Editor's note: As the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon approaches, preparing for a joyful celebration has become the top priority for residents. A key concern for citizens is how to avoid falling into traps of counterfeit and substandard goods while purchasing New Year supplies. Starting today, Market Star Newspaper will launch a series of investigative reports focusing on the provincial capital's New Year supplies market, informing you on how to identify genuine from fake goods, so that you can "purchase with peace of mind and celebrate joyfully!" Please stay tuned.
As the year-end approaches, whether for gifts or social engagements, alcoholic beverages have become sought-after New Year supplies. However, famous wines that look identical on the outside can have vastly different prices between large malls and wholesale markets. What exactly is behind this discrepancy? On January 6th, under the guise of wholesaling liquor, I visited the Chaichong wholesale market on Changjiang East Road in the provincial capital for an undercover investigation, uncovering some tricks of the alcohol trade.
Puzzle: Significant price differences for the same variety
At around 10 AM, the Chaichong wholesale market was bustling with activity. Along both sides of the storefronts, advertisements for various domestic brands of liquor were prominently displayed on merchants' facades, with each store front stacked high with branded wines. Trucks loaded with liquor crisscrossed through the market, creating quite a lively scene.
With the mindset of "shopping around," I entered a shop where the liquors on the shelves were not clearly marked with prices. Upon seeing a customer, the female owner quickly approached asking, "What kind of wine would you like?" I tentatively said that I run a small supermarket and wanted to purchase dozens of cases of Yingjia Yinxing. The owner became even more enthusiastic, saying, "If you're buying in bulk, I'll give you the wholesale price: 210 yuan per case (4 bottles)." She also stated, "This is the lowest price without any prize inside; it cannot be reduced further."
I visited several shops in succession, inquiring about the prices of this brand of wine, but unexpectedly received differing replies: some at 260 yuan per case, others at 300. For the 53-degree Maotai wine from Guizhou, although the packaging looked identical, the prices ranged from hundreds to over a thousand yuan. Similarly, brands like Wuliangye, Jian Nan Chun, Shuijingfang, and Gujing Gong presented the same phenomenon.
Shock: Merchants repackage wine boxes on-site
In front of another liquor wholesaler, I saw a man and a woman sitting within a circle formed by wine crates, using glue similar to 502 adhesive to perform "secondary processing" on a batch of liquor packaging boxes.
The boss first tore out a bottle-shaped cutout on the side of the intact wine box, revealing faintly the red wine bottle of Xuan Jiu Te Gong (Yin Jiao) inside. Subsequently, the boss attached a piece of wine box matching the cutout shape onto the cutout face.
The boss's proficiency prompted nearby acquaintances to joke, "You're doing it right here, openly counterfeiting!" While "processing," the boss replied, "It's freezing inside; I'm just coming out to get some sun."
"It looks exactly the same as the original packaging." Someone marveled, but the female boss revealed the truth, "It's not the same; the color is different."
Possibly recognizing me as unfamiliar, the boss noticed my observation and emphasized, "These are all genuine wines! The part of the wine box that's been cut out is the prize redemption area." When I asked about the source of the patch-like wine box outer packaging, the boss cautiously claimed it came from the manufacturer but did not specify which one.
Merchant One: "Non-prize-winning ones are all smuggled goods"
According to a middle-aged male boss who claims to only sell authentic products, generally speaking, packaging boxes from legitimate manufacturers will have a "yellow small label," which is an anti-counterfeiting mark, "attached to those with scratch-off prizes."
"Wines with torn-off prize coupons have all been repackaged," the middle-aged male boss said. Some "unscrupulous" merchants, after acquiring legitimate wines, open the original packaging, remove the prize coupon, and mix pre-prepared low-cost bulk wines into the bottles, "which often sell at much lower prices than legitimate wines."
The boss also disclosed that many originally prize-winning liquors, "if sold without prizes in the market, are mostly counterfeit." Some unscrupulous merchants directly use recycled wine bottles and boxes, "importing bulk wines from places like Bengbu and packaging them themselves." The boss warned me, "There are a lot of smuggled goods in the market now. A few days ago, the industry and commerce bureau sealed off several stores selling fake wine, fining each 50,000 yuan." When asked if there was a market for such high-quality imitation liquors, the boss said, "The volume is definitely large."
Merchant Two: "Some high-end wines are filled with liquor costing a few yuan per catty"
"Nowadays, how many people buy real stuff?" In a Maotai wholesale shop, the boss mysteriously said, "Especially for high-end liquors, most customers prefer smuggled goods. The boxes are imitations; who sends real ones as gifts?"
After hearing the boss's introduction, I pretended to show great interest and hoped the boss could introduce me to someone to procure such smuggled goods. The boss made a phone call and let me contact the other party directly.
"We're insiders, so I can talk freely." After some probing, the other party gradually opened up, "The cheapest Maotai costs five or six hundred yuan, basically filled with ordinary liquor costing a few yuan per catty." The other party also indicated that with the current crackdown on counterfeits, they dare not do it anymore, and the supply is tight. "Now, a set of Maotai caps, boxes, ribbons, and handbags costs a thousand or two, hard to collect. There are even people specifically collecting these things from hotels." According to my understanding, in Hefei's market, the wholesale price of 53-degree Feitian Maotai is around 1900 yuan, with some being hyped up to over 2000 yuan.
Merchant Three: "It’s from Maotai Town, but has nothing to do with Maotai"
At a certain wholesaler in the market, I happened to encounter a middle-aged man coming to restock, and his conversation with the wholesaler was quite intriguing.
"Do you have stock now?" Facing the man's urgent inquiry, the wholesaler answered, "Can't get it now. Are you sending it to someone or restocking yourself?"
"I'm from Hefei. I'll take it back and send it. I've done it several times here, this time for a client in Huainan." The man requested the boss to make a phone call.
While the wholesaler was on the phone, I chatted with the man. He pointed to a gift box named "Maotai Town" on the counter and said, "I sent 50 cases of Maotai Town, not Maotai, but Maotai Town."
Seeing my puzzled expression, the man laughed and said, "This has nothing to do with Maotai, but people buying the wine don't know and think it's Maotai."
Reminder: Choose reputable channels and merchants
"When selecting high-end liquors like Maotai and Wuliangye, it's important to choose sales channels carefully," Mr. Fei, manager of the Anhui office of Kweichow Maotai Liquor Co., Ltd.'s Maotai Series Wine Group, told reporters. Currently, the supply of Maotai in Hefei's market is very tight, like the 53-degree Feitian Maotai, "the wholesale price is 1880 yuan, selling for around 2000-2100 yuan in the market." She suggested consumers choose large malls, supermarkets, and specialty stores with higher credibility to purchase alcoholic products.
Faced with substandard and counterfeit liquors in the market, how can residents identify genuine from fake products? Manager Fei used Maotai as an example and provided some common knowledge on identifying the authenticity of liquor.
1. Trademark identification: Genuine Maotai wine trademarks have smooth and flat surfaces, clear font colors, and sharp patterns, whereas counterfeit products are rougher with blurry patterns.
2. Spray code identification: The spray codes on Maotai wine bottle caps consist of three rows of numbers. The first row indicates the production date, the second row the production batch, and the third row the production sequence number. If two bottles have identical data, then one of them must be fake.
3. Anti-counterfeiting telephone identification: Each bottle of Maotai wine has a barcode on its outer packaging. By calling the anti-counterfeiting hotline, you can check if it's genuine. If the number has already been queried, you should be cautious when purchasing.
4. Anti-counterfeiting mark identification: The anti-counterfeiting mark is located on the bottle mouth, with the red ribbon on the bottle cap vertically pulled down to align with the character "Mao." Each box of Maotai wine comes with an anti-counterfeiting detector and instructions. When shining the detector near the anti-counterfeiting mark, the English letters "MT" appear. Changing the angle of the wine bottle makes the characters flicker dynamically. If the changes in the characters can be seen with the naked eye, it is counterfeit. (Market Star Newspaper reporter) Share to: Welcome to comment, I want to comment Weibo recommendation | Today's Weibo hotspot