Coincidentally. In 2020, Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau found that 12 of 50 batches of goods were suspected of over-packaging, and the unqualified rate of cosmetics packaging was as high as 70%.
Xiao Liu in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province has the habit of eating youth league every spring. During the procurement process, various "youth league gift boxes" dazzled Xiao Liu. "There are many' Youth League Gift Boxes' whose prices are much higher than those of bulk youth groups, but their tastes are average. It is time-consuming and laborious to screen them." Xiao Liu said.
"The cosmetics and food industries are the' hardest hit' of over-packaging." Liu Jianguo, a professor at Tsinghua University Institute of Environment, said in an interview with this reporter. Food consumption is closely related to people's lives, and the consumption is large and there is a need for separate packaging, which gives merchants an opportunity to over-package. Through multi-layer packaging, cosmetics can increase added value, meet the needs of some consumers, stimulate sales and increase profits. The reporter found on the "Little Red Book" platform that many netizens commented on some beautifully packaged cosmetics as "careful and exquisite" and "full of ceremony".
Merchants increase profits through over-packaging, and some consumers get a "sense of ceremony" by buying over-packaged products, which seems to be "one willing to fight and one willing to suffer", but it harms the rights and interests of consumers.
On the one hand, the "sense of ceremony" brought by over-packaging should be paid by consumers. Cao Mingde, a professor at the School of Civil and Commercial Economics of China University of Political Science and Law and vice president of the china law society Environmental Resources Law Research Association, told this reporter that for most consumers, the packaging box is opened and thrown away, and only the product has use value. But in practice, the cost of packaging is included in the commodity price, and finally passed on to consumers. The more bloated the packaging, the more money consumers will spend, but they will not get more use value.
On the other hand, consumers often buy what they have when they buy goods. If all businesses make the trend of over-packaging worse and worse for the purpose of increasing profits, over time, only over-packaged products can be seen on the shelves, and consumers can only be forced to accept and pay for over-packaging. "Therefore, it is urgent to regulate over-packaging on the supply side." Cao Mingde said.