COMPARED to pricey moon cakes elaborately wrapped in fancy packaging, brands with minimal packaging that have been on the market for a long time, especially traditional Hong Kong-made moon cakes, are winning consumers over this year.

The Daily Sunshine reported that Shenzhen residents tend to purchase quality moon cakes with simple packaging or, for seemingly eco-friendly reasons, moon cakes in reusable packaging. Eye-catching gift boxes containing only a few moon cakes at shocking prices are not as popular as in previous years.

A supermarket staff member at a shopping center in Luohu District said that a typically popular brand of moon cakes with expensive packaging that charges 1,398 yuan (US$211) per box is not selling as well as expected this season. “Most people buy this particular gift pack of moon cakes as a festival greeting for important clients and occasions for which they prefer moon cakes that look more upscale than the others,” said the sales assistant.

She said that there are three layers to the delicate gift box, each layer a drawer where moon cakes are carefully housed. There are eight moon cakes in the first drawer, nuts packed in tiny tin boxes in the second drawer and another assortment of deserts in separate packages in the third drawer.

The sales assistant admitted that the supermarket only sells one or two of these high-end gift boxes per day, whereas another arrangement of the same brand but with a much simpler design and more moon cakes are more well-received by customers. “Some customers buy 10 boxes at a time,” said the shop sales assistant about the more affordable option.

For residents, moon cakes produced by big names and famous restaurants in Hong Kong are still their prime choice. Though the moon cakes made in Hong Kong factories and restaurants are not cheap, they do sell well.

For instance, one particular brand of moon cake produced by a Hong Kong-based restaurant started selling its moon cakes at select shopping malls in Shenzhen this year, resulting in long lines of customers.

One of its moon cake products, a new egg custard flavor, is sold at 368 yuan for eight pieces. A staff member from the store said that they have sold over 800 boxes every day since the sale began and now must limit the number of moon cakes being sold as the Mid-Autumn Festival is just around the corner and there’s not much left in stock.

Another kind of moon cakes that are selling fast is those with reusable or creative packaging. For instance, a restaurant rolled out a gift box that can be used as a jewelry box and another that can be reshaped into a lantern.

An insider who refused to be named said that the cost of moon cakes rose as a result of the upsurge of paper prices. But Shenzhen residents seem to be paying more attention to the taste and quality of the moon cakes they purchase rather than the exterior design and branding.

(Zhang Qian)