Back in the good old days, when Morris Hedstrom, Burns Phillips and McKenzie’s ruled Apia’s retail roost, we shopped with confidence.  Products were of good quality and prices were affordable.  Maybe there wasn’t such a variety of product as there is today but we knew what we were buying was quality and would last.  But how times have changed!

When we look around the town shops today, we see heaps and heaps of junk.  Go to a hardware shop.  There you will find variety but what about quality?  Recently, I built a house and shopped locally for materials.  Only imported timber was available.  Sellers said it was treated timber but on close examination, it was easy to see only the tips were treated; the bulk of the timber still susceptible to termites.  And the price?  You wouldn’t want to know.

And then there was roofing iron.  So thin is the roofing iron that some say it is almost possible to see through it.  Thin, weak and flimsy.  And the roofing nails and window louvers waiting for immature shoppers were already beginning to rust. It is highly unlikely these roofing materials would last five years.

You don’t want to buy a door.  They all seem to be warped and their plywood surfaces dotted with knots, obviously second grade doors sold at premium prices.  None made of solid wood; they are all hollow and cannot be cut to fit into the size of predetermined doorways.  

There is a choice of good and bad electrical fixtures.  Some shops specialize in quality product, but most deal in Chinese-made junk sold at exorbitant prices.  One can only wonder about safety standards of some of these electrical goods.  Shoppers should questions whether there are government controls in place to ensure the safety of these products?  

The quality of the polyethylene and plastic chairs, buckets, containers etc. coming from China is deplorable but those products are sold at unbelievably high prices compared to their landed costs.  They are more expensive than similar products of far superior quality available to New Zealand consumers.

There seems to be good money in selling junk.  One junk shop made enough money to buy a piece of land at the New Market and put up its own building.  No wonder so many shops now sell junk.  That’s where the money is.

And food products?  Look at what’s coming into the country today.  Food in packaging which is not even marked or, if marked, often in a language we don’t understand.  But many people buy it anyway not knowing what is in it and then give it to their kids.  I find this shocking.  

Ironically, in China today, there is a general outcry from the public about the substandard quality of locally processed products including processed food.  Maybe they are much more sophisticated shoppers than we are.  Surely they know better than us what’s going on in their own country..  

Recently there have been news broadcasts in the international media about Chinese-made medicines causing deaths (yes, there are a lot of Chinese-made pharmaceuticals sold here in Samoa,) dangerously toxic toothpaste, contaminated food products, mercury-tainted paint on children’s toys, etc. etc.    Some countries, including New Zealand, Australia and the United States, have banned many perishable and non-perishable items alike which are made in the People’s Republic of China due to sanitary, hygienic and safety concerns.
I bought a can of corned beef a few weeks ago at a popular supermarket.  I bought by price and not by brand.  But it was uneatable.  With no exaggeration, it was 50% soft white fat not fit for human consumption.  It makes one wonder if the quality of imported meats is being monitored by government.

Even the General Manager of the National Health Service, Dr. Stanley Dean, is on record as saying that there is an increase in cancer in this country and he pointed a finger at imported food as one of the culprits.  

And clothing?  Many Samoans are finally beginning to understand that Chinese-made clothing may look attractive enough but is it worth the price?  Buy a pair of brand new shorts for your kids and see if they can make it through a week without the crotch splitting.  There is definitely value for money in buying second hand clothing imported from Australia and America.  Not only are pre-loved clothes cheap, they are well made and durable.  They survive even the roughest of kids.

I recently bought a Chinese-made kettle in a local shop.  After about a week, when filling the kettle with water from the tap one morning, the handle suddenly fell off, or should I say the kettle fell off the handle.  Water all over the kitchen floor!  Good thing this did not happen after boiling the water as I would have been seriously scalded.  Cheap kettles are extremely dangerous so, parents,  take care in letting your kids boil water in them.

I can go on and on and on about the quality of products sold in our country.  Samoan has a very price sensitive economy so we tend to buy the cheapest things available regardless of quality.  But shoppers should understand that they get only what they pay for.  

Hopefully our government is monitoring the quality and safety of products being imported into Samoa so we can shop with confidence and without fear.

There isn’t much our government can do about this situation with the exception of food products.   Hopefully it will ensure that the food we eat is safe for us to consume.  Isn’t this the minimum government can do for us?  

---

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Add Comment