No-drinks policy in malls angers patrons
Consumers argue Shanghai firm violates their rights
Debate has erupted over a real estate management company's move to stop customers from bringing drinks bought outside into more than 20 of its shopping malls and supermarkets in Shanghai.
State-owned Shanghai Hualian Group Real Estate, part of the nation's second-biggest supermarket chain, would require staff to stop people drinking from cups or bottles inside its shops, local media and a company representative said yesterday.
The company wrote the policy into its retail property management standards, the first of its kind in the nation, which were just released.
However, it has sparked heated debate in local media and on internet forums, with many people arguing the new policy violates consumers' rights and causes inconvenience.
A Hualian representative said the policy was aimed at making shopping areas cleaner and easier to manage. Confusion could result over whether a consumer bought a drink inside or outside the mall.
'The policy is just part of a whole set of internal standards of our company,' the representative said. 'We have not tried to impose them on customers. We are just advising people, not preventing them.'
But one angry consumer, writing on an internet forum, asked: 'So does that mean I can't bring in my baby son's milk bottle next time we go to the supermarket?'
An official of the Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission said company policies could only apply to company staff and not to consumers. 'It's not suitable when a company's internal standards are being forced on consumers,' the official was quoted by the Youth Daily as saying.
The Hualian representative said the company had not expected such a strong reaction from customers. It was considering changing the wording of the policy to make it more acceptable to the public.
