exceeding the 15% requirement stipulated by the policy.
Like a cake but not a cake, mixed sales, playing word games
While the "499 yuan phenomenon" aroused heated discussions, some high-priced Mid-Autumn Festival gift boxes that were "like cakes but not cakes" also attracted attention.
Take the "Louvre Palace" Mid-Autumn Gift Box jointly launched by Haagen-Dazs and the Louvre Museum as an example. ".
Previously, Belgian chocolate brand Godiva also launched a Mid-Autumn Festival gift box with a price of up to 1699 yuan. Because the shape of the product is very similar to the moon cake, but the packaging only reads "chocolate cake", which has been questioned by netizens for playing word games.
It is worth noting that in the typical case of excessive packaging of goods announced by the State Administration for Market Regulation in April this year, the "Louvre Reflecting the Moon" series of ice cream jointly launched by Haagen-Dazs and the Louvre Museum was unqualified due to the problem of packaging void ratio. "On the list".
On the other hand, although the "Announcement" of the four departments stipulates that operators selling boxed mooncakes shall not mix mooncakes with other commodities, there are still some enterprises that sell boxed mooncakes together or sell other commodities in combination.
The reporter saw from the e-commerce platform that this year, a domestic food brand and Harry Potter jointly launched the "Monster Book Mooncake Gift Box". Special peripheral products for sale; Disney launched the "Happy Dreamer Mooncake Gift Box", which contains 6 mooncakes, and is sold with Disney's 2022 limited new leather bag, priced at 429 yuan.
In addition, there are many acts of tying small pots of tea, chocolates, thermos cups and other commodities in moon cake gift boxes on e-commerce platforms.
Chen Yinjiang believes that the tying phenomenon not only violates the relevant requirements in the "Announcement", but also violates the "Consumer Rights Protection Law": "Mixing moon cakes with other commodities and selling them as a package as a whole is suspected of infringing consumers' rights and interests. The right to choose is suspected of compulsory consumption.”
In response to related issues, Chen Yinjiang said that some mooncake companies urgently need to transform their products, reduce packaging burdens, put more attention on the R&D and production of the products themselves, and establish the concept of legal and compliant operation.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Price Supervision and Competition Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation, the problem of "high-priced" moon cakes is mainly manifested in three aspects. First, a few high-end hotels provide special customization to meet the needs of specific customer groups, often with high costs and prices.
Second, in order to pursue high profits, a small number of merchants package and mix moon cakes in a variety of ways. Some add rare ingredients, and some sell moon cakes with high-end tea and high-end wine, which pushes up the price.
The third is the unhealthy consumption concept.
"Most buyers of 'high-priced' mooncakes are for gifts, seeking face, and paying attention to luxury. They often feel that the more expensive the better, which not only causes extravagance, but also hides the problem of the 'four winds'." The person in charge told reporters.
Looking at the "Four Winds" through moon cakes, continuing to release strict signals
Mooncakes are over-packaged and labelled with "high prices", which invisibly promotes a bad social atmosphere of extravagance and waste, and is also prone to corruption.
It is the responsibility of the discipline inspection and supervision organs to promote supervision through supervision, let moon cakes return to the attributes of mass consumer goods, and prevent the rebound of "sky-high" moon cakes.
"We have noticed that although the market order of moon cakes has improved significantly, there are still a few merchants who over-package moon cakes, or conduct mixed sales by splitting orders and inflating the number of goods. Neglect." Shi Zhenlong, head of the discipline inspection and supervision team of the Quanzhou Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision of Fujian Province in the Market Supervision Bureau, told reporters that the implementation of the spirit of the eight central regulations will take a long time to work, and the discipline inspection and supervision organs should continue to strengthen cooperation with business, market supervision and other departments , in-depth rectification of the invisible mutation problem of the "four styles", and continue to promote the change of style with the solution of specific problems.
"Small moon cakes are related to the atmosphere." Wang Hu, member of the Standing Committee of the Suzhou Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervisory Committee of Jiangsu Province, believes that the phenomenon of individual companies pushing up the price of moon cakes by playing "edge balls" not only deviates from the origin of traditional culture, promotes extravagance and waste, but also easily Induce the illegal behavior of sending gifts and gifts under the guise of moon cakes, "These new signs of 'fatty' must be corrected in time, and they must be attacked when they show up."
Wang Hu introduced that the Suzhou Disciplinary Inspection and Supervision Organ will base itself on its responsibilities, promote strong supervision with strong supervision, and urge functional departments to carry out special rectification actions for issues such as "high-priced" moon cakes and excessive packaging of commodities, standardize the business behavior of market entities, and promote the concept of simple and moderate consumption. , to protect the "price" for the Mid-Autumn Festival, and guide festival commodities and festival consumption to return to the origin of traditional culture.
At the same time, the work style issues that may be involved behind the boxing of "high-priced" moon cakes will be the focus of work, and the work of rectifying the "four winds" of the nodes will be promoted as a whole, and the signal of strictness will be continuously released.
Recently, the Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision of Funing County, Yunnan Province took the “high-priced” moon cake rectification as an entry point, and cooperated with relevant departments to carry out special supervision and inspections in terms of price, packaging, advertising and publicity, and strengthened the discipline before the festival.
"If we find that the unit price is close to 500 yuan, or there are mixed packaging, tying sales, etc., we will immediately screen the sales records, and strictly prevent the invisible mutation 'four winds' such as low-level high-selling, illegal tying, illegal sales of moon cake tickets, and illegal use of public funds to buy. The problem.” The relevant person in charge of the Funing County Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision said that among them, the focus was on checking the moon cake sales ledgers and bills, and trying to find out whether there were problems such as illegal purchases by administrative agencies, enterprises and institutions, and through inspections of more than 100 supermarkets and stores, 12 problems were found and supervised for rectification, and 1 case was filed for investigation.
In Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province, the discipline inspection and supervision organs urge the market supervision departments to carry out special rectifications to standardize the business behavior of market players in terms of food safety, price, packaging, online trading, advertising and publicity, and form a "source can be traced, whereabouts can be traced, and responsibility can be traced." "Investigable" food safety traceability system.
The Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision has also established a communication and coordination mechanism with functional departments such as auditing, taxation, and market supervision, and prioritized handling and digging into the discovered disciplinary violations, and resolutely rectified the invisible mutation "four winds" problem.