Is 50 yuan a pound of "baby noodles" worth it? There are many traps for high-priced infant products

Xinhua

50 yuan a pound of baby noodles, three or four hundred yuan a set of tableware...... Many products are marked with the label of "special for infants and children" to double their value, and the price of some products far exceeds the reasonable range, but it does not reflect the particularity of "special", and it also exacerbates parenting anxiety. What is it that has doubled the price of the "special for infants and young children"? What are the "consumption traps" behind the high-priced products? This reporter has launched an investigation into this.

phenomenon

脸盆印上“婴儿”两字身价倍增

"The child is about to eat supplementary food, I specially purchased tableware that shows the temperature, the temperature spoon is more than 50 yuan, and the insulated bowl is 299 yuan. Ms. Wu, who lives in Panyu District, Guangzhou City, bought all kinds of supplementary food for her 7-month-old baby, and in her opinion, she should choose the "special" one when buying for her child, "You can't distinguish between the good and the bad, and it's always right to buy expensive." ”

However, it didn't take long for her to find that the so-called "sensible temperature spoon" was not as easy to use as advertised, the spoon battery capacity was small, the child ate slowly, and often the spoon ran out of power before eating a meal, and the handle had to be removed for charging. Ms. Wu said, "There are many kinds of baby products on the market now, the price is expensive, and the advertising is very good, but I actually spent the money only to find that it is not worth it." ”

The reporter noticed that some infant products are aimed at the mentality of novice parents who want to provide the best products for their children, and the price is far higher than that of ordinary products, but the actual efficacy is not much different.

"An ordinary washbasin costs only ten yuan, and the price is a lot more expensive when the word 'baby' is printed on it. Mr. Zhou, who works at a university in Shenzhen, said.

The reporter saw on a shopping website that an infant hair dryer showed the function of "blowing hair, blowing farts", and the promotional page showed that "this hair dryer can help babies improve eczema and other symptoms", but some users found that there was only a difference in temperature between different gear modes.

With the increasing segmentation of the infant food market, some high-priced foods labeled as "infants and young children" have emerged. The reporter saw a "baby noodles" on an online shopping platform, the product name was marked as "vegetable noodles", and the production process was wheat flour with 3% vegetable powder, 21 yuan 200 grams, about 50 yuan 1 catty.

According to data, the monthly expenditure of maternal and child products of "post-95" parents accounts for as much as 30% of the monthly family income, and they tend to pay for the concept of fine parenting. Yan Jun, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Jilin University, believes that some businesses have created an "irreplaceable" concept of products for parents, and young parents will be "harvested" by various advertising campaigns if they are not careful. Wang Xiaofeng, a professor at the Institute of Population Research of Jilin University, said that the concept of "exquisite parenting" is prevalent among young people in the current society, and high-standard and high-priced maternal and infant equipment has become a "rigid demand", which further increases the cost of childcare and exacerbates the psychology of some young people who dare not have children and do not want to have children.

issue

Creating "pseudo-demand" under the banner of "infants and young children"

Cai Gaosi, executive chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Food Safety and Quality Association, said that at present, the mainland has introduced a number of corresponding national standards and methods in the fields of infant formula, baby diapers, and baby pacifiers, which will help improve the quality of infant products and avoid safety risks. However, some products are not exclusively for infants and young children, but they use "suitable for infants and young children" as a selling point, creating a lot of "pseudo demand", but in fact, the publicity is greater than the content.

Recently, the diaper bucket, known as "activated carbon adsorbs odors, seven-layer odor-locking cover, and large-capacity diapers do not need to be thrown away for a week", has been highly sought after on online social platforms, and the price on e-commerce platforms is about 300 yuan. Lin Li, the mother who bought the product, believes that the "baby diaper bucket" is not as easy to use as advertised, the odor insulation effect is average, and the purchase of special garbage bags is a large expense. She said that many baby products on the market are advertised as "high-level", which sounds like "technology changes life", but in fact it is too much.

The reporter saw in a "maternal and infant food online store" that a certain brand of baby noodles is claimed to be "no salt", "contains a variety of trace elements" and "easy to swallow", but the inconspicuous position at the bottom of the online sales page is marked with "Our products are ordinary foods that can be eaten by all ages, not infant formula food", and the customer service also said that "this dried noodles are not baby standards". Liu Chunhong, a professor at the College of Food Science and Technology of South China Agricultural University, said that some foods labeled "children" or even "babies" look cute and the price is relatively high, but it may not be for babies.

In addition, the reporter's investigation found that a product in the field of infant products suddenly became an "Internet celebrity", which was collectively praised by many maternal and infant bloggers, which may be related to capital operation and media operation. "Qin Qin", a mother and baby blogger with 100,000 fans, told reporters that there are often diapers and baby toy merchants who take the initiative to contact themselves and invite them to promote products and shoot short videos of soft advertisements. Some products have never been used, but they must be praised for their ease of use according to the brand's requirements to get paid.

■Suggestion

Increase in products for infants and young children

Management of "false grass planting".

With the improvement of parenting concepts, consumers have more and more demand for personalized and diversified infant products. The interviewed experts called for promoting the standardized development of the infant product market, increasing supervision and standardizing the behavior of merchants.

Ding Huiping, a researcher at the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences, said that some businesses take advantage of the psychological needs of consumers to obtain higher profits by raising the price of infant products and services.

Deng Yong, a consumer dispute review expert in Shenzhen and a lawyer at Beijing TECO (Shenzhen) Law Firm, reminded that some baby products on the market are not suitable for cute shapes and bright colors, and consumers should pay attention to whether the product or its packaging clearly indicates that it implements the corresponding product standards, and whether there are standardized warning signs, signs and instructions when purchasing baby products.

Ou Wei'an, a professor at the Law School of Guangzhou University, said that the current online "grass planting" is diversified and hidden, and it is suggested that the platform should increase the management of short video notes of "false grass planting" and "false evaluation" of infant and young child products.

"It is necessary to crack down on false propaganda by businesses and strengthen supervision at the source. Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, said that it is necessary to intensify daily inspection and supervision, focusing on investigating and dealing with online and offline unlicensed operations, false and exaggerated propaganda and other issues;

A number of interviewed parents said that the purchase of special food supplies for infants and young children reflects the needs of scientific parenting, and it is recommended to further strengthen market cultivation and quality improvement by cultivating leading enterprises in the industry, increasing spot checks, and regularly updating the "red and black list" of enterprises, so as to strengthen market consumption and supply, so that consumers can have more high-quality products at reasonable prices to choose from.