Recently, reporters conducted an investigation into crayfish restaurants on takeout platforms and made surprising discoveries. On major food delivery platforms, many "crayfish" stores do not use platform delivery staff, but adopt the "merchant self-delivery" model. This is also a scenario where "ghost food delivery" can easily take advantage of the loopholes.
There is a "Xuyi Ni's Lobster (Xuhui Store)" on Meituan. The address on the platform is Lianhua Road, Minhang District. The reporter rushed to the scene and asked local merchants: "Is there a crayfish shop here?" The merchant replied: "No... I have never heard of it."
Coincidentally, the address of "Xuyi Ni's Lobster Spicy Crab" on Taobao's flash sale is No. 1225 Luoxiu Road, Xuhui District, but this store was also not found on site. In order to find out where the merchant actually delivers the food, the reporter placed an order at this store and chose to pick it up at the store. Soon, the reporter received a call from the merchant: "Our location is not accurate... We are at No. 76 Gufang Road."
The reporter immediately rushed to No. 76 Gufang Road, Minhang District, and found the actual dining place in the underground food court, with "Hongkai Jia Shenyue Crayfish" written on the door. The reporter asked: "Do you have a self-pickup order? I just made a call." The stall owner responded: "Yes, that's it." He then claimed that the takeout shop where the reporter placed the order was just one of their many online stores: "I went to Ele.me (Taobao flash sale)... This brand also does it, with more than a thousand stores in the city."
Maybe this is really not a boast. The reporter placed an order at another crayfish shop whose address was listed as No. 139 Lianhua Road on Meituan. The deliveryman revealed that the actual place to pick up the food was also on Gufang Road. The reporter asked: "Lianhua Road is written online?" The rider said: "Actually, it picks up the goods on Gufang Road." The reporter asked again: "Is it No. 76 Gufang Road?" The rider replied: "Yes."
Why can a small stall without dine-in function open so many ghost takeaway shops online? The reporter found that some of these online stores used the licenses of regular merchants. For example, the one at No. 139 Lianhua Road uses the same license as the offline dim sum shop at No. 139. The reporter found the actual operator of No. 139 Lianhua Road, who said: "This address is correct, I don't know what's going on..." The reporter asked: "Is the certificate yours?" The operator replied: "It's my certificate."
Some shops simply forge licenses. For example, the store in Xuhui is listed as a street in Hongkou, which is obviously a fraud. These methods are even semi-open secrets in the industry. The reporter asked the clerk of "Hongkaijia Crayfish (Lianhua Road Store)": "So many names?" The clerk said: "My boss made it...he has many stores tied to a platform." The reporter asked again: "Does Shenyue Hongkaijia (Crayfish) on Gufang Road also belong to you?" The clerk replied: "Yes, it is also in the food court."
After receiving clues from reporters, the local market supervision department launched action. The law enforcement officer asked the stall owner: "What is the name of the store opened on the platform?" The boss replied: "It is Hong Kaijia." The law enforcement officer asked again: "Is there anything else?" The boss said: "No."
But based on the online order provided by the reporter, law enforcement officers quickly discovered the corresponding order received by the stall owner. The law enforcement officer said: "Isn't this order with you? The order is 'Xuyi Ni's Lobster Xuhui Store'... Didn't you say it's just one store? Can you explain this? The names of the stores are inconsistent."
After in-depth "reconciliation", law enforcement officers discovered that stall owners could switch to 14 online stores during Taobao flash sales alone. While watching, the law enforcement officers said: "Look, there are so many stores, you can switch to so many stores, so many..." Then they counted 14 stores.
So, how can multiple platforms and multiple stores achieve one-click order taking? Law enforcement officers found a third-party order-taking APP called "Yisong" on the merchant's mobile phone. The backend showed that the merchant used this APP to bind 18 Taobao flash sales stores, 7 Meituan stores, and 1 JD.com store, for a total of 26 stores.
With solid evidence, Fan Mou, the actual owner of this series of stores, claimed that the ghost online stores that were opened were operated with the help of Taobao flash sales and Meituan staff. He said: "I gave the local manager money... He helped me get it done and opened an account for me. He is the manager of the food delivery platform." The law enforcement officer asked: "Did you pay them cash?" Fan replied: "Yes, they don't want to transfer the money."
After verification, the operator Fan only had one set of compliance certificates, but 6 online ghost takeout stores have been verified, and the remaining ten or so are also suspected of having ghost takeaways and opening multiple stores, pending further investigation.
Zhang Rong, captain of the Fourth Squadron of the Enforcement Brigade of the Minhang District Market Supervision Bureau, said: "These licenses come from the rental of our licenses, or from cooperation with friends, or they may exist through an intermediary such as a third-party platform (manager). This kind of one-time payment, including small WeChat contact, etc., can facilitate such a license rental behavior."
Yesterday, the “new online catering regulations,” known as the strictest in history, were officially implemented, requiring platforms to verify and compare the license information of online merchants with data from provincial market regulatory authorities. Experts said that there are nearly 80,000 catering merchants in Shanghai alone that have opened takeout services. With such a large number of existing stores, how to step up inspections and eliminate "ghost takeaway shops" among them is a big test. If the platform is unable to complete the investigation and elimination work, it should bear joint and several liability, and investigate and deal with the cases discovered together.
Zhang Liang, a professor at the Law School of Ningbo University, said: "There may be tens of thousands of stores in stock, but many of them cannot pass the facial recognition test or cannot match the license. This is the real difficulty. The platform needs to have a more positive attitude, not limited to an intermediary, but based on the role of a gatekeeper, or a continuous regulator, to help the government jointly govern."
According to this city's regulations, in order to avoid "impersonation", the legal representative must complete real-name authentication and accurate authorization through the "Electronic Business License" applet before merchants can enter the platform. It remains to be seen whether the newly opened "ghost takeaways" can be put to an end, and whether the platform can really proactively discover and eliminate existing "ghost takeaways" or continue to quietly play the role of an accomplice.