A bit about consumerise...

A little bit about consumerism...

What the hell is consumerism? All i know is that people buy, people sell, transactions occur, don't like it... don't buy it. It may seem as simple as that but believe me... theres more to it than just buying and selling.

If one notices... consumerism ideals has been valiantly fought by NGOs. Among the vocal ones are the people from Penang, Selangor, some other states and on a more national level the PPIM. They may have different drives and orientation, but all in all the same final objective... protecting consumer rights and promoting awareness.

Lets take a simple issue... say Coke or Coca Cola. I'm sure everyone has at least received a dozen emails or read a dozen articles on how this popular soft drink is somehow related to anti Islam groups... its health hazards yadayadablablabla. I am also sure that most of us still drink Coke, and almost 100% sure most of us would say; 'So what, tak luak pun diorang kalau aku boikot tak beli'. Heck, even i still drink it.

Now... lets talk about numbers. Lets say there are 26 million Malaysians. Roughly 5 million households? Let say 1 household buy 1 type of tooth paste, one tube per month. Lets say the monthly expenditure for tooth paste per month is 1 buck (senang nak kira). That would mean 5 million worth of toothpaste is consumed per month. Lets say Colgate has a market share of... 35%? Thats already 1.75 million worth of tooth paste. Lets say they get a profit margin of 30%, thats already 525k per month. We all know a tube of paste isn't 1 buck. Theres also the possibility of usage of more than 1 tube per month. Big bucks... and all thanks to the exemplary marketing strategy they use. Colgate is synonymous with toothpaste.

Now what would happen IF some NGO or consumer association goes around publishing articles regarding the 'halal'ness of a particular product? Doubts will rise. Especially in a majority muslim country such as ours. What if a rumor (and i say this because rumors are just so fun to talk about and people sooo gullible to believe) circulates saying a certain type of cleaned chicken was not in accordance to syariah (tak sembelih ke, patahkan tengkuk je ke). Heck, all hell would break loose. Happened a few times recently...and again showed one fatal weakness in Malaysia's enforcement system. Understaffed, under qualified to deal with rising global and complex issues. Even the famed melamine scandal showed incompetency... if China didn't detect it earlier, i doubt Malaysia would even be aware of the threat. Its amazing that we have no FDA, only MOH to handle our safety. I did poke around in MOH. It seems that whatever regulation made to systematically monitor import of drugs and food... is just on paper and full of loopholes which importers capitalize on. There are no regular checks on consignments/shipments. No random checks and food contents and quality. How can we be sure what we eat isn't hazardous? This also opens the door wide open to corruption. Substandard substances certified as standard. The Q for quality merely stands for Qorruption? Haha!

Anyway... we must know our rights as consumers (not that i know the specifics, but being involved with research certainly has its benefits). There should be a few websites regarding consumerism.Check it out. Also logon to PPIM's website (it's a lousy website by the way, not too user friendly, how IRONIC).

We the consumers have every right to obtain information on a paticular product. Being more and more complex and sofisticated, we sure as hell should brush up on health hazard & issues, food security, current pricings and maybe we should push certain items to be government controlled (not the BERNAS way please or Pharma Niaga way). And don't forget,we are not talking only about products or items.... services as well.