With the arrival of the National Day holiday, many people choose to travel, or go to shopping malls for leisure and shopping, and enjoy a good time. But be careful, at this happy moment, some unscrupulous merchants may secretly set up "price assassins", waiting for those who are the slightest careless.
On September 28, a customer bought a plum in the Mofeng Shiduo Deji store in Nanjing Deji Plaza, and he had to pay 71.6 yuan. What's even more surprising is that the price of this plum is 358 yuan per 50 grams, 3580 yuan per catty.
358 yuan for one tael, 3580 yuan for one catty! In this way, Mei undoubtedly exceeded the expectations of most people, and it is not too much to say that it is "sky-high". Of course, this shopping mall, Deji Plaza, is located at No. 18 Zhongshan Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing, located in the northeast corner of Xinjiekou, known as "China's first business district", and is a comprehensive shopping center positioned as a "high-end" business. And "Mo Feng Shiduo" is a candied snack shop from Hong Kong, and its positioning is also high-end, especially its "fragrant plum king", known as "Hermes in the plum industry". On the official website of Mo Feng Shiduo, the price of this plum king 37.5g is 201 Hong Kong dollars, and when converted, 50 grams cost 268 Hong Kong dollars. On e-commerce platforms in the mainland, the price of this plum is also expensive. After entering the high-end shopping mall, coupled with the high venue rent and labor costs, 50 grams can be sold for 358 yuan. After all, some luxury brands can sell a paper clip for 1,500 yuan.
It is precisely in consideration of the pricing freedom of merchants that the Nanjing Xuanwu District Municipal Supervision Bureau said that merchants have pricing freedom, and there is no problem with clearly marking prices. However, if the font size problem reported by consumers and the media is true, rectification will be requested.
Judging from the online video screen, the price tag of this Huamei is indeed marked with 358 yuan per 50 grams, and the font of "per 50g" is slightly smaller, but it is not easy to see clearly.
However, as long as the price is "clearly marked", will it be fine? Not necessarily. The key is to see whether the price is sufficient to remind consumers.
When judging whether the "clear price" of the merchant is sufficient to satisfy the consumer's right to know, the inertia of the consumer's thinking must be taken into account.
When shopping, consumers have a psychological expectation of the price of goods according to different product brands and sales channels. For well-known luxury brands, although everyone will think that it is expensive, they will not think it is outrageous. For example, a 1,500 yuan luxury brand paper clip, because everyone understands that this is the premium price of a luxury brand. One would expect meals to be expensive in a restaurant in a five-star hotel, but in the case of a street restaurant, one would usually assume that the prices would be more affordable.
Talking back to May. Few people would have thought that plums, as a daily snack, could be sold for such an expensive price. The high-end brand of "Mofeng" is not recognized by everyone. Therefore, when this customer found that the price of this plum was as high as 3,580 yuan per catty, and one was more than 70 yuan, it was understandable that he called "encountered an assassin".
When the pricing method of goods may not be consistent with the inertia of the public's thinking, merchants need to remind consumers more strongly. However, in reality, many businesses not only do not remind customers, but deliberately take advantage of consumers' thinking inertia, intending to induce consumers' cognition, take advantage of consumers' wrong judgments, and seek benefits.
For example, the "Ice Cream Assassin" storm a few years ago. A new ice cream brand "Zhongxuegao", positioned as a high-end one, is several times more expensive than ordinary ice cream.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with developing a brand that is positioned as a high-end brand with a high price. Just like "Häagen-Dazs" ice cream, it is usually sold in specialty stores, and even if it is sold in other stores, it will also be arranged at the counter to create a unique high-end image. So it sells expensively and consumers can accept it.
However, the high-end positioning of "Zhongxuegao" has gone from online to offline, and has paved many retail stores in one go. But in these convenience stores, Zhong Xuegao also sells it in the same ice cream cabinet with 3 and 5 pieces of cheap ice cream. Consumers who don't know Zhong Xuegao accidentally become unjust people who buy high-priced ice cream. Anyone who has ever bought ice cream at a convenience store knows that there are more than a dozen ice cream price tags on the side of a large freezer. You explain the price marking, it is true that there is a clear price, but how many consumers will go to find how much the ice cream in their hands sells one by one? Most consumers have assumed that the price of ice cream is about the same, and will only choose their favorite flavors, ignoring the difference in brands. When consumers pick up Zhong Xuegao and walk to the cashier to check out, even if they find a high price, they may have no choice but to accept it because they don't want to waste time or worry about embarrassment. This "ice cream assassin" has successfully stabbed consumers.
Mo Feng's sky-high price Mei is probably also suspicious of this. In the Mofeng Store, not all candied snacks are sky-high. There are also some products that are relatively affordable in price. For example, more than 30 Hong Kong dollars, close to half a catty of bayberry, cream plum and so on. If the sky-high price of the "Plum King" is placed together with these relatively affordable Plum Words, then consumers are likely to think that the price of the "Plum King" will not be too expensive according to the inertia of thinking, and it will be about the same if it is three or five times more expensive, not thirty or fifty times more expensive. Therefore, this flagship high-end plum king appeared in the store, and it is necessary to give consumers a special reminder to make consumers aware that this is not an ordinary plum.
In addition to mixing sky-high and low-priced goods, unscrupulous merchants will also use the method of marking prices in different units of measurement to try to confuse consumers.
For example, when you go to the vegetable market to buy vegetables and fruits, everyone's default price is how much per catty, and only a few more expensive and less used dishes, such as coriander, toon, etc., will be priced in two. However, some merchants will play tricks on the unit of measurement, replacing the weight unit of the product from "catty" to "two" or "gram", or other units of measurement beyond the general consumer cognition, to confuse consumers and make people inadvertently spend money in vain. In the Mo Feng Hua Mei incident, the sky-high price of Mei Wang is priced in units of 50 grams, so in the same store, are all weighing goods priced at 50 grams? If other goods are priced in larger units such as "catties", and this Meiwang is priced in units of "50 grams", that is, two units, if consumers do not identify it carefully and only look at the price behind, they may think that the price unit of this Meiwang is also a catty, which brings consumers the impression of "although it is a little more expensive, it is acceptable".
This routine is to use smaller units of measurement that are not commonly used to mark prices, creating a false sense of affordability for consumers. I was fooled once. Once passing by a braised meat shop, I found that the store braised pig's trotters were marked with big words "40 yuan", I thought of course that it was 40 yuan / catty, and I thought the price was affordable, so I bought two catties. After going home, I looked at the label carefully, only to find that I had been fooled, it turned out that 40 yuan was 250 grams, that is, half a catty, and a catty was actually 80 yuan, which was more expensive than others. "250g" is not a commonly used price marking unit in braised meat shops, and the font size is too small, which caused me to misunderstand.
Such incidents are most famous for the "Qingdao sky-high prawn incident". On October 4, 2015, when a tourist was dining at a restaurant in Qingdao, he saw that the price of prawns was 38 yuan on the menu, and confirmed with the boss that it was 38 yuan a copy, so he ordered one with confidence, but the boss charged 38 yuan per shrimp at the checkout. This is exactly the use of units of measurement to play tricks. When customers go to a restaurant to eat, they generally think that the quotation is based on the whole dish, but who knows that this restaurant actually goes the wrong way and prices the prawns according to the price. It's not impossible to set prices by one, but it is important to be wary of this kind of pricing that is beyond the norm. The store not only did not warn, but deliberately blurred, obviously trying to use this vagueness of information to rip off customers.
Although the relevant departments of Qingdao later punished the barbecue restaurant involved and refunded part of the cost to the tourists, this incident still made "Qingdao prawns" synonymous with stealing customers, and also seriously damaged the image of Qingdao.
This type of alleged "rip-off" phenomenon is common in popular tourist spots. On the one hand, people's attention tends to be focused on the most conspicuous information. When a merchant uses a larger font to display the price and a smaller font to mark the unit, consumers will naturally be attracted by the price of the larger font and ignore the actual unit cost. On the other hand, holiday tourists are short on time, and they want to buy things as quickly as possible, and they are more likely to be fooled.
This kind of routine has a "clear price", but it still misleads consumers. Therefore, "clear pricing" is not a talisman for merchants. In addition to clearly marking prices, merchants also need to ensure that consumers truly understand the labeling of price tags. Especially for some high-priced special goods, it should be the obligation of merchants to remind consumers more strongly and fully meet consumers' right to know.
Merchants who have been using misleading pricing tactics for a long time will eventually lose consumer trust. Even a one-off negative experience can lead to damage to a brand's reputation and affect long-term growth. I have stayed away from the braised pork shop that sells 40 yuan/250g braised pig's trotters.
And the controversy of such "price assassins" is also increasing the social cost. Regulators need to devote more resources to investigating and prosecuting these violations, increasing the cost of administration. Due to information asymmetry, consumers are often at a disadvantage in the process of protecting their rights, and even if they successfully file a complaint, it may take a lot of time and energy.
Therefore, the market supervision department should increase the investigation and punishment of violations, and severely punish merchants who refuse to change their ways, so as to form an effective deterrent. This is also to create a more benign consumption environment and advocate the return of merchants' products and services to simplicity and transparency. After all, after the Qingdao prawn incident of 38 yuan a piece, many netizens said that "I will never go to Qingdao again". The incident has seriously damaged Qingdao's image and tourism reputation.
A seemingly inadvertent encounter with a "price assassin" will bring scars that are difficult to heal to consumers, business brands, and the credibility of local management. May during the National Day holiday, all localities bear in mind the lessons brought by such incidents, and work together to build a more harmonious, fair and transparent tourism market environment, so that there will be fewer "price assassins" controversy, and every tourist can enjoy a pleasant and safe travel experience.
• (This article is the author's personal opinion and does not represent the position of this newspaper)
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Editor-in-charge: Xin Provincial Chronicles