评论
打印
Luxurious mooncakes fade out of market
三公消费受限制 奢华月饼退出市场
The sky-high prices of moon cakes of the past few years have finally been brought back down to earth.
"The prices are much lower than in the last few years. I used to spend a few thousand on a box of moon cakes."
"The gift boxes always contained more than just moon cakes. But I don’t see any like that this year."
Mid-Autumn is the second most important festival in China after Spring Festival, and is the season for gift-giving. Quite often, these gifts play a role in building business and other connections. So they tend to be very expensive. But this year, the central government banned officials from buying moon cakes with tax payers’ money. Consequently, reservations shrank and suppliers have felt the chill.
"Sales have been affected by the ban. Around 10 percent as I estimated. There’s likely to be a sales drop of about 20 percent for boxes of moon cakes over 300 yuan." Chen Yaoliang, Manager of Xiyayucai Restaurant said.
"The most expensive gift box is 1188 yuan. We’ve sold only one." Qi Na, Sales Assistant, Lianhua Supermarket, Liaoning province said.
"Most buyers are in favour of those under 100 yuan, for themselves or family members." Wang Zhisheng, Manager of Walmart Superamrket in Beijing said.
It’s not just in supermarkets, high-end hotels are also facing a sales decline. Group purchases have plunged.
"There are strict regulations on public service departments’ purchases of moon cakes. Some of them even cancelled their bookings. There’s a significant drop in big bookings." Song Linna, Manager of Qianshan Hotel, Liaoning Province said.
The public welcomes the changes.
"Tax payers’ money should be used on public welfare, not on these things, like buying moon cakes."
Many people say they’d like to see the price of moon cakes to once more reflect the sentiments of reunion for the holidays.
