One person snapped up 100 packages just to get the blind box of food to eat and just discarded
"Food +" marketing, popularity has risen to waste what explanation
● In recent years, there are many commercial marketing behaviors that only care about promotion and ignore the consequences, such as "toys + catering" and "blind box + catering" and other marketing models, which are easy to cause unnecessary food waste by improperly stimulating and inducing consumers to carry out irrational over-consumption
● The reasons for the frequent occurrence of food waste due to business models are first of all that the waste problem is not characterized, and there is no clear standard for whether it causes waste; secondly, there is no direct injured party; in addition, the punishment is very limited, and the anti-food waste in reality mainly relies on moral constraints, and is rarely truly implemented at the level of supervision and punishment
● Relevant government departments should further clarify and refine the supervision and punishment basis for anti-food waste, establish and improve the anti-food waste supervision and inspection mechanism, and increase the intensity of daily inspection and supervision; industry associations should formulate industry guidance norms and anti-food waste industry standards to strengthen the guidance and guidance of the industry; enterprises themselves should have bottom-line thinking and awareness, and business model innovation should follow the concept of anti-waste, otherwise they should bear adverse consequences
□ Sun Tianjiao, a trainee reporter of this newspaper
□ Zhao Li, a reporter of this newspaper
Recently, KFC and blind box seller Bubble Mart jointly launched the "DIMOO co-branded blind box package", buy a package of 99 yuan, you can get a co-branded blind box. As soon as the campaign was launched, it immediately triggered a rush of consumers. Some netizens posted on social media that they spent 10,494 yuan to buy 106 packages at one time.
In order to collect blind boxes, they rush to buy fast food sets, but after getting the blind boxes, how to dispose of a large number of food? The possible waste behind this has attracted attention. A week after the event began, the China Consumers Association criticized KFC by name for food waste that could result from the joint blind box campaign.
In fact, this kind of "toy + catering" and "blind box + catering" marketing model is not the first case, in recent years, there are many commercial marketing behaviors that only care about promotion and ignore the consequences, directly or indirectly leading to food waste.
Experts interviewed by the "Rule of Law Daily" reporter believe that some unreasonable business models through improper stimulation, induce consumers to carry out irrational excessive consumption, easy to cause unnecessary food waste, not only deviate from the traditional virtues of strict economy and opposition to waste, but also suspected of violating relevant laws and regulations, should strengthen the supervision and punishment of this behavior, strictly regulate the market, and avoid the recurrence of similar behavior.
Blind box packages sparked a rush
Over-purchases result in waste
"Usually the same series of blind boxes to 69 yuan a, now 99 yuan can buy both blind boxes and KFC packages, we 'baby circle' feel too worthwhile." Wang Ying (pseudonym), a 26-year-old graduate student in Beijing and a veteran of the blind box class, said that the circle of blind box enthusiasts like her is often called "baby circle", and the limited edition DIMO blind box jointly launched by KFC and Bubble Mart in early January this year is the "big news" of the "baby circle".
It is reported that this 99 yuan KFC package includes 3 small cups of Coke, 1 small portion of fries, 1 old Beijing chicken roll, 1 spicy chicken leg fort, 5 pieces of golden chicken nuggets, 2 Portuguese egg tarts, and then a KFC China 35th anniversary "KFC× DIMOO" limited series handmade. According to the rules of the event, the series of blind boxes has a total of 6 regular models and 1 hidden doll, 6 1 box, a total of 263880 copies sold nationwide, of which the hidden version has become more precious due to the small probability of winning.
The activity under the banner of limited editions immediately triggered the "baby circle" to rob. On January 4, the day the activity began, in order to grab a joint blind box, Wang Ying deliberately got up early to go to a KFC store near the school, and wanted to wait for the official preview of the activity time to go to buy at 10:30, but she did not expect to find that there was already a long queue at the door of the store.
"When the time came, everyone squeezed in, basically buying whole boxes (6 pieces), and some even bought a dozen copies by one person." Wang Ying recalled that because of the limited amount of goods allocated by a storefront, when she purchased, the clerk reminded her that the remaining blind box was not enough for a whole box. After considering it, Wang Ying purchased two packages and finally grabbed two blind boxes.
According to Wang Ying, in her "baby circle", there are many people who are "crazy" because of this activity. Some people said that they bought blind boxes of nearly 5,000 yuan in 3 different stores before drawing hidden money.
Behind the madness is the huge appreciation potential of the limited edition blind box. After searching for "KFC blind box" on a second-hand trading platform, the reporter found that there were a large number of blind box dolls of known styles, of which the cheapest price of a single blind box was about 80 yuan, and the price of the most expensive hidden "ace fried chicken" ranged from 750 yuan to 920 yuan.
On January 10, a week after the start of the event, the reporter visited 3 KFC stores in Chaoyang District, Beijing, and was told that the relevant activity products in the store were sold out on the day of the start of the event. A KFC staff member told reporters: "About 10 minutes after the event started, the blind box was sold out, and many people drove in, directly carrying more than a dozen packages. ”
What if the activity leads to a crazy rush to buy, and what if a large number of packages cannot be eaten after grabbing the hand? Wang Ying was still living on campus, taking two packages back to the dormitory to share with her roommates, and finally there were two cups of Coke and a chicken roll that had not been eaten, because it could not be stored, and could only be thrown away. Wang Ying said: "The people who participated in the activities were definitely running to the blind box, and whether the final package could be eaten was not in the scope of consideration." According to friends, some KFC stores have storage activities that can be redeemed later, but the clerk I went to did not give any tips. ”
The food waste that may result from this joint campaign of blind boxes and catering has aroused concern.
On January 12, the China Consumers Association issued a letter criticizing KFC by name, saying that some consumers did not hesitate to spend 10,494 yuan to buy 106 packages at one time; some consumers bought "eating on behalf of" services for "seeking babies", hired people to buy meal packages on behalf of them and obtained blind boxes, and even did not rule out the direct discarding of uneaten food. KFC as a catering enterprise, its operation of fast food belongs to the limited period of use of goods, on-demand purchase of instant consumption is the characteristics of this type of goods, consumers usually do not over-purchase, to the limited edition of blind box sales is to stimulate consumption by "hunger marketing" means, easy to lead to consumers in order to obtain a limited number of blind boxes and impulsive consumption, and due to excessive purchases caused by unnecessary food waste.
The problem of waste is not well characterized
The penalties are very limited
In recent years, this "toy + catering" and "blind box + catering" model has long been commonplace.
In January 2021, Xu Fuji and Bubble Mart jointly launched the New Year Gift Box, which contains Xu Fuji products and Bubble Mart BUNKY Winter Limited Blind Box.
On January 21 this year, after being named by the China Consumer Association, KFC once again launched the Doraemon package, and any purchase of related packages from 39 yuan can be given a Doraemon zodiac toy. A total of 12 toys, distributed randomly, the package is limited to a total of 2079999 copies nationwide, while stocks last.
In the view of Zhu Xiaojuan, director and deputy secretary-general of the Commercial Law Research Association of the China Law Society and associate professor of China University of Political Science and Law, business model innovation is the freedom of operators and the driving force of business development, but it should follow the bottom line and should not cross the boundary. Merchants can promote through the model of "toys + catering" and "blind box + catering", but it is easy to lead to food waste, which is contrary to the traditional virtues of the mainland to practice economy and oppose waste, and it is contrary to the basic value orientation of the anti-food waste law, and the food waste behavior beyond the limit should be regulated.
In addition to the "blind box +" model, in recent years, driven by economic interests, some unreasonable marketing activities have directly or indirectly led to food waste.
For example, after the big stomach king eats and broadcasts once exploded, such videos have become "traffic passwords", and many eating broadcasts have created the illusion of a large amount of food through vomiting and fake eating in order to attract the audience to "traffic realization", which not only leads to a large amount of food waste, but also transmits a bad atmosphere.
In May 2021, a video of dumping dairy products caught attention. In the video, a large number of unwashed drinks of a certain brand are taken apart and poured directly into the ditch. The drink involved is a partner of a talent show, the audience can vote for the contestants of the talent show after purchase, the two-dimensional code that needs to be scanned for voting is in the bottle cap, and the bottle can be scanned to vote. "As long as the bottle cap does not milk" has become the consensus of fans, resulting in a large amount of drink waste.
Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, believes that if an enterprise induces or misleads consumers to buy a large amount of food through marketing activities, exceeding the amount of normal consumption, it is likely to cause food waste. This is not a moral issue, but a suspected violation of the law and the corresponding consequences must be borne in accordance with the law.
On April 29, 2021, the Anti-Food Waste Law was promulgated and implemented, which clearly stipulates that catering service operators consciously resist food waste, prompt consumers to consume moderately, and must not induce or mislead consumers to over-consume, resulting in food waste.
Why is food waste caused by commercial practices still frequent under the law?
Chen Yinjiang analyzed that the reasons for the frequent occurrence of food waste due to business models are first of all that the waste problem is not well characterized, and there is no clear standard for whether it causes waste, resulting in many people's insufficient understanding of food waste; secondly, there is no direct injured party, and the parties spend money to buy food to cause waste, which generally does not cause direct damage to others. "Although the Anti-Food Waste Law stipulates that any unit or individual who finds food producers and traders who have food waste behavior has the right to report to the relevant departments and organs, from a realistic point of view, in order to avoid trouble, few people will take the initiative to report the waste of food by others or food business operators."
In addition, Chen Yinjiang mentioned that at present, for the problem of food waste caused by commercial behavior, the regulatory authorities are not clear, the punishment is also very limited, and the anti-food waste in reality mainly relies on moral constraints, and is rarely really implemented at the level of supervision and punishment.
"The Consumer Rights protection law on the fight against food waste is mainly advocacy provisions, and there are no specific penalties. Although the Anti-Food Waste Law has clear prohibition provisions and penalties, the punishment is limited, generally ordering corrections or giving warnings, and only those who refuse to correct will be punished with corresponding fines. Therefore, the current punishment of food waste in relevant laws is not enough to deter relevant business operators. Chen Yinjiang said.
Enterprise innovation should keep the bottom line
Relevant departments must be strongly supervised
In recent years, the problem of food waste has received more and more attention, and the state and relevant departments have also successively issued relevant laws and regulations. In addition to the Anti-Food Waste Law, in December 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Administration for Market Regulation and other four departments issued the Anti-Food Waste Work Plan, proposing that commercial departments at all levels take measures to encourage catering service operators to provide meal sharing services and disclose their anti-food waste to the public. In order to curb food waste in the catering industry, the plan proposes to promote the introduction of anti-food waste group standards and industry self-discipline norms in the catering industry.
Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and other seven departments have studied and formulated the "Implementation Plan for Promoting Green Consumption", which regards grain conservation and anti-food waste as an important part of green consumption, proposes to strengthen the whole chain of grain conservation and loss reduction, and clarifies the responsibility requirements for various consumer entities.
In addition, various localities have also successively introduced relevant policies and regulations to firmly say "no" to the phenomenon of food waste caused by commercial behavior.
On January 14, the local standard "Code of Conduct against Food Waste for Catering Service Operators" issued by the Market Supervision Bureau of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, was implemented, which is the first standard on anti-food waste behavior in China. It clearly stipulates that catering service operators must not set a minimum consumption amount, and must not induce, mislead or covertly set a minimum consumption amount by means of private room fees. All catering units should also establish regular training mechanisms and assessment records to strengthen the training of catering practitioners on anti-food waste business knowledge and professional ethics.
Hu Gang, deputy secretary-general of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Internet Society of China, told reporters that to eliminate the problem of food waste caused by commercial behavior, we should adhere to the principle of attaching equal importance to development and standardization, and taking into account competition and innovation. Regulatory authorities should adhere to bottom-line thinking, make good use of transparency supervision, and issue guidance documents in a timely manner to stabilize the expectations of operators and consumers. Give full play to the effectiveness of flexible measures such as administrative guidance interviews and rigid measures such as administrative inspection and punishment, and combine rigidity and flexibility to create a fair and orderly market environment.
"Relevant departments may make it clear that they shall not operate food and catering services in unreasonable business models such as blind boxes, and shall not induce or mislead consumers to participate." Hu Gang said.
In Chen Yinjiang's view, relevant government departments should further clarify and refine the supervision and punishment basis for anti-food waste, establish and improve the anti-food waste supervision and inspection mechanism, and increase the intensity of daily inspection and supervision. Once the problem of food waste is discovered, it is not only necessary to supervise and rectify in a timely manner, but also to punish according to law and expose it to the public.
Zhu Xiaojuan suggested that market supervision and other departments should take the initiative to enforce the law, take the initiative to interview and order rectification of the food waste found. Industry associations should formulate industry guidance norms and anti-food waste industry standards, and strengthen the guidance and guidance of the industry. Enterprises themselves should have bottom-line thinking and awareness, and business model innovation should follow the concept of anti-waste, otherwise they should bear adverse consequences.
Finally, Chen Yinjiang called on consumers to abandon the idea of "face" and "pomp", not to compare, not to show off, not to waste, to order food in moderation, to consume rationally, to polish their eyes on the induced consumption behavior of merchants, and to truly implement the virtues of thrift and thrift into practical actions.
Source: People's Daily