CRI听力: Benefit Chain Linked by the Shopping Card

The forthcoming holidays present a great opportunity for businesses to increase their sales. Shopping cards have also become hot products at many major shopping centres in China's large metropolises.

Our reporter Liu Min has more.




Have you received any shopping cards from your boss as a reward for your work throughout the year? Well, now shopping cards themselves have become hot products purchased by many companies and government bureaus. At the Cuiwei Shopping Center in Beijing, flocks of people have jammed the card registration centre to buy in stacks of shopping cards, all with different values. When asked why their company didn't give employees money directly as a gift, some card buyers showed canny insights.

"I'm just trying to get some benefits for my company. If it just issued employees money, it would have to be recorded and be audited later."

"I've bought several thousand yuan worth of shopping cards for my company. It's the company's private account, so there is no need to ask for the receipts."

Yes, many companies nowadays have a separate account to avoid tax. The fact is that the shopping card involves multiple parties, forming a complete benefit chain. It includes shopping centres, companies and government bureaus, individual card buyers from these entities, scalpers and ordinary shoppers. For example, in order to encourage companies buying shopping cards, shopping malls usually provide commission fees for card buyers from these companies. If the customer buys a shopping card worth at 10 thousand yuan, they can get two percent in commission fees, which is 200 yuan. The conversation among several card buyers reveals such deals.

"I think the commission fee at this shopping centre is too low. Since we are here to purchase shopping cards for our companies, we also need to get something good for ourselves."

In the past, scalpers could only be found in front of cinemas and sports venues, but now when you walk into a shopping center, you could be asked by many scalpers if you want a good discount by using the cards. This scalper says she usually buys in lots of shopping cards from the card holders from some companies and bureaus these days.

"It all depends on what kinds of companies and government bureaus you come across. Some even have shopping cards worth at several hundred thousand yuan or even millions of yuan. For example, if a coat is priced at 10 thousand yuan in the shopping mall, then if you use the card I sold to you, you could save five hundred yuan straight. But before that I bought the card at 9,400 from the company card holders. Thus, I can make one hundred yuan."

During the whole process, the companies can avoid taxes when giving employees extra benefits, the card buyers can make some commission fees, the scalpers can make some profits and common shoppers may get a small discount with such cards. It seems like a happy story for everyone. But recently a shopping center Lai Ya Department Store in Xiamen went bankrupt, provoking a crisis of the whole shopping card concept. Later the city publicized a regulation overseeing the shopping card market. However, until now there are no clear regulations or laws coming out in any other cities across the country administrating the shopping card industry. Many people are questioning whether those local government bureaus really want to oversee this part of the market since there may also be some grey benefits in favor of themselves.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.