"Trustworthy Quality", "Global Imported Brand", ...... "A Better Life at Sam's".
As the world's largest membership-based store, Sam's has risen against the trend in the context of the collective robbery of China's offline retail market in recent years, and it can even be said to be unique
What is the reason behind it? The middle-class users screened out by the threshold of the membership system, as well as the brand tonality of quality and a better life in the publicity, and the superimposed differentiated product supply are all important factors.
This undoubtedly made the envious saliva of the Café de l'Orrefour, Yonghui and Hema next door, and they fell into their saliva as soon as they took a step
However, it is such a benchmark format in the second half of the offline supermarket, and now it seems that it is somewhat of a bubble, such as the most critical link in Sam's success - quality, which seems to have been walking lame
Recently, Sam was penalized again!
According to the official website of the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, Shanghai Sam was administratively punished by the market supervision department for false propaganda and fined 50,000 yuan
According to the penalty announcement, the Muyunfu ® marinated beef sold at Sam's Club on Pudong Hi-Tech West Road claims to be "low-fat" on the price tag, but the fat content in the nutrition content list of the outer packaging of the product is as high as 6.3 grams per 100 grams, which does not meet the requirements and conditions claimed in the mainland's "General Principles for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods in National Food Safety Standards".
After reading this announcement, Xiao Chai directly said Good guy, are Sam's members so easy to fool? The same kind of packaging and two statements, no one even questioned it? Or Sam's members believe Sam too much......
Among the relevant punishment cases, in September last year, the store was also fined for the false promotion of the corn whisker tea it sold......
It is worth noting that in addition to Sam's, its brother brand Wal-Mart has also been fined many times in a row, including tampering with the production date label without permission, missing two pounds of goods, counterfeit goods, and illegal promotion of the efficacy of ordinary food.
Xiao Chai rubbed his eyes vigorously, he couldn't believe that such a dense violation of laws and regulations happened to Walmart and Sam, this is really not a lover who doesn't enter the door.
Especially when it happened to Sam, who has thick eyebrows and big eyes, and plays the banner of quality and a better life, it is a bit of a big surprise.
With such a probability, we can't even touch it at a roadside stall! That's how Sam gives back to his members?
When we apply for the card, Sam can clearly say that members can enjoy premium products throughout the year, and give back to members with high-quality and competitive prices......
As for the false publicity, Sam responded to the media lightly that the products involved have been removed from the shelves!
If you are punished and taken off the shelf, you will be done? If you don't come out to apologize and explain the reason, you make a mistake and still maintain a proud posture, Sam, this is really a cow!
But what makes Xiao Chai even more surprising is that Sam's so-called quality seems to have been constantly discounted by similar times
Xiao Chai searched on social media and search engines and found that news about Sam's punishment happened from time to time
Among them, the reasons for the fines include the substandard food sold, false advertising, the food sold contains foreign substances, and the false claim that the product has a patented process. There are even unbelievable reasons such as the sale of expired milk powder.
In summary, these fines mainly focus on false propaganda and food safety issues
Similarly, on social media, Sam has also been on the hot search many times for these two issues. Among them, the incident that attracted the most attention was the sale of expired milk powder.
In addition, in March last year, a user said that he had purchased two boxes of beef at Sam's Market, but the production date of the beef turned out to be eight or nine months later
But the problem is that the shelf life of this product is only 120 days.
And similar things, it is not the first time in Sam, before the incident, that is, on February 26 last year, I went to Sam's to buy a chicken feet, and after buying it, I looked at it and a magical scene happened, and the release date of this chicken feet was displayed as February 27.
As the world's largest membership store, selling goods produced in the future twice in a month, Sam's has mastered the technology and ruthlessness of time travel technology, or is there chaos in internal management, or tampering with labels at will, there is no threshold in Sam's?
Of course, this is nothing, after all, when this thing was made, there is no possibility for consumers to know the truth, and the interpretation is completely in Sam's hands.
For example, in the beef incident, Sam's response was: there is no problem with the product, you can eat it with confidence, and if the consumer is not satisfied, you can complain to the relevant department.
In the chicken feet incident, Sam responded: saying that some products will be reprocessed, so two production dates will be displayed, and the advance production date is caused by employee error.
In addition to various doubts about the production date and food safety issues visible to the naked eye, Sam is also often on the hot search, for example, in March last year, Sam's roast chicken was exposed to eating maggots.
At the same time, Sam rushed to the hot search again because of food safety issues. The reason is that many people have vomited and diarrhea after eating the sushi sold by Sam's.
Some consumers said that she bought sushi at Sam's Club and ate it with friends. Soon after eating, all four of them had vomiting and diarrhea, and they went to the hospital to diagnose acute gastroenteritis.
At first, Sam only said that the cost of the sushi would be refunded and that they would continue the treatment. Later, he complained to the Administration for Industry and Commerce, and Sam offered to compensate for medical expenses and 1,000 yuan.
In October last year, the cockroaches embedded in Sam's unexpired food rushed to the hot search again.
A consumer brought with her and her friends a few packs of seaweed purchased from Sam's Mart with her in order to replenish her strength.
After exercising, Ms. Lin and her friends unpacked the package and found that there were several cockroach carcasses on the seaweed, two of which were even embedded in the seaweed.
The consumer immediately reported to Sam, and Sam gave a corresponding refund plan, but she refused. Ms. Lim said she hoped Sam would explain why cockroaches appeared in unexpired food.
In response to this matter, Sam responded to the media that a detailed investigation would be launched immediately, and for the sake of prudence, the batch of goods had been removed from the shelves.
"Sam's has always attached great importance to food safety, and sincerely appreciates the feedback from members, and will continue to communicate with members to properly resolve this matter in accordance with the principle of member-first service. 」
We have always paid attention to video safety issues, but food safety problems are frequent, and we uphold the principle of members first, but every time something goes wrong, it seems to be tough again.
Either you are not satisfied and you can complain, or the employee has made a mistake, or it has been properly resolved but there is no follow-up......
In addition to food safety issues, Sam has also been embroiled in false advertising controversies from time to time, such as last October, when Sam was fined $100,000 for "illegal acts of false or misleading commercial promotion".
Specifically, when Sam's Club sells a corn whisker tea product with a country of origin in Japan, the price tag declares that the product is "sugar-free", but the carbohydrate value in the Chinese nutrition facts list on the outer packaging of the product is 79.4 grams (g)/100 grams (g), and the carbohydrate (sugar) content is not displayed.
At the same time, the investigation also found that there was no coix seed on the Chinese label of the outer packaging of the above-mentioned product, and the party claimed that the product was "coix seed pan-fried" on its price tag.
In addition, the store was fined 100,000 yuan for claiming low-sugar coffee, but it did not meet the "low-sugar" requirements of the national standard.
In addition, in August last year, some consumers said that when they applied for a card, the staff also made it clear that they could use it after going abroad, but after going abroad, they found that the physical membership card they had specially applied for could not be used in the United States.
He then called Sam's domestic after-sales number and was told that it was "not available outside of the domestic member state". As for whether the word "globally" marked on the promotional page is suspected of false advertising, the customer service said that it will be reflected to the relevant departments.
Of course, more importantly, Sam has also been repeatedly fined for similar things, but the problem is still repeatedly exposed, the problem is that Sam still has a large number of fans, creating a miracle in the field of Sam's offline supermarkets.
Perhaps, this is the reason why Sam has no fear! It's just that Xiaochai is curious, is Sam abroad also like this?
Shigowski ©️
Author|小柴肆号
Edited by Tan Song