The boycott against Ting Hsin company is the hottest headlines on everyday newspaper.
pangeatoday.com/costcos-refu … ng-tactic/
news.ltn.com.tw/news/life/breakingnews/1534939
Taiwanese people have big debates on this recently.
Some ppl really support the boycott, while others think this is wasting food and stupid.
As a Taiwanese, I’m curious, did similar things happen in other countries before?
What’s your opinion about this?
Thanks for any feedback!
Boycott means do not buy. The way their are doing this, Tin Hsin still gets the people’s hard earned NTDs.
What they need to do is protest, for example, that Tin Hsin still profits from government’s acquisitions, directly or indirectly, for example. Or simply, do not buy their products at all, tae them out of the market. Go to the producers, buy directly so that 25% that still sells milk to Tin Hsin will have the means to live… without Tin Hsin.
[quote=“Icon”]Boycott means do not buy. The way their are doing this, Tin Hsin still gets the people’s hard earned NTDs.
[/quote]
I thought getting a refund means Tin Hsin has to refund Costco for Costco’s refund to the customers. They also have to pay to ship the already opened milk back to their facilities and destroy the returned product.
The people did throw a protest, and they just had another protest against the court’s ruling. A ruling that discounted an official Vietnamese government document as credible evidence.
What happened was people were boycotting Tin Hsin’s products, but Tin Hsin just slashed prices, stopped labelling their products as from Tin Hsin or Weichun, and then got drink shops to buy them in bulk below market price. So in the end, people who don’t do their research end up paying and drinking Tin Hsin milk anyway.
I don’t know if there are other examples outside of Taiwan, but frankly it doesn’t need to have a precedence outside of Taiwan to be a valid method of protesting. If Costco or other shops want to, they can put an end to this practise, but they are not going to risk their customer relations for a morally bankrupted company such as Tin Hsin.
It’s a bit illogical for those who support boycotting Tin Hsin products to say returning milk is a waste of food. The whole idea behind boycotting is to waste food by letting them sit past their expiration date. That’s the only way to have a successful boycott. The Japanese did it to Yukijirushi. Returning is just speeding up the process and puts an end to Tin Hsin passing off its products with rebranding or even unbranding.
Exactly. This is where the government is at fault. This rebranding and unbranding is not a grey area, it is downright illegal. Where are the prosecutors, the law enforcers? That is why the people are calling for a separate food agency, one that looks after the people, not the companies. We are faced with the same conundrum as the Ministry of Labor: on what side are you on? The only one who can actually enforce the punishments is on Tin Hsin side, not the people’s. Is it because of the laws or because or vested interests? It doesn’t matter, as the result is the same: no political will to enforce food safety plans.
The public needs clear information to make their choices. If this is a free market, then we also need free flow of information. There are laws specifying the labeling of items. If people then choose not to buy, then so be it. True, many innocents will be harmed in the process. Costco is actually coming up with its head high, but what about the Tin Hsin employees, their milk suppliers, upstream providers? There should be provisions to protect in such cases. We do not even have provisions to protect whistleblowers…
I agree with the actions of the protesters. This company needs to be put out of business. Civil disobedience on steroids. It’s great.
Anybody have a list of their common products? I take it the “High Quality” milk is theirs. Just curious if I’m unknowingly buying some of their other products.
Edit: Never mind, found a Chinese list here http://fishqq.hzau.edu.cn/xm_xq.asp?newsid=1215&id_id=2.
I agree that the company must be punished for its illegal actions, but I don’t think the Cotsco path is an efficient one, as it will affect people and producers not related to the food scandal. And I have no doubts that they will feel the consequences way before it causes any financial damage to Ting Hsin.
It’s like the woman who “set free” some venomous snakes in a public park in China, or the guy who released 33 thousand crabs into river, both thinking they were doing good deeds… Acting upon a cause it’s good, but make sure you are doing it in the right way.
And I agree with Icon. People must push and demand actions from the government, which will be much more effective not only in this case but also for the next ones that may appear.
Get a few hundred sunflowers to camp out at their HQ in Taipei for a couple of weeks.
[quote=“Ricarte”]
And I agree with Icon. People must push and demand actions from the government, which will be much more effective not only in this case but also for the next ones that may appear.[/quote]
If that’s the case then the people have to wait until election time and vote the KMT out of the legislature. As it stands now, MYJ is in bed with Tin Hsin and doesn’t give a crap about what the people want. Zhu is flailing his arms around but no one is listening to him, not that he is serious about reforming the KMT anyway. So the pople need to take the action into their hands.
Whether or not Tin Hsin is directly losing money depends on the contract between Costco and Tin Hsin. If Costco needs to prove that the product is returned due to being defective, then Costco might be the one to absorb the losses. However, judging by how Costco is reacting so far, I think Tin Hsin is taking the losses. Even if Costco is taking the losses, I’m hoping the end result would be forcing Costco to stop selling Tin Hsin products.
Wei Chun is estimated to be losing 1,500 billion NTD and will only lose more as the returning campaign continues. Hopefully that will force it’s largest share holder, Tin Hsin to sell Wei Chun.
Tin Hisn’s tarnished reputation is also affecting it’s land development projects in New Taipei City. Resistance from the public has halted city official to grant land title change.
Fairly interesting take on it:
Is Costco really off the hook regardless of who is taking the losses? They are selling a product from a scandal ridden company.
I think opening all of the milk and returning it is immature but perhaps it will get Costco to stop carrying the product.
Problem is: can they do so, legally speaking? Wouldn’t they open themselves up to a lawsuit by Tin Hsin saying “you must carry our stuff or else” due to “market freedom”? Given the political support Tin Hsin has, wouldn’t this stick and give a lot of trouble to Costco, which is already in hot water with the government making its business here harder and harder through regulations over regulations and such?
Without government backup, Costco has its hands tied.
[quote=“Icon”]Problem is: can they do so, legally speaking? Wouldn’t they open themselves up to a lawsuit by Tin Hsin saying “you must carry our stuff or else” due to “market freedom”? Given the political support Tin Hsin has, wouldn’t this stick and give a lot of trouble to Costco, which is already in hot water with the government making its business here harder and harder through regulations over regulations and such?
Without government backup, Costco has its hands tied.[/quote]
this makes absolutely no sense. They might have a problem sourcing milk not from Tin Hsin because only 3 companies control most of the market but they should be able to source products from any company they choose. They might have a contract that says that X% of the products must be Taiwan sourced though.
Exactly. Tin Hsin has a lot of power, and its investments are so varied it can also bite them elsewhere.
Really see it as a situation for some people to vent. An excuse for false justice? Knowing how people are here. Won’t last long and won’t even make a dent to Ting Hsin. If people here really have the will and ambition to make a difference then Taiwan wouldn’t still be at this state.
As much as I hate what Dingxin has done, I think all this outrage is simply distracting the public about other toxic food products they are gulping down. Every few months another gets caught, and they are all still in business, so I think all this protesting is much ado about nothing. Don’t want to buy the milk don’t do it (i wouldn’t drink it either) but don’t think that all the other companies you are supporting are all squeaky clean, especially in Taiwan.
playing devils advocate here, I would not want to see Dingxin go down completely because with one less competitor on the market, watch the price of milk go sky high. Ironically the “high quality milk” likely is one of the safest ones out there now, considering the company knows they are being watched carefully.
Not trying to be picky but the price of milk is already sky high in Taiwan. Compare it to most other countries on something like numbeo.com, it’s actually an outlier. Interestingly Taiwans groceries and foodstuffs come out to be quite expensive, disappointing given the quality issues. Yesterday I bought 1 liter of ausmilk in meilishi supermarket and it was only 69 ntd. Shows how crazy expensive Taiwan produced and sold milk is.
My wife was buying soya milk for the kids , there were just two brands with low sugar in the store. She insisted to buy the weichuan brand embecause it was better quality than the other brand and cheaper. I tried to ask her to buy the other one but she cared more about the quality of the product itself rather than boycott and then get a shittier alternative product! Plus weichuan was significantly cheaper.
As an alternative you can try Imei.
Guy
I kind of misworded that, implying that the prices of milk here are reasonable. Actually since coming here 4 years ago, I have sworn off milk since I refuse to pay so much for it. In Canada, I could get a 4 liter bag of milk for about $4.50 Canadian, and the taste of what passes for milk here is quite gross, so I got used to not buying it.
My idea was more that because Dingxin has to lower their prices on milk, it will artificially keep the competitors from increasing their prices now, but if they go under, the companies remaining can increase rates on what is already ridiculously priced. Cheese is another thing that I broke the habit of buying. It is quite funny when I order a pizza from a large chain and they so obviously skimp on the cheese, its like eating bread with sauce and toppings.