Consumers buying tomatoes (and other fruit and vegetables) from Carrefour (and other supermarkets) risk a high probability of being ripped off. It seems that the plastic packaging stores use hides a multiple of sins.
It is both unnecessary and forces customers to buy more fruit than they might otherwise need, meaning its use is difficult to reconcile with any company’s claim to environmental “greenness”. Moreover, with one transparent side and one opaque, it affords consumers a less-than-50-percent view of the contents, allowing unscrupulous vendors the means to sell fruit that is partially damaged or rotten.
Yesterday, NOMM bought two 500g packets of 5 tomatoes from Carrefour on Taipei’s Chongqing N. Road, which, to judge from the visible evidence, were ripe and in excellent condition (see photo above). Upon opening the packets at the customer service desk in front of a staff member, however, it transpired that 2 of one packet and 3 of the other were showing early signs of rotting (photo below).
After a few minutes of form filling (time consuming and further unnecessary waste), Carrefour retuned the NT$90 (US$3) purchase price. NOMM asked for explanation from a manager or other spokesperson.
The following is an edited translation of the interview held with Ms. Gao Gui-qiu (高桂秋).
NOMM: Why does Carrefour cheat its customers?
Gao: We don’t cheat our customers.
NOMM: But you turn your tomatoes over so that only the good part shows and the rotten part is hidden. Isn’t that ‘cheating your customers’?
Gao: We don’t do that. It’s done by the supplier. We don’t package the product ourselves.
NOMM: Is this the first time this has happened, that someone has complained about fruit rotten on the side concealed from view?
Gao: No.
NOMM: Is it just the second or third time?
Gao: No.
NOMM: And is it fair to say that most customers don’t open the packaging here in the store, but wait until they get home, by which time it would be wasteful of time and gasoline to come back and complain?
Gao: Possibly.
NOMM: So Carrefour knowingly sells produce that it can confidently predict will include some damaged and rotten items, but that customers are not in a position to identify? Isn’t that ‘cheating your customers’?
Gao: When we receive a batch from the suppliers, we open one or two samples to make sure the shipment is ok.
NOMM: Well, here we have a sample of 2 packets, both of which are substandard.
(At this point, Ms. Gao disappeared, then reappeared with two more packets of tomatoes, which to judge from the condensation had come out of a cold store. She opened them at the customer service counter and examined the underside of the fruit. One was of acceptable quality; 3 of the other were showing signs of rot.)
NOMM: So Carrefour knowingly sells produce that it can confidently predict will include some damaged and rotten items, but that customers are not in a position to identify? Isn’t that ‘cheating your customers’?
Gao: We don’t do that. It’s done by the supplier. We don’t package the product ourselves. When we receive a batch from the suppliers, we open one or two samples to make sure the shipment is ok
NOMM: But why use packaging at all? It is unnecessary, it makes it easy for you, or the supplier, to cheat the customer into buying inedible food, and it also means that customers cannot buy exactly the quantity they require, examining each one for quality.
GAO: I understand your concerns and will make a report.
NOMM: Why doesn’t Carrefour care what customers feel?
GAO: We do care.
NOMM: Why don’t you care that customers will get angry when they arrive home and discover their expensive fruit is inedible? Maybe you should care more, since disappointed and angry customers might decide not to buy fruit here anymore, they may even decide not to buy anything from a store that knowingly cheats them.
GAO: I understand your concerns and will make a report.
Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011
