Chinese Baby Fornula Scandal

[fireheart17]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/n...-1226548155698

So long story short, the article is claiming that people are buying up tins of baby food by the ton and shipping them back to China where they'll go for double on the black market.

First of all, has anyone else had this happen overseas?

Secondly, thoughts?

Personally, if they haven't done it before, I reckon now might be a good time for Woolies, Coles and the like to start putting restrictions on items. They are retail outlets, not wholesale businesses and as such, they SHOULD be placing limits on how much one can buy of a certain item at one time.

In fact, when certain items went on sale for incredibly cheap when I was working for a supermarket previously, I would get the occasional person who would literally buy the whole carton of chocolate or whatever. Mostly this was because they were too cheap or too lazy to go to the wholesale store in our state (and it's not that hard to get membership, you just need to have an ABN and either have proof that you run a business and/or documentation that establishes your status as working for a non-profit or school!). Occasionally we would have sales on the long-life milk and people would buy maybe 3-4 boxes of them (but at the same time, we would ALWAYS have enough to meet demand).

But in all honesty, they need to put restrictions on sale items because it borders on the ridiculous. (and for products like chocolate, which don't have an enormously long shelf life, unless you are working it off like mad, there is no way that you are eating those yourselves, it's always for resale)


ETA: Just to clarify, Woolworths and Coles are supermarkets. Big W, Kmart and Target are known as "chain department stores" (meaning that they're not overly expensive, but not overly cheap) and Myer/David Jones are your upmarket department stores.

[Rapscallion]

It's a major status symbol to have certain western baby foods in your cupboards. We sell Nanny Goat milk powder that's become rather hard to get hold of. One of our newer customers had a name very similar to that of the manufacturing company and was of Asian origin, and tried to get around our 'max one case per customer' rule by phoning back several times and ordering additions of another case. She was basically doubling her money and charging postage by doing this.

From what I understand, she's no longer our customer.

Rapscallion

[AccountingDrone]

Many westerners also get jobs in China because it is a status symbol for your company to employ westerners. Doesn't matter if you don't speak Chinese, or really *do* whatever the job is they hire you for as long as you are willing to show up at meetings in a suit and go along with whatever your bosses want you to do/say. I was jokingly telling Rob he should go and get his job to transfer him over to RFS Shanghai to be a western status-face but he is too honest and would get in trouble for trying to make the QA department actually efficient.

[crashhelmet]

Here in the states, they usually have limits set on sale items. You'll usually find them in fine print at the bottom of the specific ad. Depending on the item, some stores would let it go if they wanted a few more. But with the birth of sites like eBay and other people running their own retail companies, they're really starting to crack down on them. They say it's to provide extras for their other customers, but in reality they don't want to fuel their competition.

[Rapscallion]

Over here, the Nanny Goat company wants to protect its existing market. They have a product that they know is a fad in China, and they want to maintain their existing market in the west, so that when the fad dies off they'll have their market still.

Why is this a scandal? It's just market forces at work. Supply, demand, the works.

Rapscallion

[HYHYBT]

This whole thing is just bizarre.

I do think, though, *SPEAKING IN GENERAL, NOBODY MISS THAT*, that stores should only put limits on sales if there has been a genuine problem or reasonably is expected to be one. Why shouldn't legitimate customers not be able to stock up if they wish? Why, for that matter, should people be declared illegitimate customers just because they are assumed to be reselling the product?

Again, if there is sound reason to believe there won't be enough, *then* put in a limit. But otherwise, it serves only to aggravate people for no good reason.

[Andara Bledin]

Honestly, for things that cannot be stocked by the thousands, it's only sane to put a limit on how many can be bought at sale prices, and sometimes even at regular stock prices.

It's basic math. You either alienate those very few that want to buy 50 of item x at below cost, or you alienate a couple of hundred who couldn't buy item x at all because it was out of stock.

And that's before you even get into the idea that people who buy by the case generally don't buy anything else and people who buy only a few are more likely to also be doing other shopping.

Honestly, I also fail to see how this is a scandal. It's up to stores to prevent themselves from being cleaned out of stock.

The real scandal is that Chinese baby formula is so dangerous that desperate people are willing to spend that much to protect their children.

^-.-^