The furniture exhibition area of a thrift market in Beichen District.
There are more and more intelligent and electronic recycling bins for old things in a community in Nankai District, which pay to recycle idle items, helping the smooth and upgrading of the old things recycling system.
Tianjin North Network News: In mid-to-late April, the temperature rose to nearly 30 °C for several consecutive days, and some citizens have begun to purchase and install air conditioners in advance.
In the Liufang material trading market in Beichen District, a consumer found that the price of an air conditioner that has only been used for two or three years is nearly half cheaper than the price of a new air conditioner. The installation of four new second-hand air conditioners in a three-bedroom and one-hall house can save more than 5,000 yuan. After all the consideration, the consumer decided to buy a few second-hand air conditioners.
In this market, there are also kitchenware, furniture, televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, etc., which are all "old things" in circulation, that is, second-hand goods. Nowadays, there are more and more consumers who are willing to buy and use second-hand goods, and the flow of people in the second-hand goods market is also increasing.
On the electronic map, the search results for "second-hand goods market" show that there are dozens of second-hand goods markets in Tianjin, most of which are located near the outer ring road. In February this year, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a Waste Recycling System", and in March, it issued relevant documents to encourage and guide a new round of large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods. The introduction of these guidance documents and related measures not only promotes the trade-in, but also allows the old things to be recycled and maximize their value.
Use "old goods" to focus on saving and practical
Chen Yi, a consumer in Nankai District, bought a new house early last year. After handing over the house in June, Chen Yi and her family planned how to decorate and what furniture to buy. The focus of the family's discussion is that the two children are still young, as well as the elderly, and the decoration and purchase of furniture must be safe and environmentally friendly, and there must be no pollutants such as benzene and formaldehyde.
It's a bit hard. Chen Yi checked the information and learned that most of the brand-new panel furniture and decoration products on the market contained organic matter. Many families renovate, open the windows for ventilation after purchasing furniture, and place them for a year before moving in. "Children should go to school nearby and try to move into their new houses as soon as possible. I thought about it, buying some second-hand, good-looking furniture would solve the problem. Chen Yi said.
So, Chen Yi went to the second-hand materials trading website to inquire about the phone number of the second-hand merchant who sells wardrobes and floors. In the end, I contacted a second-hand flooring business with a warehouse in Jinnan District to check and understand the quality of the flooring on the spot.
When Chen Yi arrived at the warehouse, he saw stacks of wooden floors more than 10 meters high piled up in the warehouse, which the merchants said were all circulated from the owners who bought the houses. The owner wanted to redecorate, and in the past two years, the tiles have been popular, and they have removed the wooden floor of the previous owner. There are also some that are dismantled from the model room of the sales office, which has only been used for one to two years, and is still far from the service life of 15 years, which can be said to be more than ninety percent new. "Second-hand wood flooring is only 30 to 50 yuan per square meter, which is 65% to 70% cheaper than the new products of the same brand on the market, which is very cost-effective. Moreover, the organic matter has been volatilized, so it is more comfortable to use. The merchant said.
It's really heartwarming. After all, to buy a new floor, the whole house may need more than 20,000 yuan, with ninety percent of the new second-hand wood flooring, more than 5,000 yuan. In the end, Chen Yi decided to buy second-hand flooring from a well-known brand in the warehouse. A week later, it was installed at home, and the effect was not much different from that of brand new, and the family was very satisfied with it.
With this experience, Chen Yi decided to buy "old goods" for wardrobes, tables and chairs, and she saw in the second-hand trading platform that some residents were transferring complete sets of furniture for the whole house, including tables, chairs and three wardrobes, the color was very suitable for her, and the condition was also good. So I made an appointment with the merchant to come to see the goods.
After visiting the house, Chen Yi learned that the owner was in a hurry to sell the house, and the house was rented to a long-term rental apartment, and the other party bought a complete set of furniture to offset the rent, and now these items are all disposed of by the owner. The owner decided to sell the TV, refrigerator and furniture. Chen Yi finally agreed to spend 2,000 yuan to buy three wardrobes, sofas, dining tables, and chairs. These items, purchased in the furniture market, are expected to be more than 10,000 yuan.
Chen Yi revealed that since she had the experience of buying second-hand wooden floors, wardrobes and furniture last year, this year, she is also ready to buy second-hand air conditioners and other items. She has continuously inspected a number of material markets and second-hand goods markets, and also consulted on online e-commerce platforms for price comparison. "My family supported me in doing so, and some of my friends came to hear about the experience. Chen Yi said.
Looking back on the past few years, Chen Yi has not only bought and used second-hand bulky items, but also sold used goods online. Toys, bicycles, school supplies that children don't use at home, computers, mobile phones, electrician's tools, and even electric bicycles, vacuum cleaners, electric fans, etc., that adults don't want to use anymore are all sold online. The price is much more appropriate than selling scrap, and the people who bought it in the past few years are still young people, and in the past two years, there are also middle-aged and elderly people who are willing to buy second-hand goods.
Entrepreneurship also uses "old goods"
In the Liu House Material Trading Market, the reporter saw that in addition to the home appliances and furniture area, there are also office and commercial kitchenware areas, and the scale is not small. Some people who are interested in catering entrepreneurship buy second-hand kitchenware in the material market, including freezers, stainless steel kitchenware, tables and chairs.
According to Li Bin (pseudonym), a merchant, he has been operating here for many years, and the scale is getting bigger and bigger, and there are all kinds of kitchenware in the warehouse. As long as you want to start a business and open a restaurant, you can have all the equipment for the front hall and back kitchen here. Kitchen utensils are circulated from restaurants that have closed down or changed careers, and pots and pans, even tables and chairs, cash registers, electronic monitoring, etc. are also available. "Less than 10,000 yuan, ensure that your restaurant opens. He said, "It may cost 30,000 yuan to buy a new one, and if you don't succeed in starting a business, I will recycle it and bring these materials back." ”
Such a material market has indeed been recognized by some catering entrepreneurs. Mr. Zhou, an entrepreneur in Heping District, said that he wanted to open a small canteen in the community this year, and now he has found a place with a rent of 30,000 yuan. Now it's time to buy kitchenware and tables and chairs. When he went to the kitchenware city, the price was quite expensive, and he couldn't bear it. A colleague suggested that he buy second-hand eighty percent of new stainless steel products, which are also fully functional, so he came to the material market to look around.
In the material market, there are many people who want to start a business in the catering market like Mr. Zhou. After selection, he purchased all the equipment needed for the back kitchen of the restaurant, and the cost was only 8,000 yuan. "I think there should be more such markets, so that materials can be recycled and the value can be maximized. This has really reduced the cost of starting a business for people like us who operate with a small business. Mr. Zhou said.
Wu Hao, an entrepreneur in Hexi District, rented more than 50 square meters of space in an office building to open a company. He was going to buy a new workstation, chair, filing cabinet and printer, but after consulting with his partner, he decided to buy 90% of the new equipment on the online platform. Wu Hao revealed: "These equipment have just been used by other companies for less than two years, and the company sold them when the company's business conditions were not good, and the merchants resold them to me." We can save a lot of start-up capital with these used equipment. ”
Originally, Wu Hao's partner also suggested that even office computers and some storage devices should be purchased second-hand from the Internet, but Wu Hao felt that computers had a warranty period, and it was difficult to trace the source of refurbished products, and it was impossible to identify and ensure quality, so he did not buy second-hand goods for the time being. If you want to buy, try to buy from a physical store in Tianjin, and if there is a problem, you can find a merchant to solve it.
Online platforms should improve quality assurance measures
Ms. Wei, a consumer in Nankai District, reported that when buying second-hand items, especially electronic products, on online platforms, she often encounters problems such as mismatched goods and unguaranteed product quality.
According to the statistics of China's online consumer dispute mediation platform "Diansubao", in 2023, among the complaints of second-hand e-commerce users in the country, product quality problems accounted for the highest proportion, accounting for 21.71%, followed by refund problems, accounting for 18.65%, and the third place was mismatching, accounting for 10.09%.
"At present, there are chaos such as false publicity, quality problems and difficulties in protecting rights on second-hand platforms. An expert from the E-commerce Research Center of the Network Economic Society said that the pain points in the development process of second-hand e-commerce are distributed in the transaction process, namely the asymmetry of information between the two parties before the transaction, the frequent consumption chaos in the transaction, and it is difficult to establish a reliable transaction scenario. At the same time, the lack of after-sales guarantee mechanism on the platform also affects the service quality and user satisfaction of second-hand transactions.
Optimizing the transaction experience and enhancing the trust between buyers and sellers with standardized processes is the direction of the online platform's efforts. To this end, some platforms have introduced third-party professional testing agencies: buyers can choose to use testing services when releasing products in categories such as mobile phones, digital, luxury goods, and trendy shoes, so that testing agencies can identify the authenticity and quality of the goods. The platform also provides relatively complete after-sales return and dispute resolution services through the form of "online court", so that consumers have no worries.
There are many types of second-hand goods, large differences between the old and new, and strong non-standardized attributes, so it is necessary to improve the relevant standard system of second-hand goods. A merchant suggested that by setting unified technical standards, quality inspection and pricing standards, etc., the whole process of pricing, trading, and after-sales of second-hand goods can be more standardized. In addition, relevant recycling operators should also be required to establish ledgers, implement information management, record the operation process and corresponding status of waste electrical and electronic products in each link, and effectively crack down on illegal demolition of electrical appliances, second-hand refurbishment and other problems.
Offline recycling should be supplemented with smart measures
In the investigation, the reporter learned that some citizens reported that when disposing of idle old things at home, local buyers often "can't give a price", and large items involve items that go up and down the stairs and are transported over long distances, and there are relatively few people who recycle. In the end, some items are abandoned and piled up in the public space of the community, which not only wastes resources, but also easily causes solid waste pollution.
Nana, a local life planner, has sold and disposed of more than 500 items. She believes that at present, most of the second-hand goods trading channels and information release channels are concentrated on several major network platforms, which is easy to form information monopoly and low-price competition. There are many kinds of items involved in old things, and some categories such as furniture, home appliances, office supplies, and kitchenware should be traded and circulated from "online" to "offline", and venues and outlets should be set up in densely populated areas of the city, and third-party evaluation and quality inspection services should be added to make the transaction process of old things more complete and more secure.
Guo Xinbao of Dongli District Pick Up and Sell Big End Renewable Resources Company introduced that in addition to the company has a large site in the industrial park and logistics park, it now also has network channels such as WeChat public account, and residents can check the contact number of the nearest recycling point and the type of recycled items on the map.
In some communities in Nankai District, the reporter learned that the community has set up intelligent recycling bins for old things to recycle paper products, plastic products, cotton textiles, metal products, electrical and electronic products that residents are not using idle, and residents can scan the code to unlock the lock and exchange it for drinking water and other items. The equipment is powered by solar energy and intelligently managed, realizing the paid recycling of old things, and winning the trust and support of residents.
Some citizens also suggested that the community should open a barter market or an exchange platform for old things (WeChat exchange groups, etc.), so that old things can be digested within the community and achieve greater value in the exchange.