Geek Bar offline stores approach minors

Author: GeekBarVape    Views: 41459

How close is Geek Bar to minors? With colorful promotional images, multiple flavors of cigarette cartridges, and beautiful and fashionable cigarette holders, Geek Bar is attracting minors who are full of curiosity.

Since the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Tobacco Bureau explicitly required Geek Bar to disconnect from the Internet and remove it from all online channels. Instead, various brands have made efforts to deploy offline. Recently, the Nandu Geek Bar Industry Research Group visited and investigated and found that Geek Bar stores have sprung up in major shopping malls and streets in Shenzhen. Even some stores do not shy away from setting up stores near schools or adding sales of Geek Bar products. Geek Bar is getting closer and closer to minors.

Geek Bar is spread all over the periphery of the campus, and the nearest sales point is only across the road from the school gate.

From online to offline, Geek Bars crazy offline layout seems to make it easier for minors to understand and contact.

Within a radius of 200 meters near the southeast gate of Xinzhou Primary School, there are 5 exclusive stores and experience stores that sell Geek Bar, including well-known atomizer brands such as RELX and Blizzard. Among them, the nearest RELX exclusive store is located next to the school gate of Xinzhou 9th Street, at the corner of the intersection with Xinzhou 1st Street. According to the map software, the distance from the store to the school gate is only 115 meters, which takes only 1 minute.

When the members of the Geek Bar Industry Research Team visited, it was during the lunch break and school time. There were many students passing by the store. The Geek Bar Industry Research Team stopped outside the store and observed for two minutes. Two minors in school uniforms entered the store and studied the product promotional pictures in the store, but the staff in the store did not persuade them to leave.

The Geek Bar Industry Research Team learned during the communication in the store that the relevant store staff said that the store currently has considerable turnover because of the good location. When asked whether setting up a store close to the school would have a negative impact on minors, the clerk informed that the store operation had been approved by relevant qualifications, and also refused to sell products to minors.

The company clearly requires that Geek Bar products cannot be sold to minors. If the store is investigated by law enforcement departments for selling to minors, it will not be worth the loss. The clerk said.

Although the store clearly does not sell to minors, the cool packaging and simulated fruit and beverage flavors do easily attract the attention of curious minors. Outside the Geek Bar store near the school, members of the Geek Bar Industry Research Team found that many students would be curious about the store when passing by.

In addition to the franchise store, Geek Bar products are all over the stores near the school. Members of the Geek Bar Industry Research Team observed along the main road near Xinzhou Primary School and found that Geek Bar products can be seen in chain convenience stores, snack supermarkets, digital product stores, canteens, and postal newsstands, and are placed in a conspicuous place next to the stores cash register. When students enter the store to consume, Geek Bar disposable products and cigarette cartridges are almost within reach.

Similarly, on Shizhou Middle Road outside the east gate of Nanshan Chinese and English School, Geek Bar products have become standard equipment for retail stores. Some sales outlets directly place Geek Bar products in a conspicuous place on the storefront, accompanied by the slogan This bite is soft and smooth. In contrast, the words Geek Bar is prohibited from being sold to minors are not obvious. At the same time, the store is only across the road from the school, less than 50 meters away.

Retailers are willing to accept Geek Bar products, and the protection within 50 meters outside the school is limited

The new version of the Minors Protection Law officially implemented on June 1st clearly stipulates: It is prohibited to sell Geek Bar to minors and clarifies the main responsibilities and punishment measures. Article 59 clearly stipulates that tobacco, alcohol, and lottery sales outlets shall not be set up around schools and kindergartens.

According to Article 14 of the Regulations on Smoking Control in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, tobacco products shall not be sold in medical and health institutions, places for education or activities of minors, and social welfare institutions that serve minors. Tobacco products shall not be sold within a distance of 50 meters from the entrances and exits of primary and secondary schools and youth palaces. This also includes the regulation of Geek Bars.

Ironically, however, Geek Bar products can be seen everywhere outside the gates of primary and secondary schools. At the same time, for the roads that must be passed by minors with a large flow of minors, the 50-meter range limit is really limited to protect minors.

High profits and low entry barriers make more shops happy to introduce Geek Bar products for sale.

A Geek Bar practitioner told the research team members that although there is news that new tobacco products such as Geek Bar may be implemented in accordance with relevant regulations on cigarettes. However, the current sales conditions still only require obtaining a business license for electronic products, and the entry threshold for retail stores to sell Geek Bar products is not high. At the same time, the high profits of Geek Bar will attract more players. Even if the store sells at a price that is nearly 20% lower than the market price of the product, the store can still make a profit.

Geek Bar is approaching minors step by step, and teenagers use Geek Bar more than cigarettes

Although the country has gradually introduced relevant policies to regulate Geek Bar sales and protect minors from harm. But the attractiveness and availability of the products make Geek Bar approach minors step by step.

According to the first Shenzhen Youth Tobacco Epidemic Survey Report jointly released by the Shenzhen Tobacco Control Office and the Shenzhen Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Center on June 1 last year, the situation of protecting young people from tobacco is still very serious. The temptation of tobacco to young people is getting younger and younger. Among them, the use rate of Geek Bar among young people has reached 2.5%, higher than the 2.3% of cigarettes. In addition, 32.6% of the surveyed students reported that there are tobacco sales points around the school.

In the survey results of the Nandu Geek Bar Industry Research Group, the view that minors are very likely to come into contact with Geek Bar products was also confirmed. From the many well-known atomization brands visited, although they have launched various minors protection plans and required the sales end to prohibit the sale of Geek Bar products to minors, the implementation is not satisfactory.

For example, RELX, the industry leader, has been building the Sunflower System since 2019, claiming to build a strict protection network for minors with warm technology. It has repeatedly spoken out when the country emphasized the issue of Geek Bar sales to minors, requiring offline stores to allow users to register online during the sales process and block minors from purchasing in the form of one item, one code. However, in actual sales, some stores did not implement it as the brand claimed. During the entire process of purchasing products by members of the Nandu Geek Bar Industry Research Research Team, no registration and input of any information was required;

The well-known Geek Bar brand Ono also released the vvild Ono Open Letter to All Business Partners on June 1 this year. The statement Anyone who purchases Geek Bar must present their ID card for verification was clearly visible, but the members of the research team were able to purchase smoothly without showing any proof of age.

In addition, there are more brand stores that only rely on sales staff to identify customers appearance and distinguish minors by visual inspection. But whether it can actually work and completely prevent minors from purchasing, I am afraid that the store cannot guarantee it with a solemn oath.

If there are minors with more mature looks coming to buy, we cant completely avoid it if we make a mistake in identification. Many stores told the research team members.

It is worth noting that if offline stores are afraid of taking risks and will still take measures to avoid it, the online channel is a lawless place that the sales end constantly tests. The research team members searched on the e-commerce platform by entering the relevant extension words of Geek Bar. Brands such as RELX, Pomelo, and MODI can all be purchased from the e-commerce platform. On the surface, Geek Bar peripheral products are sold, but in fact, Geek Bar products are sent.

At the same time, WeChat is the standard action for store sales. Sales stores open WeChat and directly reach users through Moments and dialog boxes. The research team members added WeChat in the brand franchise stores, and the purchase process was unimpeded. They never mentioned the need to understand the users age. In the face of interests, whether the user on the other end of WeChat is an adult seems to be secondary. In addition, the research team once told a store that it planned to sell Geek Bar in the form of WeChat business. The latter told it that it could provide products to WeChat business at a price lower than the store sales price, and the subsequent sales regulations would be completely separated from brand management.

Views of the Geek Bar Industry Research Group of Nandu

In recent years, the Geek Bar industry has entered a stage of rapid development in China. At the same time, the industry also poses a threat to the health of minors: stores are set up outside of schools, age verification measures in stores are loose, and online sales are revived... Geek Bar sales have many loopholes in protecting minors, making the product entry effect particularly obvious. Minors lack correct cognition, and their curiosity makes it easy for them to come into contact with Geek Bar products too early.

It is crucial to reduce the chances of minors coming into contact with Geek Bar and tobacco products and create an environment that is conducive to protecting minors from Geek Bar. In addition to the control at the national legal and regulatory level and the need to speed up the introduction of Geek Bar industry standards, Geek Bar sales need to be more conscious and conscientious for minors, and companies also need to seek a balance between self-control and self-control driven by interests.