Disturbance of "personal effects" - Part 1: "Personal effects" can be found everywhere

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A Shop of "Personal Effects". Photo: Q.H

The Center of "personal effects"

Nguyen Son street (Gia Thuy, Long Bien, Hanoi) is known as “aviation street” for the concentration on agencies under the Aviation industry such as: Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, 919 Flight Crew Division. Now it is also known as “Center of personal effects” where traders often visit.

Going into Alley 158, we saw series of signboards entitled wholesale or retail of " personal effects". A shop with a signboard entitled “Made in France” sells all kinds of consumer goods from cosmetics (shower gel, shampoo, sun cream, and perfume., etc) to food (fruits and wines) and fashion items (footwear, clothes, and bags., etc). The shop owner said they are almost wholesaled. It is easy to find that the selling prices are not printed on the products but shall be informed directly to buyers. “we are wholesalers, so we do not print prices, you choose a product and then I will tell you the price” the shop owner explained. The products are attached with stamps “Made in USA” or “Made in Japan” and “Made in Korea”. The series of shampoo and shower gel attached with stamp “made in Japan”, but the original part is printed with “made in Thailand”. The shop owner hastily explained, “the product is made in Thailand and then exported to Japan”.

Coming another shop in the alley 158 with name “Made in Germany, France, Italia, Japan, and Korea”. We found that although its signboard entitled Wholesaling and Retailing, most customers are wholesale buyers. I was not a familiar buyer, but when I express a wish to buy goods in large quantities, the shop owner was ready to meet my order and enthusiastically introduced: “How many products do you want, I will provide you. If you buy products with a few million, I will discount, and If you buy products with tens millions, I will ship the products to your place, my shop wholesales products for not only the downtown’s shops but also provincial shops”

Observing this shop, the items are displayed as much as a mini supermarket. On the package and the box are printed in foreign languages, so the shop owner helps buyers distinguish the origin of goods with small pieces of paper glued directly on the shelves. Each of these pieces is written in Vietnamese handwriting, "Made in Korea" or "Made in France"., etc

Leaving the center of "personal effects" Nguyen Son, we came to a shop selling "personal effects" on Trung Kinh Street (Cau Giay, Hanoi). A big signboard nearly covers the front of the shop with big letters” Made in France, Germany, Japan and South Korea”. It looked quite deserted at the first sight, but when we came inside, we get lost in the middle of the world of consumer goods. This shop of tens of square meters contains hundreds of categories of goods including: Clothing, leather belts, leather purses, watches, cosmetics ... all things are here, goods covered from the wall to the floor, only a small path for buyers to travel. Buyers are bustling, but only have a little doubt about the quality of goods here and naturally thought they all are good. Just do a simple calculation, with such a large amount of goods, it may take hundreds, and thousands of traveling to transport them from foreign countries.

The sale of "personal effects" not only takes place on the streets, alleys and small lanes in Hanoi but also is popular on social websites. Just create a Facebook account, post a picture of the goods and leave a contact phone number, any individual can become the owner of a "personal effect shop”. We only create a Facebook account and easily find out hundreds of accounts selling "personal effects" with hundreds of thousands of followers. Not less than street shops, the "personal effects" offered on the websites are also diverse and satisfy all ages. "Personal effects" are mainly fashion items, cosmetics, supplementary foods, dairy and electronic products and popularly expensive cell phones.

For example, in a Facebook account named "personal effects…..", each visitor is introduced to the groups: "Portable Cosmetics Group ..." or " Group of using personal effects” with thousands of members. .Just a simple operation on the computer, we found tens of cosmetics such as skin whitening cream; hair removal cream; Rosewater; Rolling deodorant; cushion., etc. All are posted in the form of pictures, accompanied by articles on their use and usage Customers who want to buy product just make a phone call, and buyers who buy a large amount (more than 10 items) products/item or more) shall be entitled to any product or reduced from 25 to 50% of the price.

The spread of social websites such as Facebook makes the market of "personal effects" more excited. Do not stop the posting of images of goods to attract more customers; the online shop owners launched many eye-catching promotional messages by posting product introduction or videos by a live stream to instruct how to use the product. When becoming familiar customers, we also join online forums where we can exchange, buy and sell as well as share usage and use of each product, especially new products.

Many kinds of cosmetics displayed in a "personal effects" shop in Hanoi

Information about "personal effect" is unclear

It is easy to understand that when the consumers need and buy "personal effects", the market shall meet their needs, but how are the quality and origin of goods that both wholesaler and retailers must check by themselves. As in the shop on Trung Kinh Street, we have introduced premium lipstick, body milk and perfume in original boxes with luxurious design. The shop owner said that the lipstick product called "Whoo", originated from Korea and was chosen by many customers. However, unlike imported products, all information about the product printed on the box is shown in a foreign language without official information of the manufacturer in Vietnamese.

Normally, an imported item in general and a cosmetic product in particular, if the label is not shown or has not full compulsory contents in Vietnamese language, it must conclude a supplementary label showing the compulsory contents in Vietnamese and remain original label of the goods. The compulsory contents must be indicated on the labels, including: Quantities; date of manufacture; Expiry date; ingredients; Information, warnings on hygiene, health safety; usage and maintenance instructions. In addition, depending on the nature of each kind of goods, compulsory information must be shown on the label of goods according to the Article 12, Decree No. 89/2006 / ND-CP and relevant legal documents)

If the original label does not show the full contents, the owner of the imported goods shall be responsible for adding the supplementary label before selling them on the market. In addition, each imported goods product for circulation in Vietnam must be included name and address of importing organization or individual. If goods of organizations or individuals acting as sale agents for foreign traders who import goods to Vietnam, the names and addresses of those organizations and individuals must be shown on the label. According to this provision, the most "personal effects" violate the law.

Because of unclear information about "personal effects", which leads to suspicion on quality that can affect consumers. Moreover, "personal effects" brought from abroad to Vietnam will be "3 no” goods when selling on the market (no invoice, no tax - tax evasion, no state inspection of quality and quantity). and contains potential risks of smuggling and tax evasion. On the other hand, "personal effects" also may be counterfeited from foreign countries or in the home country and then labeled “personal effects” to sell publicly to cheat customers.

The regulation on personal effects as alcohol and cigars amended VCN – The General Department of Vietnam Customs is gathering comments from people about the draft Circular ...

The storm of "personal effects" is covering anytime, anywhere, posting a requirement for competent forces that need to "keep an eye" on tight control of the commodity to ensure market transparency, to combat tax losses, prevent smuggled goods, counterfeit goods and most importantly, to protect consumers.