Behind the sky-high campus canteen, the expiring food is sold at a 5 times higher price?

Recently, Mingrui Senior High School in Beiliu City, Yulin, Guangxi Province has attracted widespread attention due to the auction of the lease right of the canteen in the school.

According to the video of the auction site, the annual rent of the commissary starts at 1.1 million yuan, and in the first round of bidding, the bidder bids 2 million yuan, and after several rounds of price increases, the bidding price has risen all the way to 3.2 million yuan, and the auction is still not over as of the end of the video.

On the official website of the Beiliu Municipal Government, you can view this auction announcement. According to the announcement, entrusted to hold an auction at 10 o'clock on October 31, 2023 in the auction hall of the Beiliu Public Resources Trading Center, the public auction of the lease right of about 200 square meters of commissary on the first floor of the middle education building of Beiliu Experimental Middle School and the lease right of about 150 square meters of commissary on the first floor of the Friendship Building of Beiliu Mingrui Senior High School, with reference prices of 1.6 million yuan/year and 1.1 million yuan/year respectively.

Screenshot of the announcement of the auction of the lease right of the commissary of Beiliu Experimental Middle School and Beiliu Mingrui Senior High School. The picture comes from the screenshot of the official website of the Beiliu People's Government

According to public information, Beiliu Experimental Middle School and Mingrui Senior High School are both public full-time middle schools, with two types of accommodation: day school and boarding.

A person in charge of the auction in Tongzhou, Yulin City, told China News Weekly that they had conducted the auction in accordance with legal procedures, "in accordance with laws and regulations, and it is a normal commercial activity."

Regarding the number of people participating in the auction that day, the person in charge said that it was inconvenient to disclose. As for the auction price, he said that the final transaction price of the canteens of the two schools exceeded 3 million yuan.

A staff member of the Beiliu Municipal Education Bureau told China News Weekly that the matter needs to contact the Propaganda Department of the Beiliu Municipal Party Committee, and the Propaganda Department will make a unified reply.

In this regard, the Propaganda Department of the Beiliu Municipal Party Committee told China News Weekly that the relevant departments have been following up on the matter, and all the results will be known when the final auction amount and other related issues come out. "Because we're not in charge, we have to wait for the announcement." When asked which department was in charge, the other party hung up the phone.

"The only one"

In recent years, news about "sky-high" commissaries has been common, and the increasingly open and transparent bidding of campus commissaries has attracted widespread attention.

Taking the public leasing project of the campus commissary of the No. 5 Middle School in Nanning City, Guangxi Province as an example, the school's commissary was listed for bidding in September this year, with a listing price of 900,000 yuan/year, and the final transaction price was 2 million yuan/year after online bidding. It is reported that the school has about 1,800 students and about 180 faculty members.

Also in Guangxi, the commissary of Tiandong Middle School in Tiandong County, Baise City was rented in October this year, with an area of 50.41 square meters and a reserve price of 1.9 million yuan/15 months, and after online bidding, the final transaction price was 4.162 million yuan/15 months, with an average monthly rent of 270,000 yuan.

In fact, the auction of the right to operate a commissary rented by auction is usually very competitive.

In August this year, the commissary of Huaiji County in Huaiji County, Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province, was on the hot search because of the rent of 9.43 million yuan for five years. A total of 34 people (including companies) paid a deposit to participate in the bidding of the commissary contractors organized by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Huaiji County, and after 2,274 rounds of bidding, the final transaction price was 9430560 yuan of total rent for 5 years.

According to industry analysts, such "sky-high" commissaries have several things in common, one is that there are more teachers and students in the school, such as more than 8,300 students and 632 faculty members in Huaizhong; Second, such schools implement closed or semi-closed management, which rely on obvious monopoly operations, and the commissaries on campus are often "unique"; Third, there is no reserve price for this type of bidding, as long as someone is willing to pay a higher price, it can continue to refresh the transaction record.

Many parents are worried that "the wool comes out of the sheep", thinking that the cost of the commissary is so large, it will inevitably look for "returns" from the students, the price and quality of the goods are worrying, and some schools adopt closed management, which invisibly creates barriers to communication between parents and students.

Drinks on the shelves of the commissary. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creativity

On the "leadership message board" of People's Daily Online, many netizens reported that the prices of school canteens and canteens were higher than the market, and one netizen left a message saying, "A bottle of Coke starts at 5 yuan, and barreled instant noodles start at 6.5 yuan, and many brands are not common in the market." ”

Another netizen left a message to the secretary of the Fushun County Party Committee in Zigong City, Sichuan Province, saying that the price of the new No. 1 commissary in Fushun near the county's Dongguashan market was unreasonable. For example, a bottle of Sprite costs only 3 yuan in the market, but it costs 5 yuan in the school canteen, and a can of Wang Tsai milk costs 7.5 yuan, which is also much higher than the market price. He mentioned that there was only one commissary at the school.

At the same time, under the video of the sky-high price commissary of Mingrui Senior High School in Beiliu City, a netizen left a message saying that he had provided goods to the school, saying that the futures of major brands in the market would flow into the school for digestion; Another netizen said that when he was working in a trading company, he found that the company sold all the expiring drinks to the school, and their company sold them to the commissary at a price of 1 yuan a bottle, while the commissary sold them to students at a bottle of 5 yuan.

Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Education Sciences, told China News Weekly that the sky-high campus canteen reflects not only the school's problems, but also the local market environment. He believes that the behavior of relevant subjects should be further regulated, and the problem should be solved by establishing a market system and rules under the rule of law.

"There is a lot of space"

On December 30, 2019, the General Office of the State Administration for Market Regulation, the General Office of the Ministry of Education, the General Office of the National Health Commission, and the General Office of the Ministry of Public Security issued the "Guiding Opinions on Implementing the Main Responsibility to Strengthen the Management of Campus Food Safety", pointing out that qualified primary and secondary schools and kindergarten canteens shall in principle provide meals in a self-operated manner, and no new contracting or entrusted operation contracts will be signed. In principle, non-boarding primary and secondary schools and kindergartens must not set up food stores and supermarkets in schools, and those that have already been set up should be gradually withdrawn. Boarding primary and secondary schools that really need to set up food commissaries and supermarkets shall obtain a license in accordance with the law, and in principle only sell purified water, mineral water, pre-packaged bread, milk and other foods.

In February this year, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Ministry of Education and other four departments issued a document to deploy the school food safety supervision work in the spring semester of 2023, clarifying that primary and secondary schools and kindergartens should not set up commissaries and supermarkets in schools in principle, and emphasized that those that need to be set up should not sell high-salt, high-sugar and high-fat foods.

It is understood that some localities have taken positive action against campus commissaries. For example, the Xiamen Municipal Education Bureau has issued a notice to regulate the trading behavior of canteens and commissaries in directly affiliated schools, and clarified that non-boarding schools are not allowed to set up commissaries, supermarkets and other food business establishments on campus. At the same time, the price of meals and the quality of dishes in the canteen shall be strictly approved and managed, and it shall not be profitable from the operation of the school canteen and commissary in any form, and the configuration period of the canteen and commissary shall not exceed 3 years in principle.

In order to strengthen supervision and management, the Xiamen Municipal Education Bureau also requires schools to strengthen the supervision and management of canteens and commissary business units, study and formulate a negative list, and adopt the method of "deducting points" during the allocation period to conduct quantitative assessment every year.

The principal of a middle school in Guangdong told China News Weekly that he did not think the school should have a commissary. "The school commissary has too much room for interests, and after bidding, the one with the highest price will get it, but the wool is out of the sheep, and the students should not be regarded as money-making objects." He said.

The principal revealed that before the Ministry of Education explicitly banned schools from setting up commissaries, the management of school commissaries was relatively chaotic for a long time. There are different practices for the collection of rent, some schools do not charge rent, some only charge a symbolic part, and some schools have a certain fee standard. He pointed out that there is no uniform commonality in the management of commissaries among schools, and "there is a lot of space".

As far as he knows, in the southeastern coastal cities, most schools no longer have commissaries. He believes that schools can consider installing drinking machines to solve the problem of drinking water for students, and if individual students need to add meals, parents can prepare some snacks in advance. He said most students go to the commissary not to solve the hunger problem, but to have fun.

Qin Hui, a lawyer at DHH Law Firm in Shanghai, told China News Weekly that under Article 3 of the Auction Law, schools have the right to transfer property rights to the highest bidder through auction. However, according to the Guiding Opinions on Implementing the Main Responsibility to Strengthen Campus Food Safety Management issued at the end of December 2019, selling the lease rights of the commissary to off-campus enterprises or individuals by auction actually violates the above guidance.

Qin Hui also pointed out that according to Article 10 of the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, the right to fair trade is an extremely important right of consumers, and as a student of consumers, they have the right to enjoy fair trading conditions such as quality and quantity, reasonable price and correct measurement when purchasing goods.

However, because there is usually only one commissary on the campus of primary and secondary schools, there is a lack of more competitors, which objectively makes the sales of student supplies in the school area lack sufficient competition, and it is possible that this commissary will be "sold at a price" in the school area. He believes that if there is no supervision, this only commissary will form a business operator with a dominant market position as described in the Anti-Monopoly Law, and monopolistic business behavior will follow.

He said that the above situation, combined with factors such as higher lease fees paid by operators, may lead to the price of goods sold in the commissary being significantly higher than that of operators in nearby areas, and the inconvenience of students entering and leaving the campus, there is basically no better choice, and consumers' right to fair trade may be lost.

Qin Hui said that the high auction price of the lease right may lead the buyer participating in the auction to transfer the high rental cost to the student supplies, which is in violation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors, is not conducive to promoting the all-round development and physical and mental health of minors, and is not conducive to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of minors.

Author: Chen Shulian

Editor: Sun Xiaobo