Moon cakes are on sale, consumers need to be careful to avoid poor quality products.

Although the Mid-Autumn Festival has passed for almost a week, many stores are still selling mooncakes with massive discounts to stimulate demand and clear out inventory. However, buyers can easily buy poor quality products if they are not alert and do not research carefully.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, a Dong Khanh cake shop in Ho Chi Minh City reduced the price to 25,000-35,000 VND/piece depending on the type, attracting many buyers - Photo: N.TRI

According to records, on many streets in Ho Chi Minh City, most stores have a flat price policy or "buy 1 get 4" so they attract more buyers than before, most of whom buy to eat.

Cheap, people buy to eat

At a Dong Khanh cake shop on 3/2 Street (HCMC), sticky rice cakes and one-egg cakes are sold at the same price of 25,000 VND/piece, two-egg cakes are sold at 35,000 VND/piece, and if customers buy in large quantities, they will receive a discount of 3,000-5,000 VND/piece. This way of selling has attracted many buyers.

According to Mr. Hien, a seller here, this year purchasing power is slow, so even after the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are still more than 600 left. We have to deeply discount them to sell them, otherwise if they expire, we will have to throw them away.

"We are selling at a low price to cut our losses because this price is lower than the import price, and is only half of the price during the Mid-Autumn Festival and only 30-40% compared to the beginning of the season. This year, we have more inventory than last year, so the discount is also deeper," Mr. Hien informed.

Discounted cakes are dumped haphazardly into boxes at a point of sale and placed outside for customers to choose from. However, if not properly preserved, leaving the cakes outside, with more customers handling and impacting them, will easily affect the quality of the cakes.

At another Dong Khanh cake shop on Ly Thuong Kiet Street (old District 10), customers also bought more when the "buy 1 get 4" promotion was applied. Accordingly, when buying 1 cake at the price of 100,000-130,000 VND/cake, customers will receive 3 more equivalent cakes for free.

While happily choosing to buy more than 10 cakes with many flavors here, Mrs. Tran Thi Le said that at the beginning of the season, the prices were too high, each cake cost as much as a kilo of pork, so she had to wait until now to buy cheaper cakes, buy a lot to try and also give to her children and grandchildren in the family.

"Every year I wait until the season is over before buying them, and it's become a habit. But when sharing, there are few people, because I can't eat all of them by myself. These cakes get boring quickly," Mrs. Le said happily.

Late season easy to get poor quality cakes?

Ms. Le also said that although she knows "you get what you pay for", she only chooses to buy branded products that are still in good condition, have a beautiful appearance, have a clear, sharp printed expiration date, and have a long expiration date.

Many people worry that when buying cakes after the Mid-Autumn Festival, they will easily encounter expired products and reduced quality. In the photo: cakes at a discount store have their expiration dates printed on them, and many of them are even unreadable because they are smudged and peeling off.

According to observations at a big discount point on Cach Mang Thang Tam Street (old District 10), although the moon cakes still have an expiry date, the expiry date printed on the packaging is quite faint, smudged, and easily peeled off, causing confusion for customers.

Explaining this, Mr. Minh, a seller here, said that because it is a small business, many of the products are not as neat as those from large companies, but customers can rest assured that the products are still within their expiration date.

"We sell year after year, openly selling on the street, but how can we sell expired goods? People will immediately report us, not to mention the authorities will not let us be. We imported this last batch later, so the expiration date is after November," Mr. Minh affirmed.

A point of sale with prices ranging from 30,000-40,000 VND/item has hung a sign "20,000 VND/item" but still does not attract customers.

However, some sellers say that at the end of the season, there is still a risk of customers buying expired cakes or poor quality products if they are not careful.

"There are cases where sellers, for profit, deliberately sell expired goods, even "magically" changing the expiration date, but the quantity of these cakes is not much, and is often mixed with new cakes.

Or the seller accidentally mixed in expired goods because the inventory of imported cakes was not careful, leaving behind a small number of cakes from the previous import at the beginning of the season," he explained.

According to records, at the points of sale, many cakes were gathered by the sellers and left outside, not covered carefully, so the packaging was visibly wrinkled and soft. Some cakes showed signs of condensation and were dented due to weather and being picked by many people.

Meanwhile, there are still places where customers are not interested in buying even though the prices are deeply discounted, leading to a large amount of unsold cakes.

On the afternoon of October 12, on Quang Trung Street (old Go Vap District), a cake shop said that Kinh Do and Huu Nghi cakes... would be discontinued after the Mid-Autumn Festival and returned to the company. Currently, only Dong Khanh cakes are sold at the same price of 30,000-40,000 VND/piece depending on the type, only 40% of the previous price. However, purchasing power is still not as expected.

Despite the deep discounts, not all stores attract customers. In the photo: after the Mid-Autumn Festival, a store in Ho Chi Minh City hung a sign "25k/piece sale" for Ong Dong Khanh brand cakes but it was deserted.

Explaining this, the seller honestly said that many consumers are afraid that discounted goods after the Mid-Autumn Festival will be of poor quality, so even if they crave them, they are not interested in buying them.

Previously, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Food Safety and Hygiene recommended that consumers should be careful when choosing to buy moon cakes, especially at the end of the season, paying attention to the packaging, brand, shape, color and expiration date.

Accordingly, you should only use the product when the packaging is intact, clearly stating the name and address of the manufacturer, ingredients, expiry date...

Qualified mooncakes must have a uniform shape, not be cracked, crushed, or deformed. Buyers should absolutely not eat cakes that show signs of spoilage, discoloration, or moldy smell.

NGUYEN TRI

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/banh-trung-thu-dai-ha-gia-nguoi-tieu-dung-can-luu-y-de-tranh-hang-kem-chat-luong-20251012211009048.htm