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“Since businesses have chosen to open their venues to the public, it means they need to accept a wider consumer group and win market recognition and reputation with high-quality services.”

Recently, a netizen posted online that when buying swimming cards in a group at a swimming pool in Wuxi, Jiangsu, the consumers were required to be women under 45 years old and have a bachelor's degree.As soon as this incident happened, it immediately sparked heated discussions and related topics topped the hot search list.

Why does the swimming pool have such restrictions? Is the consumption threshold reasonable?

A swimming pool in Wuxi sets a threshold for using group purchase cards

"Only women under 45 with a bachelor's degree"

It is understood that the swimming pool is called 2049 International Swimming and Diving Training Center, located in the World Trade Center. The group purchase service launched does include a "Knowledge Lady Month Card", which is clearly marked as "only for women under 45 years old with a bachelor's degree".

On the afternoon of the 21st, the swimming pool manager and coach made it clear thatThere is no gender or educational restriction in swimming training, only the bi-monthly swimming card has it. When verifying the information, users are indeed required to provide proof of age and educational background. A photo will do, as long as the face matches. It is not as complicated as netizens imagine.

Swimming pool manager: "People with higher education have higher quality"

Why are there such restrictions?

The swimming pool manager said,The swimming pool was not open to the public at first. Its main business was diving and swimming training. Later, some students said they wanted to swim during the summer vacation, so they launched this bimonthly swimming card., put forward gender, age and education requirements, mainly forWe limit the flow of people and differentiate the groups of people. We don’t actually want many people to come here to swim.

"There are far more women learning to swim than men nowadays. Age restrictions are actually very common in swimming pools. For safety reasons, in big cities, the age limit is usually under 60 years old. It's just that our requirement is stricter, under 45 years old."As for the educational requirements, the official said: "It is based on the fact that people with higher education have higher emotional intelligence, better understanding of social order, and higher quality."

The person in charge said that the reason for requiring "higher quality" is because swimming pools generally have problems such as poor order, children running around, and people easily losing things. The hardware facilities of this swimming pool are not good. The lockers in the locker room are not locked. There are only students and coaches. Students put their mobile phones next to them when swimming. The requirement for academic qualifications is also to "screen out high-quality users" and maintain the safety and order of the venue.

Officials interviewed the swimming pool involved

The controversial group buying activity has been removed from the shelves

On the 23rd, a reporter from China National Radio checked a review app and learned that the swimming pool is now offering multiple group buying activities for swimming and diving, with prices ranging from 736 yuan to 2,890 yuan.At present, the controversial group buying activities have been removed from the group buying list.At present, the swimming pool is still operating normally. The reporter called the swimming pool several times, but no one answered the phone.

The swimming pool in question is still in operation, and the controversial group buying activity has been removed (screenshot from the Internet released by China National Radio)

A reporter from China National Radio learned from the Liangxi District Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau that:The bureau has interviewed the person in charge of the swimming pool involved.Previously, the swimming pool had been listed as a key supervision target because of its diving training program. In the future, the cultural, sports and tourism departments will strengthen their supervision over it.

A staff member of the Liangxi District Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau told reporters that the swimming pool's main business is diving training, with female consumers being the majority. As the swimming pool has a high-risk license and a diving license, it has previously been listed as a key regulatory target.During the interview, the cultural, sports and tourism department required the company to consider comprehensively and reasonably release related activities and slogans in the future to avoid any objections. In addition, the swimming pool will be supervised more strictly to ensure safe and standardized operation.

According to the merchants, setting age and educational qualification thresholds is based on business operation considerations, and they "do not want many people to come."But in fact, there are many ways to limit customer flow. For example, you can maintain the safety and order of the venue through smart reservation systems and membership management. You can also achieve effective management and utilization of resources without sacrificing consumer experience.

Lawyer: Swimming pools may infringe on consumers' fair trade rights

Obviously, the staff's remarks of "screening out high-quality users" and "having higher quality" directly link academic qualifications with quality.This bias is uncomfortable and affects the rights of other potential consumers to enjoy public services equally.

Regarding this matter, Liu Jian, a lawyer from Jiangsu Zhenyu Law Firm, said:First, we need to determine whether the behavior is a long-term and intentional differentiation of customer groups.

According to the Consumer Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, consumers have the right to fair trade, the right to obtain fair trade conditions such as quality assurance and reasonable prices, and the right to refuse the operator's forced trading behavior.The group purchase conditions set by the swimming pool may infringe on consumers' right to fair trade.

also,The swimming pool's move inevitably raises questions about whether it is a marketing hype, deliberately setting controversial thresholds to attract public attention in order to gain a lot of exposure and discussion in a short period of time.

An expert from a university business school said that although swimming pools are engaged in commercial activities, it is inappropriate and unwise to impose age and education requirements on consumers for swimming, a popular activity, on public platforms such as group buying websites. On the one hand, these sensitive restrictions are likely to cause public speculation. On the other hand, such restrictions will make consumers feel disrespected and even cause consumers to be disgusted.

After all, as a universal sport, the essence of swimming is to exercise the body and have fun.Since businesses have chosen to open their venues to the public, it means they need to accept a wider consumer group and win market recognition and reputation with high-quality services.

As soon as this incident happened, it immediately sparked heated discussions among netizens.

Some netizens said:“Education is not a criterion for testing character.”Some netizens questioned:"Without some education, can't you even enter the swimming pool?"

Some netizens also said,It is the store owner's freedom to set any threshold.

Some netizens expressed their support."It's good to have a threshold" "Isn't this a way to accurately screen target customers?"

What do you think about this?

Let's chat in the comments section~