It's another year of cherry blossom viewing. This year, commonly known as "paper crab" hairy crab delivery coupons are a bit "fire", but this "fire" is not word of mouth, but a variety of negative news: some media found that the "paper crab" market is playing "empty gloves white wolf", there are dealers who do not raise a crab, just with a piece of pick-up coupons, make a lot of money; there are also consumers who find that "paper crab" is not easy to pick up, obviously written for three years, but the delivery system shows that every day is "the appointment is full"... According to the consumer service platform "Black Cat Complaint", there have been more than 1,000 complaints with "hairy crab" as the keyword recently, the vast majority of which are related to problems such as "unable to pick up the goods", "no after-sales service for the delivery coupons", "picking up the dead crabs".
At the beginning of the birth of paper crabs, consumers and farmers feel convenient: consumers can make an appointment to pick up the goods according to their own time, and they can also give paper crabs to relatives and friends, which is more convenient than sending physical objects; farmers determine the number of fishing according to the appointment situation to avoid squeezing. However, with more and more issuers of coupons - farmers, dealers, and even "third people" who neither raise crabs nor sell crabs but specialize in printing paper crabs, the experience of paper crabs has declined year by year, and complaints remain high.
However, the paper crab does not mean to stop the flag. Who's after paper crabs? And what is the way to manage the paper crab?
How much is a "paper crab" worth?
"Buying crab coupons to give people is very decent, the face value is 1188 yuan, the actual price is only 40% off, 4 pairs of crabs, '4.5 two male + 3.5 two female'." Consumer Mr. Wang shared his own "Crab Picking Sutra".
However, the reporter saw that on the paper crab provided by Mr. Wang, there were only four words of "1188" and no monetary unit.
"The number on the pick-up coupon was indeed the amount at the earliest, but everyone found that many people bought paper crabs to give away, and the amount was written higher and higher, and the discount at the time of the transaction was lower and lower." Later, it was found that the number was too large to convince people, and some companies added a 'type' word, indicating that only the model was not the price, and some did not use currency units or add words, allowing consumers to associate. A hairy crab farmer in the Gucheng Lake production area of Jiangsu Province told reporters, "Don't be confused by the numbers on the delivery coupon, that is just the code name used by farmers to distinguish specifications." ”
Some crab card sellers' descriptions of the product model
The reporter looked at the paper crabs on some e-commerce platforms and found that it is difficult to infer the actual price of crabs from the numbers on the paper crabs. For example, some paper crabs are marked with "8888 type" or "5888 type", the former contains 4 pairs of Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs with "5.0 two males + 4.0 two females", the actual price is 568 yuan; the latter contains 4 pairs of hairy crabs with "4.2-4.5 males + 3.0-3.3 females", and the actual price is 348 yuan. However, there are also paper crabs marked with the number of "388", the actual price is 298 yuan, including "4.5 two male + 3.5 two female" 4 pairs of Changdang Lake hairy crabs.
According to people familiar with the matter, the prices of hairy crabs in different lake areas and different specifications vary greatly. Also in Jiangsu Province, the crabs in Goseong Lake are cheaper than those in Yangcheng Lake, and the same size of crabs can differ in price by tens of yuan to hundreds of yuan per pair. Farmers have a tacit understanding of "what lake area, what size of crab can be sold for what price", and the pricing will not deviate from the overall level of the industry. Even though the numbers on their respective designed pickups vary widely, the difference in actual settlement prices is not obvious.
The price difference between different production areas and different specifications of hairy crabs is not small
Another ethos that is not worth advocating is also in the paper crab market: printing and packaging are becoming more and more exaggerated. Judging from the paper crab products sold on the e-commerce platform, most of the paper crabs are no longer a thin piece of paper, but a hard card with pick-up information, and there is a cover on the outside; more exaggerated is the hard card, crab scissors, crab spoon, etc. into a gift box, packed in a special handbag. Even some farmers said: "The packaging of some coupons is too exaggerated, but the dealers say that they sell better, and it is not convenient for us to interfere." ”
However, for consumers, it is difficult to speculate on the true value of crabs from the numbers or packaging on paper crabs. People familiar with the matter suggested that consumers can refer to the same specifications of spot crab prices in the same lake area to buy paper crabs, "'do everything, do not do loss-making business', paper crab is only a sales method, not a promotional method." Therefore, it is not realistic to expect to 'pick up leaks' or buy bargains through paper crabs. ”
You can refer to the spot to pick paper crabs
Why is it always "full"?
Of course, it is not excluded that the pricing of some paper crabs is lower than that of spot crabs.
Paper crabs have a certain "futures" nature, which can help farmers and dealers lock in customers and return funds in advance, so there will be some floating space in the price. However, this has also become the main reason why some consumers encounter "difficulty in picking up goods".
Some dealers frankly said that the pricing of paper crabs is a combination of the sales price of previous years and the expected production this year, which is relatively fixed; spot crabs change in real time according to the fishing situation, and there is a difference between the two. When the price of spot crabs is significantly higher than that of paper crabs, dealers are naturally reluctant to ship.
For example, when the catch first began, the number of large-sized spot crabs was small and the market price was high; crabs of the same size were purchased through pick-up coupons, which could be cheaper because the price of the pick-up coupons came from the average selling price last year. At this time, if the dealer ships according to the specifications written on the delivery coupon, it is obvious that he cannot make money or make less money; some dealers temporarily let consumers not pick up the goods through the system settings, reduce the amount of orders, etc., and then allow consumers to pick up the goods after the large-scale crabs are listed and the spot price falls.
This is particularly illustrated by the delivery of goods during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day. Many consumers find that during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, it is very difficult to exchange paper crabs, even if you book 10 days in advance, the system also shows that the "reservation is full"; even the pick-up system of paper crabs shows that the entire October is "full". "The consumption of festivals is large, the price of hairy crabs floats on the market, and farmers and dealers naturally sell spot, so it is very difficult to pick up the goods." Some dealers revealed.
In addition, there are also some dealers "empty glove white wolf" - the same as other types of delivery coupons: for example, dealers print a paper crab with a denomination of 1,000 yuan, the actual sales price is 300 yuan, but at the same time at the price of 200 yuan to recover the delivery coupon; if the consumer wants to pick up the goods, the dealer will not lose money as long as the purchase and delivery of crabs is completed at a cost of no more than 300 yuan. This means that even if the dealers who issue coupons do not have a crab, they do not have to worry about not being shipped and can make money. "However, this situation mainly occurs in the dealers who make 'quick money'. For farmers and large-scale dealers, crabs are raised every year, crabs are sold every year, and the picture is a long-term business, and they are not willing to 'empty gloves white wolves'. Several cooperatives told reporters.
Where did the biggest crab go?
Among the various consumer disputes caused by paper crabs, the problem of "short weight and lack of two" is more serious. Most paper crab dealers promise to compensate consumers if the crabs they receive die or have a large weight error. However, many consumers find that the weight of the physical crab received is often the lower limit of the weight of the paper crab label, and the merchant will use the "water loss rate" and "reasonable error" to shirk responsibility.
Why can't the paper crab that says "spend good rice is good" when it is publicized not mentioned?
"The best crabs, we generally don't issue through pick-up coupons." More than one farmer in Yangcheng Lake said so.
The reason is simple: farmers benefit the most by supplying the best crabs to restaurants. When consumers choose hairy crabs, they pay attention to "seeing is believing", not only looking at the weight, but also understanding the fat and thin situation of crabs from the appearance of crab back thickness and other appearances. At the same time, the price of hairy crabs is not low, consumers themselves hold the psychology of "paying for quality", even if the price of hairy crabs in the restaurant is higher, but as long as they show the appearance of green shell white belly, cream yellow fat, not afraid of consumers do not pay.
Pick crabs on the spot, and the same weight can also distinguish between good and bad
Compared with the "seeing is believing" in catering enterprises, paper crabs have more "moisture" - usually, farmers do not do anything about weight, because weight is a promise to consumers in black and white. But whether the crab is delicious or not is also related to the degree of fatness and vitality. Some farmers bluntly said that according to the saying of "nine females and ten males (as the saying goes, that is, eat female crabs in the ninth month of the lunar calendar, eat male crabs in the tenth month of the lunar calendar)", the same is 4 pairs of male crabs, eaten at the end of September and at the end of October, the taste is much worse. In the restaurant, consumers see that the male crab is not fat, and may voluntarily give up the purchase; but the male crab exchanged through the paper crab has a lot of weight, but the taste should be discounted.
Because of this, many consumers feel: "The crabs eaten in the production area are not the same as the crabs bought at the doorstep or cashed in the coupons." ”
The "Seller Show" is very tempting
On the other hand, the gap between the "buyer show" and the "seller show" has also given the hairy crab market more "new ways to play", hoping to seize the market with new services.
One of the ways to play is that more and more e-commerce companies are starting to sell spot crabs. Comparing the sales methods of major e-commerce platforms over the years, it can be seen that the area of the platform "BaoHu" is getting larger and larger, the origin is more and more, and the spot is getting higher and higher. In particular, fresh e-commerce companies such as Hema, Dingdong To buy vegetables, and Daily Excellent Fresh, which are mainly "buy and send" services, have invariably proposed the sales method of "de-rope weighing" this year, promising consumers that crabs are full of two pounds and turning paper crabs into desirable spot crabs.
In the eyes of consumer protection organizations, no matter what kind of product, it pays attention to "authenticity". The change in the market pattern is also a response to the change in consumer demand. Therefore, the increase in spot is the normal response of the market to the chaos of paper crabs. The China Consumers Association deliberately issued a consumption reminder before this year's "Double Festival", suggesting that consumers try to choose regular offline physical merchants or reputable e-commerce platforms to buy hairy crabs.
What else can you do besides making rules?
A new sales model is coming, but paper crabs are not extinct. This is because from the perspective of service methods and consumption habits, paper crabs still have certain advantages. However, the people who sell paper crabs also know that they cannot remain unchanged.
Before the start of the yangcheng lake hairy crab fishing this year, under the guidance of the Suzhou municipal market supervision and management department, the Yangcheng lake hairy crab industry association was established without reason to return the service station. The industry association has launched an initiative to more than 200 member units to launch a one-time redemption of crab cards and crab coupons that have not been activated within 30 days from the date of sale and have not been activated. This is the first no-reason return service station set up in the industry association in the country, and it is also the first time that paper crabs can be refunded.
At the same time, Pinduoduo and Jiangsu Freshwater Fisheries Research Institute officially released the "Grading Standard for River Crab Commodities" in the Yangtze River Delta. On the basis of the existing general rules in the market, new commodity standards are given for the detection methods, quality assessment methods, packaging, transportation and storage of hairy crabs.
Ge Jiachun, director of the Germplasm and Breeding Department of the Freshwater Fisheries Research Institute of Jiangsu Province, believes that there are three major pain points in the entire river crab industry: First, there is no unified specification standard for the sales of river crab commodities, and online sales have the phenomenon of "big and small", which harms the interests of consumers and is easy to cause disputes; second, there is no relatively unified standard for the intrinsic quality of river crab products, and sales cannot be priced according to grades, and some sellers sell inferior goods, which is not conducive to the benign development of online consumption; third, some high-quality products have no corresponding grade standards. It is impossible to achieve high quality and good prices online.
Compared with professional industry standards, commodity standards are more easily understood by consumers. For example, the weight of the river crab, the cleanliness of the appearance, whether the claws and foot steps are complete, the color of the liver and pancreas and gonads, etc., are all "visible and can be referenced". In this way, it is not only convenient for consumers to choose and buy according to Tu Suoji, but also to urge farmers and distributors to operate in good faith according to commodity standards.
Bundled crabs can also have "standards"
However, whether it is a no-reason return or a new standard for goods, it is only an industry self-discipline act after all. So far, there is still no clear statement on issues such as "who is eligible to print and sell paper crabs" and "how to keep the precipitated funds obtained from the sale of paper crabs". From a regulatory point of view, there are no strong normative measures.
"But we feel that it is better to have industry standards than no industry standards." A fully competitive market will play the role of survival of the fittest. Tian Qin, vice president of Suzhou Chengmantang Aquatic Products Co., Ltd., believes that the more market competitors, the more service methods, the more conducive to the standardization, "as a farmer, we will not refuse to take the coupons, because the rational use of the coupons is conducive to making the brand bigger." ”
She analyzed that the spot hairy crabs supplied by farmers to restaurants and e-commerce platforms can usually only retain the product information of "place of origin", but play the brand of restaurants and e-commerce platforms. However, the opening of online stores, micro-stores and the issuance of delivery coupons use the farmers' own brands, which is very important for accumulating customer sources and sustainable development. In fact, for operators who want to build a brand, the problem of paper crabs will not be ignored, "on the one hand, we will divide different levels of hairy crabs very clearly and strictly follow the promise of the delivery voucher; on the other hand, we will also popularize crab eating knowledge to consumers through various channels, such as crabs of different specifications that are suitable for different seasons." ”
Of course, farmers also expect the resources of the e-commerce platform to be conducive to brand building, after all, compared with the strength of farmers, the traffic advantage of the platform is significant. Some farmers have proposed that if the e-commerce platform can play the brand of the cooperative or launch a "joint payment" with the cooperative when selling spot, then the enthusiasm of the cooperative for spot transactions will be higher. There are more spot crabs that "see for believing", so the paper crabs with "high moisture" will naturally have no living space.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Wu Weiqun Text Editor: Ren Chong
Source: Author: Ren Chong