Guangdong investigated 100 catering enterprises in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan, and found that some restaurants set "per capita consumption standards" in disguise to increase the price of vegetables.
Reporter Tang Heng Intern Lin Ye Correspondent Guangdong Consumer Council
Problems such as setting minimum consumption in catering industry (hereinafter referred to as "low consumption") have long troubled consumers and caused many social disputes and consumption disputes. On October 8, the Consumer Council of Guangdong Province announced the recent unannounced visits to 100 restaurants in the province. The results show that nearly half of the restaurants still set a low consumption threshold, and some restaurants have cancelled the low consumption, but increased the cost of private rooms.
In the next step, the Provincial Consumer Council will interview relevant enterprises to promote the rectification of arbitrary charges in the catering industry.
A problem
There is a restaurant with a minimum consumption of 5000 yuan.
As early as 2014, the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly promulgated the "Measures for the Management of Catering Industry (Trial)", which clearly stipulated that "catering operators are prohibited from setting minimum consumption", which means that the problem of low consumption has a clear qualitative and institutional constraint.
Since the promulgation of the "Measures" for more than three years, as a major province of catering consumption in China, what is the implementation of the Guangdong market and what is the effect?
From August to September this year, the Consumer Council of Guangdong Province launched the "Investigation on Minimum Consumption in Catering Places and Related Issues" around the issue of catering charges that consumers are most concerned about, such as minimum consumption. The survey selected 100 well-known and popular catering enterprises from 10 representative cities in Guangdong. By means of telephone unannounced visits and questionnaires, we got an in-depth understanding of the implementation of the Measures in the catering industry and grasped the current situation of low consumption of catering and related issues in Guangdong.
The survey results show that among the 100 restaurants in this sample survey, 47 have set up low consumption, accounting for nearly 50%, and the low consumption charge for private rooms ranges from more than 100 yuan to several thousand yuan, with a maximum of 5,000 yuan. There are also various forms of low-consumption settings. For example, some restaurants set low-consumption standards according to the size of private rooms and landscape (river view, garden). Low-cost charges are not limited to high-end Chinese restaurants, but also involve Chinese food, western food, cuisine, buffet, hot pot restaurant, Cantonese restaurant, Hunan restaurant, Sichuan restaurant, Jiangsu and Zhejiang restaurant, Japanese restaurant and Thai restaurant.
A restaurant is suspected of double charging.
The survey also found that although many restaurants have cancelled the low consumption, they have charged various fees instead. There are 57 such restaurants (including some that have set minimum consumption), which is close to 60% of the survey sample. The charging forms mainly include: charging private room fees, designating high-priced dishes, charging high tea fees, limiting the consumption of special dishes, and raising the price of dishes.
Some restaurants repeatedly use two or more charging methods, such as Guangzhou Huangpu Huayuan (Huangpu East Road Store), Haibin Fisherman (Jinsui Road Store in Zhujiang New Town), Shenzhen Victory (Bagua No.1 Store) and Jinhang Chinese Restaurant (Jixiang Middle Road Store), which not only set the minimum consumption of private rooms, but also charge high-priced tea fees, and increase the price of vegetables. In addition, 32 restaurants charge a service fee, which is generally 10% of the total consumption. Among them, 14 restaurants not only set minimum consumption, but also added service fees, which were suspected of repeated charges.
B survey
Some merchants say that low consumption can guarantee dishes.
On the 8 th, after investigating several restaurants, the reporter found that some restaurants set low consumption in disguise by means of "room consumption standard" and "service fee". For example, Guangzhou Hangkong No.1 (Xinhe Building Store) said that the consumption standard for private rooms for five people is 1,500 yuan, and the room standards for different rooms are different. When asked if the standard of private room consumption is equal to the minimum consumption, the merchants denied the statement of minimum consumption, claiming that there is no such thing as "minimum consumption", but only set the standard of room consumption; Guangzhou overseas Chinese gourmets said that there is no minimum consumption in the private rooms of the store, but a 5% service charge should be added on the basis of the total price; Guangzhou Huangpu Huayuan Restaurant (Huangpu Store) said that although the minimum consumption of private rooms for five people is 400 yuan, five people can generally reach the consumption of 400 yuan.
Shenzhen Tongxianghui (Century City Store) said that the minimum consumption of private rooms is based on the number of people. Take a small private room as an example. If there are six people, there is no minimum consumption limit. If there are less than six people, the minimum consumption per person is 80 yuan. When the reporter mentioned that the country prohibited setting minimum consumption, the merchant denied that he was charging "minimum consumption", claiming that they only had the so-called lower limit of per capita consumption; Chaozhou Zhengchu Private Cuisine (Paifang Street Store) has also set a minimum consumption limit of 100 yuan per capita. Merchants said that setting a minimum consumption is conducive to ensuring the quality of dishes, and dishes without minimum consumption are not good. Setting a minimum consumption is the tradition of this store.
In addition, among the eight restaurants in the province surveyed by the reporter, only one of the restaurants that charge low consumption in private rooms actively informed the low consumption regulations, and the others were informed when the reporter asked.
According to the Provincial Consumer Council, although there is no prohibition by law, other fees such as private room fees, high-priced tea places and package fees must be set at a fair and reasonable price, and the obligation of active, comprehensive and accurate notification should be fulfilled, and consumers’ right to choose should be fully respected, so as to ensure that consumers can clearly understand their consumption. Otherwise, consumers’ rights and interests such as the right to know and the right to choose may be violated.
C rectification
Provincial Consumers Association will talk about related enterprises.
In order to promote the catering industry to completely rectify the phenomenon of unreasonable charges such as minimum consumption, the Consumer Council of Guangdong Province will submit the survey results to the relevant departments, and suggest that the relevant departments actively show their swords, constantly strengthen supervision and law enforcement, organize regular law enforcement inspections, punish illegal acts in time, increase the illegal costs of merchants, form an illegal warning effect, completely eradicate the chronic disease of minimum consumption, and constantly standardize and upgrade the catering industry market.
In the next step, the Consumer Council of Guangdong Province will sort out and summarize the opinions of all parties, reflect them to the government and relevant departments in a timely manner, and promote Guangdong to strengthen food and beverage law enforcement supervision and build a comfortable and comfortable food and beverage consumption environment. At the same time, relevant enterprises will be interviewed to promote the catering industry to effectively rectify the unreasonable charges such as minimum consumption.
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These restaurants have been named by Guangdong Consumers Association for setting up low-cost restaurants.
Among them, there are 12 in Guangzhou, 10 in Shenzhen and 5 in Chaozhou.
The reporter found that among the enterprises that set minimum consumption, there are 12 in Guangzhou, 10 in Shenzhen, 4 in Zhuhai, 2 in Foshan, 3 in Jiangmen, 2 in Dongguan, 1 in Shantou, 5 in Chaozhou, 6 in Maoming and 2 in Qingyuan, and the Pearl River Delta region has become the hardest hit area for low consumption.
There are many well-known restaurants that charge the lowest consumption, such as Guangzhou’s Sky No.1, Songyue Self-Slow Cuisine, Banquet Jiangnan, Furong Building, Dongting Lao Sparrow, Xiangnan Impression, Huangpu Huayuan Restaurant, Yichu, Haixinsha No.2, overseas Chinese gourmet, seaside fisherman, Xiaolongkan, Shenzhen’s Siye Sushi, Libaoge, Victory, Tanguixuan, Chaoxiang Sihai, Miguo. Zhuhai’s Haiwan Yipin, Jinyuexuan Seafood Restaurant, Mayflower Seafood Restaurant, Yuejixuan, Foshan’s Dan Wong and Pork Woman’s Private Cuisine, Jiangmen’s State Banquet Cuisine, Shenggao Dining Bar and Daoxiang in Dongguan, Shantou’s Chaoren Peninsula Teahouse, Chaozhou’s Zhengchu Private Cuisine, Old Town Chaozhou Restaurant, Hanshou Restaurant, Xiguan Chef, Shengshi Mingdian, Maoming’s Impression of Nanyang Thai Restaurant, etc.
(Tang Heng, Lin Ye, Guangdong Consumer Council)
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