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A daigou is a personal shopper who buys items to send back to people in China, usually for a significant markup. This is a cheaper alternative for Chinese buyers to purchase products around the world. Especially products so in demand in their home country that they often can't be purchased. Like decent quality milk powder produced by Australia. This has caused problems with locals in Australia with hundreds of tins of baby formula being purchased by Chinese daigou to be sent back to China. These daigou can strip shelves of milk powder in minutes. While supermarkets have responded with limiting the number of tins a person can buy per purchase this has failed as the daigou simply go straight back in to purchase more. In response, the Australian public now records videos of these Chinese shoppers stripping the shelves of baby formula then posts to social media. Australia is well known for giving anyone a fair go but there are limits.
Ever think of robbing a store but stopped thinking "what if I'm seen?". Cameras are everywhere. Just about everyone has one in their pocket. Powered up, hours of free space, a phone unlock and camera app start away from filming. YouTube and Facebook have made it easy to share videos for free. Anyone can do it. Now they are. When over 30 daigou recently went on a baby formula buying spree in Brisbane, Shane Conroy captured the raid on video to post to Facebook. The footage has since been viewed half a million times with thousands of shares. The situation with foreign shoppers stripping shelves is only getting worse. The public is now stepping up to record these incidents to post them online to publicly name and shame these people as laws and rules are ineffective.
Is it better when Big Brother is not a central authority but instead is implemented by the people, themselves?
(Score: 2) by rleigh on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:05PM (3 children)
Presumably, there's a reason, but like yourself I don't get it. Call up the supplier, and order a whole lorry load of the stuff. Should be plenty cheaper wholesale as well.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 02 2019, @03:51PM
More likely to get caught by Chinese regulators if they start acting like a wholesale supply channel instead of shopping tourists.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by MostCynical on Wednesday January 02 2019, @07:33PM (1 child)
Trade agreements.
The Chinese already make the stuff.
Importing in bulk would breach the agreements ("don't compete with our factories" is basically the agreement most counctries have with China)
Alas, the quality from the Chinese factories is lacking, regulation and enforcement is missing/corrupt/incompetent. Babies have died.
So, weird behaviours.. Trying to get safe baby formula, so your children don't die - paying retail and freight, plus the costs of the daigou.. apparently neccessary; apparently worth it.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by EventH0rizon on Wednesday January 02 2019, @09:32PM
The above is comment summarizes the problem here in Oz well.
My youngest is now 4, but I well remember the pain of driving from supermarket to supermarket late at night just trying to buy a single tin of formula.
The food produced here and in New Zealand is generally of a very high quality, and the demand for it in China is astonishing, particularly for infant formula. In the case of milk powder, you can't import it into China in commercial quantities but you can ship it in personal quantities...