What has changed after a month of filing complaints?
6 min read
A month after complaints emerged about a fruit scam against sellers of the local São Paulo market, Mercadão, a firmer approach to the customer still exists among some merchants. The price of the fruit is up to three times what is found elsewhere. The department acknowledges the problems, and says it does inspections, fines and can even remove the license of offending dealers.
On February 12, market customers about abusive practices in the tourism space criticized the repercussions on social networks. They said that Vendors charge from R$100 to R$1200 for fruit traysrestricting customers to paying high values, still displaying products as if they were strange, but simple products.
Space Administration came to ban Three squares at that time. The three are now working again.
a UOL Returned to the market on Saturday (12) – a day full of tourists. A more invasive approach still existed. Sot, the franchisor that manages the space, Mercado SP SPE, said it has been carrying out ongoing and daily inspections and that it has already curbed irregular practices since September, before complaints became public. (Read the full note below)
On Saturday, at the entrance to the market, vendors offered visitors what they call “Turkish dessert” or “Dubai dessert”. It’s a piece of strawberry with dates, they should be eaten together in the same bite. The combination of flavors gives the impression that dates are chocolate.
Then came the turn of the fruit similar to “lemon passion fruit” (commonly known as the cerrado pearl passion fruit), red orange and other products that are always a mixture of two famous fruits or that were imported from a distant country.
“The approach was quiet, but they insist that the customer buys. If you look closely, the seller insists in a convincing way until you give in and buy,” says 52-year-old social worker Maria Aparecida dos Santos, who spent R$120 on a tray with strawberries. Yellow Kiwi and Cerrado Pearl Passion Fruit.
Fruit scam in Mercadão, one month later: Maria Aparecida dos Santos tastes a Cerrado passion fruit pearl
Photo: Vinícius de Oliveira / Collaboration for UOL
“When we came out with other bags in our hands, sellers from other stalls seemed to avoid offering fruit to taste. The only one who offered started quietly, but it was just for me to say I only wanted 100g of fruit that he decided to let me talk about it alone”, He said.
a UOL See the price of these products on the Hortifruti Natural da Terra website on Tuesday (15). Together a tray containing 250 grams of strawberries half a kilo Kiwi Yellow and half a kilo of Passion fruit are sold for 41.98 Brazilian reais. That is, on the market, it went out almost three times.
The approach is inconsistent with what was found Days after the allegations surfaced. At the time, shopkeepers spoke to customers remotely and only offered the fruit if you asked them to try it.
Journalist Allen Koehler, 33, went to Mercado with her parents to buy cod and other things for Easter. Realizing the harassment of sellers and disliking the fruit very much, she has already prepared herself to reject the most demanding methods.
“I came here for the first time three years ago,” he said. “I thought there were a lot of fruit sellers, with big shouts, trying to draw attention to the stall.” On the main street, I heard two sellers talking to each other: ‘Today is hard, no one wants [fruta]No one is testing. Nobody stops even to fight with us.”
Fruit scam in Mercadão, one month later: Vendors offer fruit to customers at will. In some cases, this approach remains invasive
Photo: Vinícius de Oliveira / Collaboration for UOL
The difficulty of approaching shopkeepers can be explained by the media repercussions of the “fruit inversion”, mainly due to the high prices. Professor Adrielly Gomes, 31, brought her friends from Brasilia to visit the local market and their famous bologna sandwich. But they preferred to stay away from the fruit stalls. “As we passed straight through, they didn’t give us that,” he said.
press review
After a month of repercussions of shopkeeper harassment in the press and on social media, some sellers say they believe the media has not shown the “other side”. After serving several fruits and speaking to the reporter, the shopkeeper asked Marcus, who asked not to reveal his surname, “Did I treat you with disrespect? Were you aggressive in any way?”.
For him, the problem occurred in “two or three chests that were blocked and had problems with CNPJ”. Among some fruit sellers, the common thesis is that the press wants to destroy the reputation of the local São Paulo market.
How to file a complaint to Procon
For Procon-SP, consumers who feel injured somehow can make a coil Official complaint on the agency’s website. Complaints apply to charges for high and incorrect amounts or products offered to taste.
The administration threatens to cancel the offending merchant
a UOL I contacted the Novo Mercado Municipal Consortium, which is responsible for managing the space. The company acknowledges that there are violations, says it fights them, imposes fines, and may isolate merchants who continue their irregular practices. Read the full note below:
“Once we started managing market, At the beginning of September 2021, we heard about this kind of complaints from users and fruit merchants.
And we were glad to be able, in and because of our administration, to make room for these complaints to become public and create, what we see now, a change in that paradigm.
Before, however, these complaints surfaced, and market, By her new manager, since September of last year, she has taken many measures to reduce and avoid this type of situation.
In October, the company held several sectoral meetings with the tenants / shop owners representing the fruit trade in market. In these meetings, they were specifically instructed about the obligation to comply with consumer protection law, health monitoring rules, and service to the public, among other things.
It is clear that this practice already has more than 30 years in the market It can only be changed with enlightening lectures.
However, she is aware not only of her responsibility as a manager, but also of the need for a pleasant environment to pursue a career marketSP . market SPE He began issuing verbal warnings to shopkeepers who broke the rules. After that, written warnings and, finally, fines ranging from 10% to 100% of the rent.
Even before this publication by the press and social networks about this issue, I made sure to ban Box who, after being warned and fined, was again the subject of a complaint that caught our attention.
Finally, after the fallout from what was announced on February 12 and in the face of new complaints that have arrived bag In the same week, three store owners were banned, until they met the demands of infected consumers and modified their procedures. They have since been released but remain under surveillance.
Today, it is possible to say that with more than 265 establishments and with nearly 90 years of history, shopkeepers have come to understand that market The city of São Paulo cannot be aligned with this photo.
If we are talking about some of the tenants / tenants who practiced some kind of abuse or offence, then we can understand that they were a minority, which today is anxious about the necessary and urgent conditions for working in market.
Inspected by Mercado SP SPEwithin the legal limits it enjoys, as a space rental, continuous and it is daily.
And if shopkeepers accidentally return to practices as they are accustomed to, our management will remain vigilant and proactive in curbing such practices. It will take, as a last measure, to reclaim the space of the offending store owner, through the appropriate eviction procedure.
As always, we rely on the cooperation of everyone, who can and must report any kind of wrongdoing, embarrassment or disrespect, through our employees, personally at marketas well as to our customer service, through e-mail [email protected] And through our social networks Tweet embed. “
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