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: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @01:46PM (12 children)
I thought it was a free country. These people are not stealing, are they? They pay for that they get.
Why dont the normies on the streets name and shame the goverments and private entities involved in the orchestration of prices for fuel and oils or for the anything that now goes by the names of "import and export goods"? Because it suits them, while some sorry sods wanting supplies for their families back home while they are emigrants, these do hurt them?
Ausies, please, do something useful with your time, instead of such sorry name and shame activities.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:29PM (3 children)
I thought it was a free country. These people are not beating the daigous, are they? They're just recording what's happening.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:58PM (2 children)
only if you don't understand what your read. they are filming and shaming them
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @05:19PM
And . . . the daigou have some expectation of privacy in a public shopping area? WTF? I can't get no privacy either. Every time I whip out my Big Johnson, someone wants to take pictures!
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @10:13PM
But since the daigou ARE doing shameful things that's OK - it's just karma biting them on the bum.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:52PM (7 children)
Because Australian citizens have no influence over the CHINESE government which is the source of these product/trade issues.
I am sure Australian infant informula companies would love to sell their product directly to the Chinese people. Think dumbass why this is not hapenning now....
Perhaps the only workable solution is to implement quotas for formula until production can ramp up, but this might mean having to build more factories which is not an instantaneous thing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @03:37PM (4 children)
Even better, we could export the
imaginaryintellectual property needed to manufacture these formulas to China, and the Chinese government could subsidize the creation of factories in China!Hmm....
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @04:23PM (1 child)
As always, the issue with made-in-China is fraudulent--dangerously fraudulent--products.
Heathen Chinee have no morals. They are worse about this than other countries. It's a flamebait style statement, but it's also true. Life is cheap there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @03:49AM
All the other comments give explicit examples that back up my pithy point. Those other comments say nothing different than me but were upmodded.
You shouldn't downmod a comment like mine just because you don't like its content--which is demonstrably true.
(Score: 4, Informative) by tibman on Wednesday January 02 2019, @06:06PM
China can certainly manufacture the formula. Their government literally tried to cover up the 2008 scandal. They didn't issue a recall of existing tainted formula. They permitted companies to continue selling tainted baby formula even knowing it was laced with melamine. Talk about creating some legit trust issues with the gov!
https://qz.com/1323471/ten-years-after-chinas-melamine-laced-infant-milk-tragedy-deep-distrust-remains/ [qz.com]
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Wednesday January 02 2019, @07:33PM
They already know how. It's just that they cheaped out and added toxic melamine in China so nobody wants that now.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday January 02 2019, @05:25PM (1 child)
Well, those daigou don't seem especially smart. They're paying retail for the stuff, when they could almost certainly be paying wholesale. Apparently, the Chinese are smart enough to send their stupidest citizens overseas for this job.
Think: What would it take for one or more daigou to open a shop of their own? Probably a business license, several thousands to rent/lease/or even buy a warehouse. Get in contact with various distributors, those who carry the items most in-demand at home. If the cost of the warehouse is out of reach for one or six daigou, then get thirty of them together. Open the warehouse, get the contracts for the items needed, and have the stuff delivered by the truckload.
Wow - what a concept - open up your own import/export business, and you've cut out many middlemen!!
As an added benefit, you don't have to listen to some whiny bitch holding a tiny creature wet at both ends, while she whines about you taking the last nappies from the shelf!!
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @12:25AM
Arguments against setting up a business or wholesale importing etc, sure. But how have they not noticed simply buying the stuff in larger amounts than two-tins-per-customer at Costco or through Amazon? It’s almost like they’re trying to pay homage to Keystone Cops or Benny Hill rather than be smart about it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by nobu_the_bard on Wednesday January 02 2019, @01:48PM (5 children)
I wonder why they don't go to the supplier? That seems like it'd work out better for everyone.
(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...
(Score: 4, Informative) by PiMuNu on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:44PM
I'll take a guess that there is an issue with import/export regulations to china?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @01:55PM (11 children)
I don't see much of a problem. These daigou are following the law, they are buying the products, they are not stealing it. I'm not sure they follow all export/import rules, but that's for customs to check.
Some reservation system set up by the shops can prevent customers not getting what they need, I doubt the shops have a big problem with their shelves getting bought up. The customers can just also ask these daigou to buy one extra for them, might be worthwhile for both as well.
If the australian milk powder is in high demand and can be sold with a high markup in China, than I expect some Australian business will be eager to fill the gap?
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:40PM (3 children)
I'm thinking the problem is supply, due to farm regulations. It is common for "western" countries to both subsidize and also limit production of agricultural products, to try to prop up the price. So I'm guessing dairy subsidies are limited based on some government formula of how many cows "should" be required to fill demand? Formulas which of course do not take into account the demand of a billion Chinese people wanting baby formula which won't kill their children? (Wanting your child not to die from adulterated formula seems pretty reasonable to me...)
Here we finally have a type of product where "Made in China" is not advantageous! "Western" countries should be taking advantage of this! Unfortunately they are probably shooting themselves in the foot instead because of a century old tangle of political giveaways.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:55PM (2 children)
Far more likely answer is protectionist importation laws in China.
China likes to sell to foreigners, not buy from them, if it is at all possible.
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Wednesday January 02 2019, @03:01PM (1 child)
That is certainly true but doesn't explain the apparent lack of supply of these products. Chinese people seem adept at avoiding their own country's regulations in this regard.
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Wednesday January 02 2019, @03:03PM
By "lack of supply" I mean in "western" countries and also HK.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by nobu_the_bard on Wednesday January 02 2019, @03:27PM (5 children)
From my experience in retail, typically the stores don't want this to happen because the items in question are highly desirable. It's not just about sales on any one item that make a store function.
For example, the target item is a commodity: highly desirable, widely available, and competitively priced. Your margin has to be very narrow on the item to compete, but it drives customers to your store because of your aggressive pricing, which gives them a chance to buy higher margin items during their visit. Very few customers buy only one thing and leave.
However, if someone comes along and buys all of the target item:
* You don't make a lot of money, because you had a razor thin margin, due to your competitive pricing on the item. The people buying your entire stock of one thing are not likely to buy a substantial amount of anything else.
* Your other visitors that come for the item are frustrated, because there's none left for their main wanted item, so they buy nothing else and your store moves down the list of places they want to check next time. That's less total sales in the long run.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 02 2019, @03:49PM
Similar things happen domestically with fad foods. In the late 1980s it was "oat bran" - anything with oat bran flew off store shelves faster than it could be stocked. The problem was that demand spiked based on a mass media news blitz about the supposed health benefits of oat bran, and the supply chain took nearly a year to ramp up production to meet demand - also, I think the supply chain was sluggish to respond, and non responsive in some cases, because of the opinion that this would just be a fad and quickly die out, leaving tons of oat bran products stuck in warehouses for years if they over-responded to the initial demand spike.
Something like baby formula isn't an easy thing to ramp up and down production rates for, and sale of expired baby formula is even more problematic than stale cookies. The daigou are a grey, if not black, market operation and likely subject to wild swings in throughput due to regulatory actions. The more formalized their supply channels become, the easier it will be for Chinese regulators to clamp down on them, so it's likely that they will continue to operate as "shopping tourists" for the foreseeable future, and their shopping patterns will likely remain highly chaotic in an attempt to avoid regulation.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @03:57PM
And if all the stores get bought dry by foreigners because of fucked up conditions in their homeland, that leads to tensions if the locals can't buy anymore for themselves. Hong Kong has instituted an export limit for baby formula, and I thought Australia was instituting one too.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday January 02 2019, @04:02PM (2 children)
That's why one would raise prices on that one particular item in demand. You might not sell as much of it, or lose a little on it due to a supply-price mismatch, but the people who really want your full shopping experience (item plus other stuff) will come to your store and buy the other stuff and Chain Y down the street will suffer for being out of it. You don't want to be the cheapest price on such an item; instead, you want to be second cheapest.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday January 02 2019, @07:42PM (1 child)
Which makes consumer's anger at the daigou rational. Naturally they don't want rising prices and shrinking availability.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @08:41AM
But is this not exactly what capitalism teaches us, with all the suppy and demand balacing each other out? Surely the consumers are aware to have embraced such concepts freely, are they not?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @01:01PM
Law != justice, law != morals, law != ethics
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:03PM (2 children)
What a sorry piece of shit.
Terminal cancer would suit him well.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:28PM (1 child)
@shanemconroy [twitter.com](?) is an obnoxious lightweight with a lower I.Q.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:31PM
(cont) Blocked from my Twitter!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @03:49PM (1 child)
I was waiting for the TFS to explain what a gaigou was, but it probably is meant to be daigou (代购, purchasing agent).
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday January 02 2019, @03:52PM
fixed
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday January 02 2019, @03:57PM (1 child)
Are vigilantes better? Almost always no. Because that's what this is, only virutal instead of physical. "Big Brother" doesn't enter into it as nobody proposed the state should record and post the video online. Because it's a stupid idea that lowers the people doing it to a moral ground lower than the daigou and even the plebianness knows it.
Especially when the answer is pretty darn simple - produce more milk powder so there are no shortages, raise prices, or establish some tariffs on sending milk powder to China. Or the public might plan accordingly - heaven forbid anyone ever face a time anywhere where there is a shortage of anything! That can't possibly be right, can it? (As I hear my ancestors turn in their graves....)
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @07:05PM
If there weren't any Chinese in Australia, this wouldn't be a problem would it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @04:23PM (3 children)
here ya go
https://www.genolve.com/design/socialmedia/memes?creation=b369df86434f4286fc67147c18b32530 [genolve.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday January 02 2019, @05:14PM (1 child)
Are the stores the ones who are upset, or is it the customers that aren't hoarding products for resale?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by kazzie on Wednesday January 02 2019, @06:06PM
The local customers (who expect their local store to have baby food in stock) are the ones who are upset. Finding that your chosen variety of baby milk is suddenly unavailable when you need more is a stressful experience. And that's just for those parents whose babies prefer one particular brand: when your baby is allergic to or intolerant of some milks, you'll have even less room for manouvre.
The stores will be getting grief from their customers. They want to keep their customers happy, of course. And while the Daigou will come in, empty the shelves of milk powder, and hand over their money, they can't be relied upon for repeat business. The locals who come in on a weekly basis are the ones the stores need to keep happy, as if they fail to do that, they'll take their regular custom elsewhere.
(Score: 2) by Kalas on Saturday January 19 2019, @12:23PM
That's not a meme, that's an image macro. It's only a meme when it "goes viral" ie. becomes widespread or well-known. I'm too tired to go into the why of it but the most people don't know the difference. I was once a part of the culture that popularized image macros and it still irks me to see them referred to as memes when anything could me a meme, not just a picture with a caption slapped on. Rickrolling is the best example to come to mind but I don't recall ever hearing the news call that a meme.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @08:33PM
Milk powder regular price
$5$100 per unit95% discount when bought with $50 of perishable/low-export-value items
Won't stop them but it will make a dent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @12:59AM
As someone staying in Brisbane this holiday season, if I were to come across one of these folk, I don't think my first response would be faux moral outrage; I'd be more interested to know if these guys have an early tip on WWIII and are just prepping. I will let you know!