"Someone tops the bag, someone does the account, holds the agreement in hand, and walks you away", this is the status quo of professional store closures.
When the economy is in a downturn, "professional shopkeepers" came into being, and their job is to help the poorly run stores close and help the debt-indebted bosses escape.
Such a "dog-headed military division" can earn more than 100,000 yuan in a single order, and it specializes in the hard-earned money of ordinary people.
So, how did they develop, and how should the "professional shopkeepers" be dealt with?
1. Consumers encounter "professional store closures" blocking the way to protect their rights
The boss who ran away retreated, the recharged membership card could not be used, and the members wanted to cry without tears, such a scene often happened.
What is infuriating is that once such an economic dispute occurs, there are very few outcomes that benefit the customer.
For ordinary members, complaining, defending rights, chasing the boss is a big project, time-consuming and labor-intensive; if you go to the court to sue, the cost of your own loss is not as much as the litigation fee, so most of the customers are unlucky, and this is the end of the professional store closer.
On March 27, 2024, a CCTV report brought the group to the surface.
On March 19, the three stores of the Nanjing branch of the famous early education institution and high-end early education brand "Gymboree Early Education" suddenly announced the closure. With the closure of the storefront, the owner is gone, and the employees have run away, leaving only the customers who are in place.
Some consumers complained to reporters that they spent more than 20,000 yuan to buy 96 classes in Gymboree, and they faced the state of store closure after just a dozen classes.
The situation is basically similar to that of this consumer, and the customers of a Gymboree recharge in Beijing, they claimed that the professional store closure staff took the initiative to tell them: if you want to refund the fee, you may have to refund it from the end of this year, and each period does not exceed 3,000 yuan, the probability of the money arriving in the account is not high, and you can go to the court to go to litigation, but it is impossible to return the money in a short time.
The attitude of these people makes consumers feel very annoyed - it is simply a dead pig that is not afraid of boiling water.
The meaning of what the other party said is obvious: the money will definitely not come back, and the rest of the love will be given up.
At the same time, such a situation has occurred in Gymboree stores in many cities including Shanghai, Chongqing, and Jinan, and consumers across the country have also been subjected to such similar admonitions.
2. The earning of black money by "professional shopkeepers".
In the face of unrelenting customers, professional store closures will also give a variety of options to choose from: first, the money can be refunded, but the company's capital chain has been broken, and it will take 30 years to return the money; second, it is recommended that parents crowdfund to invite the original teacher to come back to the class, of course, the money must be paid for by themselves; third, the class can be transferred to other institutions, and the customer is responsible for it.
It seems that the piles are listed clearly, but in fact, none of them are feasible to run.
If the consumer has already paid the money, but suddenly has to crowdfund to invite the teacher back, isn't this a loss to the wife and a soldier? If the class is transferred to another institution, if the other party asks for another payment, how can the consumer be reasonable?
The excitement of consumers and the desertion of the store were captured by CCTV reporters, and then the news report caused a strong response.
Many netizens claimed that they had met such a "professional shopkeeper" in the past few years, and such characters often have an extremely professional team, and they give "one-stop service".
First of all, they will look for those bosses who have broken the capital chain and cannot continue to operate all over the country, and then customize and design a complete set of plans for them to help these enterprises put on the emergency brake by changing the company's legal person, finding someone to take the blame, providing ways to terminate the contract and communicate with customers, and arbitrate disputes, and also help customers stop losses in time.
Of course, the price of this set of services is not low.
If the boss has a debt of 5 million, then they charge 500,000 to 1.5 million fees, removing all kinds of expenses they have in the middle, and a single can earn more than 100,000 yuan.
If it is said that the professional store closure person only helps the boss to do the work in the last link, it is still a bit of conscience. In fact, most of the professional closure teams have designed a plan for the black-hearted boss.
In recent years, gyms, bubble tea shops, hairdressers, and personal training shops have blossomed everywhere, and professional store closers have been running around to mediate since these stores landed.
Their team will help the boss to provide all kinds of fancy marketing in terms of pre-promotional offers, inviting customers to recharge, etc. - first make a large amount of recharge from a wave of customers, at almost no cost, and after completing the accumulation of funds, continue to provide final services to the boss who is not doing well.
It can be said that the professional store closure person is like a housekeeper who accompanies him from life to death, providing a full range of peace of mind services for these bells and whistles stores.
3. The "closed shop" who helps the debtor get out eats at three ends
"It's not that the old guy can't afford it, but it's that professional store closures are more cost-effective."
Even the hard-earned money of the common people has formed an industrial chain, where should consumers go?
It can be seen from all kinds of news reported by CCTV that most of the stores that appear in professional store closures are concentrated in areas such as fitness and bodybuilding, early education, beauty salons, etc., and these fields have always been simple in structure and operation mode, which is better for professional store closures. Ordinary people can only prevent, but they can't stop it at all.
Therefore, consumers can only take precautions.
When a merchant suddenly engages in a large discount and exaggerates the requirement for customers to recharge a large amount, it is very likely that this is a return to the light before the store is about to close, because professional store closures usually conduct background checks two or three months before the store is closed, and then carry out a series of arrangements and activities.
In addition, consumers need to be extra vigilant when the company suddenly changes its legal person - the change of legal person is a necessary process for professional store closures, and most companies that want to run away will ask for a change of legal person to avoid legal liability.
For example, when professional store closers find that a store is struggling to survive, they usually buy those personal information with better credit, which will lead to a strange phenomenon - the legal person of a fitness gym is actually a 70-year-old man or old lady in a rural area.
Another preventable phenomenon is that customers notice frequent changes in the merchant's sales and service staff.
This is enough to show that there is a great deal of chaos inside the store, at least someone has run away to send a warning signal to customers.
In today's chaotic social environment, the emergence of professional store closures also illustrates the refinement of the social division of labor - one fish and three eats, cutting leeks layer by layer, and the professional store closures who pick up businesses, employees, and consumers from the inside to the outside are extremely black-hearted.
However, they usually have a large number of legal counsel on their team, so it is extremely easy to exploit legal loopholes, and it is even more difficult for ordinary consumers to defend their rights.
Therefore, for some stores, consumers must keep their eyes open, otherwise even if they are sent to court, there will be people who will talk back to the bosses who run away. Ordinary people can only call the heavens and the earth unhealthy.
Resources:
Severely punish the "professional closed-shop" who takes advantage of loopholes - China Industry Network
Upstream 315|The dog-headed military division who helps the boss run away "professional shopkeeper": You can customize the running strategy with zero risk, and collect money to do "dirty work" according to the proportion of debt-Upstream news