Gov’t unveils quality accreditation for retailers

MORE than 1,000 retailers across the city were accredited last night at a ceremony co-hosted by the Consumer Council and the Macao Government Tourism Office.
Following the previous night’s accreditation for restaurants and travel agencies providing quality services, the tourism regulator followed the lead of the consumer agency to commend reliable retailers in the city.
A total of 1,030 businesses have passed this year’s “Certified Shops” evaluation, a campaign initiated by the Consumer Council to encourage businesses to constantly improve their service standards.
These accredited businesses will be eligible to display the “Certified Shop” logo in their establishments. The government body believes the logo will convey a sense of reliability to shoppers, especially tourists.
Of the abovementioned 1,030 accredited businesses, 28 were awarded “Class A Certified Shop.” Meanwhile, 166 of all businesses receiving the accreditation were recognized by the Tourism Office with the “Star Merchant Award” for their quality service.
In order to be eligible for the Tourism Office’s accreditation, a business must obtain recognition as a Consumer Council “Certified Shop” beforehand. This makes the double accreditation more prestigious.
The Council’s accreditation system has been in place for almost 20 years. Some 80% of businesses registered for the campaign obtained the accreditation, which was similar to the last few years.
To ensure the quality of “Certified Shops,” all businesses participating in the campaign must promise to resolve any consumer disputes that arise between them and consumers, and should possess a passing grade in the annual on-site 85-criterion evaluation.
The Council completed 3,500 on-site evaluations in 2019 and invited local residents to grade their experiences in almost 400 shops for the first time. Experts were also invited to shop as mystery shoppers to offer 205 shopping experience reports. A total of over 4,000 instances of different kinds of evaluations have been carried out throughout the year.
Those accredited include some of the biggest business chains in town, such as Koi Kei Bakery, Choi Heung Yuen Bakery and Sunsco Supermarket. AL