A stationery store visited by the reporter, and the stationery blind boxes were filled with shelves. Photography: Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Li Menghan
In a stationery store in a school district on the Second Ring Road in Beijing, Ding Ding, a little boy in the second grade, is choosing today's blind box cards alone. He chose three packs of 20 yuan card bags, then took away two packs of 10 yuan card bags, and then threw a hundred yuan bill directly to the cashier of the stationery store without raising his head. After paying the bill, Ding Ding packs, sorts cards, removes heavy weights, and organizes rare cards. The first card draw result of
did not satisfy Ding Ding. He told reporters that he planned to use all the remaining 40 yuan in his pocket to continue to buy card blind boxes. Walking to the blind box card bag sales area again, Ding Ding took all the 10 yuan card bags on the shelves and carried out the second wave of card drawing activities today. After spending all his pocket money, Ding Ding proudly showed reporters today's spoils - 14 "good cards". In order to draw these cards, Ding Ding spent a total of 120 yuan today. The remaining "Puka" was abandoned by Ding Ding in the trash can of the stationery store. The owner of the stationery store told reporters that Ding Ding is an "old customer" in the store and often visits when she is in school. She will come to her at least twice a week during the summer vacation. Recently, school is about to start, and she will come to draw cards every day, with the amount fixed at about 100 yuan. "School is about to start, and the little boy is a little competitive." The owner of the stationery store explained to reporters why Ding Ding was addicted to card drawing.
reporter noticed that in the blind box card sales area of the stationery store, a poster of the "Sunshine Convention" was posted, with the third line saying "Customers under the age of 8 must purchase card games in the store with the guardian's accompanying them." Ding Ding told reporters that he is 7 years old and has just entered the second grade of elementary school.
htmlOn August 16, the State Administration for Market Regulation publicly solicited opinions on the "Guidelines for Standardized Blind Box Business Activities (Trial) (Draft for Comments)", which stipulates that blind box operators are not allowed to sell blind boxes to minors under the age of 8. When selling blind box products to minors aged 8 or above, you should confirm that the consent of the relevant guardian has been obtained through sales site inquiries or online identity identification. The draft opinion also emphasizes that relevant local departments are encouraged to introduce protective measures to specifically regulate the blind box sales model around primary school campuses, including distance, content, etc. In June this year, the Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Bureau and the Provincial Consumer Protection Committee jointly released the "Ten Top Ten Behaviors to the Rights and Interests of Minors". The "Report" lists the top ten behaviors that endanger the rights and interests of minors, among which the use of blind boxes to induce excessive consumption of minors ranks first.However, with the arrival of the school season, blind boxes for children and teenagers around the school have made a comeback. A financial reporter from Beijing News Shell found that some stationery and toy blind boxes on the market are expensive, and the product profit is much higher than ordinary stationery and toys. When merchants sell blind box products, they deliberately lure minors to irrationally consume; in addition, some three-no-stationery blind boxes and pornographic stationery blind boxes are still circulating on the market.
blind boxes "strike" stationery stores. There are blind box products sold for thousands of yuan
The traditional stationery store seems to have turned into a blind box store, and buying stationery has gradually become an adventure similar to the above-mentioned card drawing game.
is located in front of the Morning Light store in Beijing Bairong World Trade Center . A promotional sign for the opening season is particularly conspicuous. The publicity board says the most popular products in the store, among which the two products "national blind bags" and "hot blind bag pens" are located in the most eye-catching position of the publicity board.
walked into the store, and the three rows of shelves were filled with blind box stationery products. The shelves were located in the center of the stationery store, close to the cashier. Ordinary stationery is distributed on both sides of the stationery store.
is on the eve of school opening, and there are endless students and customers coming to buy stationery. Miaomiao, a little girl who is about to enter the third grade, is one of them. Miaomiao was holding a green blind box in her hand and was concentrating on selecting the second blind box stationery. Although Miaomiao's father tried to pull his daughter away on the grounds that "the packaging is fancy and useless", he could not resist the child's coquettish offensive.
blind box products in stationery store, each blind box also includes a laser collection card and a sticker - these stickers are also the favorites of children such as Miaomiao.Photography: Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Li Menghan
Miaomiao told reporters that there is a little girl on the blind box pen she is choosing, and she will blow bubbles with her eyes closed. "The packaging has written several different styles, and maybe she can even get hidden models..." Miaomiao talked endlessly about the "benefits" of this blind box pen in her hand. The reporter found that the blind box pen name of Miaomiao was "Lin Shen Wudaoshi" and was a joint neutral pen from Chenguang and Rolife. The complete set of blind boxes has 12 different images and a hidden image, and the price is 7 yuan per piece. Another green blind box is the same IP, but in addition to the neutral pen, each blind box also includes a laser collection card and a sticker - these stickers are also the favorites of children such as Miaomiao. In their eyes, the limited edition stickers are much more precious than pens.
is actually in the blind box area, and the price of a pen of 7 yuan per pen is not expensive. The reporter observed that there are many blind box pens in the store priced at around 10 yuan - a "famous painting series" straight liquid walking pen is priced at 9 yuan per piece, a Panda Academy press neutral pen is priced at 9.5 yuan per piece, and another Alihua Night Walk series press neutral pen is priced at 10.5 yuan per piece. In addition to neutral pens, various stationery blind bags are also products with high frequency of stationery blind box areas. A bag of lucky bags includes four types of random small stationery, with prices ranging from 12.5 yuan to 20 yuan. In addition, blind box rubber and blind box figures also appear in the stationery blind box area. A penguin-shaped blind box rubber priced at 36 yuan per each, and a Paulina Girl Magic Dessert House figure priced at 65 yuan per each.
In the store's stationery blind box area, words such as "limited", "random", "collected", "hidden model", and "exclusive first release" are placed next to the blind box products in a conspicuous manner. In the cashier's queue area, there are two blind box lucky bags listed in the special price area waiting for customers to choose. Behind the transformation of
stationery store, the company that supplies it has also changed its course. In the semi-annual report just released by Chenguang Co., Ltd., the leader in stationery, Chenguang Co., Ltd. said: Domestic stationery consumption is trending in branding, creative, personalized and high-end, and the demand for high-quality cultural and creative products is further highlighted, promoting the upgrading and transformation from stationery to cultural and creative life. As early as four years ago, Chenguang launched two theme retail stores, Chenguang Life Museum and Jiumu Miscellaneous Society, mainly trendy toys and cultural and creative stationery. As of the end of June 2021, Jiumu Miscellaneous Society had 403 stores nationwide and 60 stores in Chenguang Life Museum.
is not only in Chenguang store. In the three large stationery stores visited by the reporter in Bairong World Trade Center , blind box products account for almost half of the store. Various types of blind box pens, blind box stationery lucky bags, blind box rubbers, blind box cards, blind box hand-door lucky bags, and blind box celebrity lucky bags are available, with prices ranging from four to five yuan to hundreds of yuan per box.
More and more stationery and toys are being sold in the form of blind boxes, and the overall stationery is also showing a toy-oriented trend. Even in some stationery stores, more and more blind boxes are beginning to emerge. It is worth noting that there are many expensive products in these blind boxes. In Chentong Stationery Wholesale Store, the reporter noticed that a small box black diamond version of Ultraman Card blind box costs 100 yuan per box, and the other slightly larger rectangular blind box costs 358 yuan. In the stationery store where Dingding bought blind boxes, the store owner told reporters that the most expensive Ultraman card blind box in the store costs up to thousands of yuan, but some consumers are still willing to buy products and they still need to restock them regularly. When
was finally checked out, Miaomiao purchased two blind box pens and a bag of blind box lucky bags, and a total of 17 pens were removed. This summer vacation, Ding Ding bought Ultraman Card blind boxes twice a week on average. As the school year approaches, Ding Ding visited the stationery store almost every day, and the amount of each consumption is about 100 yuan.
Jiangxi Normal University School of Psychology Associate Professor of Child Development Psychology, Zhang Jing, interpreted the popularity of stationery and toy blind boxes in minors from the perspective of Child Psychology .Zhang Jing believes that, first of all, blind boxes are in line with the characteristics of minors pursuing freshness and strong curiosity, and the uncertainty behind blind boxes will strongly attract children; secondly, minors are rushing to catch up with the market trend, and the behavior of following the crowd is actually pursuing social identity. Children establish a group with interests as the circle in the process of unpacking boxes and exchanging blind boxes, forming niche circles of interest, such as handbook circles; finally, compared with previous generations, current minors have become more "self-centered" due to factors such as educational philosophy and historical background, that is, they care more about their own feelings and pay attention to their own needs. They no longer judge the value of goods only by whether they are practical or not, but on the contrary, they are their core needs. Zhang Jing said that bluntly banning minors from buying blind boxes cannot fundamentally solve the problem of addiction. Only by first understanding the psychological needs of children can adults better help children get out of the predicament.
In response to the phenomenon of minors being addicted to blind boxes, Sun Hongyan, director of the Institute of Children and Children of China Youth Research Center, put forward several suggestions from the aspects of family and school education: First, parents and teachers should fully understand their children's psychological needs. Behind the obsession with blind boxes is that some of the children's psychological needs in daily life have not been met. For example, children with introverted personality lack friends, collecting blind boxes and rare cards can make them have a certain sense of satisfaction and achievement; left-behind children lack fatherly love, and being addicted to blind boxes can help them relieve loneliness, etc. Secondly, parents can make efforts in their children's daily lives to enrich their children's leisure life, such as guiding their children to do housework, accompanying their children to play, increasing their children's reading volume, and cooking with their children. "Our research has found that children who are not rich in leisure and lack companionship will mostly indulge in some hobbies, such as online games. This is the embodiment of children's self-protection, and they always have to find some fun and immerse themselves in it." Finally, we must cultivate good habits in children, especially the cultivation of self-control. It is very important to do more self-control training when children are young.
blind box rare model has gradually become a social "hard currency". Merchants talk about the blind boxes sold around the school when it comes to the fifth grade of elementary school. Zeze's first reaction was his extremely envious friend Xinxin when he was in the third grade. In the third grade, Ultraman card blind boxes spread among lower grade boys like a plague. Rare cards became the hottest toys among little boys for a time, and they were also the hard currency for circulation between boys, and they could almost be exchanged for all other toys. Xinxin, who holds a large number of rare cards, naturally became the "King of Children" that boys compete to pursue.
Whenever school is over, a large group of boys in the class will follow Xinxin to the stationery store at the school gate to observe Xinxin’s card drawing process. "A group of classmates surrounded Xinxin. When they draw rare cards, Xinxin will hold the cards high so that everyone can see them." At this time, Zeze always shines his eyes, rushing to squeeze to the closest to Xinxin, and check the contents of each card drawn by Xinxin. However, due to the small pocket money, Zeze can only get rewards from his mother when his exam results are excellent and experience the feeling of Xinxin's "King of Children".
In the eyes of these little boys, drawing rare cards not only means that they can gain the envious gaze of their classmates, but the rarity of the cards themselves also seems to mean that they can have more funds to invest in the new round of card drawing games. Xiaohu, a boy in the sixth grade of elementary school, told reporters that the owner of a stationery store near his school would recycle rare cards at a high price, and a card he had drawn was recycled by the boss at a high price of 50 yuan. In this way, in the recurring card drawing game, Xiaohu firmly believed that the blind box cards he bought were not useless, and the card drawing game was a business that could make money.
However, Xiaohu's mother told reporters that in the years when Xiaohu was obsessed with the card drawing game, the money the child earned for selling cards was far from the money he spent on drawing cards. Another parent, Ms. Mao, also told reporters that her son has been addicted to Ultraman card drawing games since he was 5 years old. Every time he goes out, his child will ask to buy a card. If he doesn't buy a child, he will stay at the door of the stationery store and refuse to leave. "The Ultraman card drawing at home can be piled up in mountains."
At the same time, in other stationery blind boxes sales, merchants' marketing methods are not inferior. In the stationery stores near several primary and secondary schools in Beijing visited by the reporter, sales slogans such as buying 6 free of 1, collecting all the styles and giving away a blind box pen will appear in the stationery store from time to time.
When the reporter consulted an Yiwu stationery manufacturer as a purchaser, the other party told the reporter: "There is no merchant that cannot sell products, only those who can't use their brains."
The merchant took a werewolf kill blind box pen sold in his store as an example and taught the reporter marketing skills step by step: "A set of pens includes civilians, werewolfs, witch , etc. There are nine characters in total, and each pen is equipped with an identity card. You can indicate in the store that 'collect all nine models and give a box for free, and it is very likely to disassemble the hidden character'. Children will be curious about this hidden model, collect styles desperately, and even exchange them with classmates, and pull students to buy them together. Isn't this business going on? You can also tell them that there are exquisite identity cards inside, and everyone can play the werewolf kill game with cards, etc."
Among the several blind box pens sold by this merchant, the most one has 12 different characters. Taking each retail price of 10 yuan as an example, it takes at least 120 yuan for a child to collect all the characters.
However, since there are currently no relevant laws and regulations, it is difficult for merchants to characterize and regulate this kind of marketing behavior.
21st Century Education Research Institute Dean Xiong Bingqi believes that before the emergence of relevant blind box guidelines and policies, merchants' marketing behaviors for blind box stationery and other blind box products were normal market behaviors, "as long as the price is clearly marked, it is appropriate." However, considering that minors' minds are not yet mature, blind box cards, blind box stationery, etc. themselves are gambling nature, children are prone to gambling mentality when buying blind boxes, and then become addicted to it. Professor of the School of Law of Renmin University of China Liu Junhai said that it is an immoral behavior to guide minors to consume irrationally and does not shoulder the social responsibility of adults to protect minors. According to relevant laws on the protection of minors, minors under 8 years old are persons with absolutely no civil capacity, and minors over 8 years old are persons with limited civil capacity . Their civil legal acts of require the consent or ratification of the legal representative or their legal representative. Three-no products are rampant in
blind boxes. The price of blind boxes on ordinary stationery covers soared several times. Under the packaging of a number of exquisite shells, the specific appearance of the products in the blind box of stationery is unknown. According to the reporter's interview, some children even spent more than 90 yuan to buy blind boxes online, and found that the value of the products in the blind box is far lower than the selling price. In addition to losing money and being deceived after buying
, some products in blind stationery boxes may also have certain safety hazards.
In the Chentong Stationery Wholesale Store on the fourth floor of Bairong Mall, the reporter visited and found that some stationery blind boxes in the store did not have product implementation standards, manufacturers, factory addresses, materials and other related logos. For example, the outer packaging of a blind box lucky bag called "Star Dailu" has no other information except for cartoon characters, product names, models and product barcodes.
In addition to blind box lucky bags, the phenomenon of three products in blind box pens is even more serious. A reporter from Beijing News Shell Finance found that when visiting the stationery area of the 5th floor of Soxiu Shopping Mall in Beijing, there are a wide variety of blind box pens in major shops, including many anime IPs familiar to children, such as Conan, Pikachu, One Piece, Sanrio Yugui Dog, etc. In a small stationery store, the reporter randomly selected a Pikachu blind box pen. After careful inspection, he found that there was no relevant information on the outer packaging of the blind box. On another blind box pen with Ultraman pattern and a blind box pen with pink rabbit pattern, the reporter also did not find any relevant logo.
These three-no stationery blind boxes may also involve infringement issues. Some merchants also said that because of the infringement issue, there are very few manufacturers making Pikachu blind box pens now.
The newly revised "General Requirements for Safety of Student Supplies" officially implemented in my country in February this year stipulates that the stationery label should at least include the product name, factory name, factory address, product standard number, product instructions, applicable age range, safety warning and other logos, and the logo should be clear and easy to read and durable. "Three No" products are prone to excessive content of toxic and harmful substances. Students are exposed to such products for a long time may have adverse health effects.
When the reporter asked the merchant how the quality of the three-no blind box products was guaranteed as a student parent, the merchant carefully checked the outer packaging of several stationery blind box products and the outer packaging of the product boxes they sold, and found that it did not have any safety marks, manufacturer information, etc. In response, the merchant said that he did not care about the product's outer packaging marking when purchasing, and casually opened a blind box product to show it to reporters, "There is an ordinary pen inside the blind box, and there is no difference from other pens."
Some stationery blind boxes are actually playing pornographic edge balls. Photography: Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Li Menghan
In addition, some stationery blind boxes that play pornographic edges are also worthy of parents' vigilance. A decompressed Bibiao hat displayed in Bairong Chentong store reveals the private parts of the anime characters, and the designer also specially expanded its private parts into flesh-colored silicone for children to rub and unzip. The reporter learned that the anime image is the image of a well-known anime protagonist group. The store employee told reporters that the store’s stationery is mainly wholesale, and the products will flow to stationery stores in Beijing and surrounding provinces and cities, such as Tianjin, Hebei and other places.
When the reporter said he wanted to order blind box pens in large quantities, Soxiucheng stationery merchants vigorously promoted the three-no blind box pen products in the store to the reporter, and said that if the reporter ordered such products, he could get a larger discount than blind box pens in brands such as Chenguang, Deli , etc. The store has all the production logos and safety logos related to Morning Light and Deli blind box pens. On the
short video platform, the reporter happened to see a Pikachu blind box pen under a work of a fine stationery account in Yiwu, which is consistent with the outer packaging of the blind box pen seen in offline visits. The reporter then called the stationery manufacturer as a wholesaler, and the other party told the reporter that the wholesale price of this type of blind box pen is around 1 yuan, usually the market retail price is 5-6 yuan, while the wholesale price of another ordinary neutral pen is around 0.5 yuan, and the market retail price is 1-2 yuan. In other words, once an ordinary neutral pen is fitted with a blind box shell, its value will immediately "spin" several times. In another Yiwu stationery wholesale store, the reporter also received a similar offer.
Sun Hongyan said in an interview with a reporter from Beike Finance that his team found in the survey that there are many problems with stationery blind boxes, among which product safety issues are the first to be affected. Sun Hongyan believes that selling stationery blind boxes has more profits than ordinary products. Driven by huge profits, merchants take making money as their main goal, and their product safety awareness is not strong. "Under the cover of blind box outer packaging, merchants are likely to produce products that do not meet the standards in order to seek benefits. Some three-no stationery products may not meet the standards under the fancy appearance of the fancy appearance, containing a large amount of heavy metal substances and some small parts that are not suitable for young children, which are extremely safe." Regarding the problem of blind boxes for pornographic stationery, Liu Junhai said that the blind box economy has long focused on development and neglected norms and has grown wildly. Some unhealthy elements have serious trampling and infringing on the body and mind of minors, bringing adverse demonstration benefits to minors. We should have a zero-tolerance attitude towards pornographic elements.
In response to the chaos in blind box in the market, Liu Junhai suggested from the regulatory level that for enterprises that ignore the physical and mental health of minors, the guiding role of laws and regulations should be played to ensure that the blind box governance is sound and has laws to follow. In response to the blind box wave, we must establish and improve a strict hierarchical sales system, strictly classify according to age, and establish an all-weather, all-round, cross-market, cross-regional, information sharing, fast and efficient supervision system to truly create a minor-friendly blind box economy ecological environment. In addition, during the implementation of laws and regulations, it is also necessary to ensure that the regulations are finally implemented in the smallest unit of the merchant.
Beijing News Shell Finance Reporter Li Menghan Intern Zou Zhenzhen Lin Jingyi Editor Yue Caizhou Proofreading Liu Baoqing
