Wang Yuanyuan

VANS selling cheap vegetables since the end of September have been accused by small retailers and netizens of disrupting the market through unfair competition.

In recent weeks, there have been a number of incidents where vegetable retailers have attacked van operators and protested in front of the vans after their business dropped by half because of competition from the vans.

“I can only sell half the vegetables now because nobody is coming to the market,” said a vegetable retailer surnamed Zhao at a Huiming wet market on Beidou Road in Luohu District.

The small market retailers protested near a van near the market Nov. 6, demanding the van move on and stop taking away their livelihoods.

“Their prices are cheaper than ours because they are subsidized by the government and they don’t pay rent or power fees, so all the buyers go to them for cheap prices,” said Zhao.

Zhao said they had to pay 7,000-yuan rent a month for their market stall and other costs were about 2,000 to 3,000 yuan a month. “It is so unfair. The vans are to help residents have a better life, but we are also residents and they have to think about our rights, too,” said Zhao.

Zhao tried to change vegetable varieties to cope. “I took a week to study the types of vegetables the vans are selling and started selling other types they did not have. But it didn’t work because people weren’t even going into the market,” he said.

Many van operators were also worried about the business. “We were only hired to sell the vegetables and followed official instructions, but it was us who were threatened and attacked by the small retailers,” said Wang Zhongming, one of the van operators in Xiangxi Village in Luohu District.

Wang had an unidentified friend who also operated the van in Bao’an District. “He was beaten by retailers last month and was still in hospital. Our rights are not being protected by the government,” he said.

Wang said the operator of the project, Central Kitchen Logistics Co., asked them to park the van at more than 150 meters from the markets to avoid disputes.

“But it did not work [because] 150 meters was still too close to the markets and buyers did not mind the extra distance as long as they could buy cheaper food,” Wang said.

Government intervention called for

MANY experts suggested the government should become involved in resolving disputes between the vegetable vans and small retailers.

“Residents benefit from the program, so it should be promoted. But it is also important to protect private retailers’ rights because their families depended on that income,” said Guo Shiping, director of Institute of International Finance, Shenzhen University

Guo believes the vans have a competitive edge because of where they were able to operate and the low costs. “All these advantages were according to preferential government policy, an important step in controlling price rises,” said Guo.

However, he thought government subsidies for the vans should not last for an extended period to ensure fair competition. “When the project becomes mature, the government should suspend subsidies and let the vans seek effective ways to retain prices and boost sales. Otherwise small retailers will be driven away and there will be no long-term effect in controlling prices,” Guo said. (Wang Yuanyuan)

Operators deny monopoly

Wang Yuanyuan

CENTRAL Kitchen Logistics Co. has denied disrupting the market, saying the vans were just to help improve residents’ lives.

Each van takes only 1 ton of vegetables a day, so the vans can sell only 300 tons of food at most, said Liu Zhenbin, general manager of the company.

The city consumed about 4,000 to 5,000 tons of vegetables each day, so the market share of the cheap vans accounted for less than 10 percent.

“We sell no more than 10 percent of the food a day, so this cannot be called a monopoly. We meet only some of the residents’ demands and most people still had to buy food at the markets,” he said.

However, Liu admitted it was a big problem with disputes continuing between retailers and van operators.

“The company is aware of the problem and we could move the vans to more reasonable places,” Liu said.

In the beginning, the company selected parking locations in areas where there were large concentrations of people. But after a month of observations, the company found that some locations were not suitable.

The company was now studying new locations for vans to avoid disputes with market stall holders.

“In the future, some vans would move to places where there were no wet markets so there would be no direct competition with the markets. But it will take time and we hope both van operators and retailers can be more understanding,” Liu said.

Meanwhile, most vans could not now provide meat because of a lack of facilities. “Although many residents want us to sell meat, we don’t have the facilities to keep the meat fresh,” Liu said.

Most places did not have power supply. There were now only 11 vans selling meat because they had access to power for refrigerators.

“We will take into account power supplies when we select new locations,” he said.