Selling iPhone 14 ‘beer with peanuts’, Ministry of Industry and Trade gets involved
At least 3 retailers told VietNamNet that they had received an official dispatch from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, requesting information on the “selling of beer with peanuts” for products. iPhone 14 Pro.
According to the dispatch sent by the Department of Competition and Consumer Protection to an official Apple distribution agent in Vietnam, the Department is aware that in order to buy iPhone 14 Pro, agents must include the following products. other such as MacBook, iPad, mouse, keyboard, clock, …
The Bureau requested AAR (authorized reseller of Apple) to provide information for clarification.
All three AARs admitted to VietNamNet that there is a situation when you want to import iPhone 14 Pro/Pro Max, you have to import some other products.
“For example, if you buy 100 iPhones, you have to get at least 200 cases. Buy 100 iPhones, you have to enter 100 more MacBooks”said an AAR representative.
Or to get 500 iPhones, one must enter 500 AirPods in advance, but when importing enough AirPods, the distributor does not have enough 500 iPhones to deliver to the reseller, so they have to wait for the next batch to have the goods. “But then the machine was out of “hot”, selling without profit like when entering earlier”, another AAR shared.
An agent gives an example, buying 1 iPhone 14 Pro / Pro Max will include 1 MacBook, 1 mouse; or iPhone 14 Pro/Pro Max with 1 iPad and 1 pen; or 3 iPhone Pro/Pro Max with 1 iMac.
This agent explained, the “selling beer with peanuts” for iPhone products is not new. But in the past, the percentage of non-phones (non-iPhone products) that were delivered to distributors was relatively light, the selling pressure was not high, and the number of iPhones was abundant. Therefore, sellers are not affected by the amount of “groundnut” attached.
In 2022, all agents will receive a target of selling very large iPads and MacBooks due to previous best-selling products. However, this year when the pandemic is over, demand has dropped, causing goods to be congested.
Due to having to import a lot of cases, headphones, and MacBooks, sellers accept to sell at a loss to push goods and expect the profit from the iPhone to make up for it. But until now, many sellers have not been able to balance, leading to inventory and loss.
A person who has worked for a long time in the profession for PV VietNamNet or the situation of “beer with peanuts” is not new. Apple product distributors have been doing this for quite some years now.
“The general rule is also the agreement to buy and sell”. However, he affirmed that Apple is a rare company that “sells beer with peanuts” due to the product Iphoneespecially the recent iPhone 14, has great appeal but the supply is not enough.
