Inflated List Prices and Inconsistent Quality Make the Hairy Crab Market Even More Chaotic This Year
On September 20, Yangcheng Lake opened for the season, and with the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays approaching, hairy crabs began entering their peak sales period. However, this year, because Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs suffered a “poor harvest” due to many factors, sales chaos has intensified, with price confusion, inconsistent quality, and many online stores able to issue different types of invoices, all of which urgently need to be regulated.
Chaos 1: Inflated list prices with discounts as low as 10%
Yesterday, a Beijing Business Today reporter logged onto Tmall and searched for “Yangcheng Lake hairy crab,” and 4,581 related products appeared, but on closer inspection it was not hard to find that prices were unusually chaotic. Clicking into several online stores ranked high in sales, the reporter found that the listed prices and selling prices were vastly different. On the page of a certain brand's in-stock hairy crab gift box with total sales of 79,394 units, the original price of the gift box was 699 yuan, while the selling price was only 138 yuan. Another gift box of 8 hairy crabs with monthly sales as high as 37,312 had an original price of 628 yuan and a selling price of only 118 yuan. In addition, the selling prices of all products on the pages were below 50% of the listed prices.
To ease logistics pressure, many merchants did not remove hairy crab gift certificate products from their shelves, but instead adopted a method of selling in-stock crabs together with gift certificates. Due to the impact of in-stock crabs, the discounts on gift certificates were even more astonishing: a gift certificate with a face value of 2,388 yuan had a promotional price of only 299 yuan. Looking across major e-commerce websites, the chaos of high list prices and low selling prices can be seen everywhere.
Chaos 2: Some hairy crabs are of unknown origin
This year, the output of Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs was only 2,100 tons, but the “Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs” consumed by consumers each year reach 20,000 tons. The many counterfeit crabs have always been a persistent headache for Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs.
To ensure quality, the Suzhou Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab Industry Association gave all Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs “anti-counterfeiting rings” this year. Many hot-selling hairy crab products looked much the same in their displays, with the difference lying in how product authenticity marks were shown.
A Beijing Business Today reporter randomly selected several online stores without marks and made inquiries. One of them said that larger crabs had anti-counterfeiting rings, while smaller ones did not. Another said that what it sold was authentic Yangcheng Lake hairy crab, but there were no anti-counterfeiting rings. Some replies were ambiguous, or simply refused to answer.
Chaos 3: Invoices for other categories can be issued
Even before hairy crabs hit the market, hairy crab gift certificates swept across major e-commerce websites, and many stores directly posted the advertising slogan “can issue all types of invoices.” When communicating with some merchants' customer service, a Beijing Business Today reporter, citing the purchase of employee benefits as the reason, asked whether invoices could be issued that would be “convenient for reimbursement.” Among the dozens of online stores surveyed, only two said they could not issue invoices for other categories, while the rest all said that as long as the purchase amount met their requirements, they could issue various categories of invoices such as food, gifts, or office supplies.
Since restrictions on “three public” consumption were imposed, sales of some branded hairy crabs began to decline continuously. Mr. Zheng, general manager of Suxiege, said in an interview that this year Suxiege's sales performance is expected to decline by 15%-20% compared with the same period last year, and the main reason for the decline is the loss of major corporate customers.
In response, an industry insider admitted frankly that after mooncakes, hairy crabs have become another “disaster area” for gift-giving during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Stores providing other categories of office invoices undoubtedly facilitated restrictions on “three public” consumption, making hairy crabs a breeding ground for corruption.
Association: Plans to impose an 80% price floor next year
It is worth mentioning that this year the Suzhou Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab Industry Association issued relevant regulations on hairy crab sales prices and began trial operation. In order to improve the phenomenon of chaotic prices during the hairy crab sales season in recent years, the Suzhou Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab Industry Association specially issued new regulations this year prohibiting false labeling and false prices. For example, Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs are divided by male and female specifications: male crabs are divided into 2.5 liang, 3.0 liang, 3.5 liang, 4.0 liang, 4.5 liang, 5.0 liang, and 6.0 liang, and female crabs are divided into 2.0 liang, 2.5 liang, 3.0 liang, 3.5 liang, and 4.0 liang. These do not include binding materials or moisture error, and the weight can only go up, not down; the selling price must not be lower than 80% of the set price, and it is strictly forbidden to raise the original price to induce consumers to buy with ultra-low prices.
In addition, on the homepage of the Suzhou Yangcheng Lake hairy crab official website, in a very prominent position, it is marked “2015 Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab Anti-Counterfeiting Instructions.” It introduces in detail this year's Yangcheng Lake hairy crab anti-counterfeiting marks and inquiry methods. Consumers can use the 12-digit code on the anti-counterfeiting mark to verify the authenticity of the hairy crabs they purchased through telephone, WeChat, the internet, and other means.
Expert: Government and industry need to strengthen supervision
Zhu Danpeng, a commentator on China's food industry, believes that the various chaotic practices involving Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs are still due to the fact that the government and industry have not carried out stronger standardization of the hairy crab market, and there are also no relevant regulations on hairy crab farming standards. Inadequate supervision will, on the one hand, lead to uneven quality of hairy crabs on the market, and on the other hand, will be manifested in vastly different prices. He also said that consumers' lack of deep understanding of hairy crabs is also a main reason for the proliferation of chaos. “If consumers have enough understanding of hairy crabs, they will distinguish their quality, and naturally will not be disturbed by stores that rely solely on low prices to attract attention. Over time, these inferior merchants who pass themselves off as genuine will have no room to survive.”