Thousands of Panda Mart products seized over safety concerns

A week after opening to long customer queues in Melbourne, popular discount store Panda Mart has had thousands of potentially dangerous products such as baby rattles stripped from its shelves as they did not meet Victoria’s key safety standards.

Inspectors from Consumer Affairs Victoria seized products from the shelves of Panda Mart in Cranbourne on Tuesday night and on Wednesday, saying they posed a risk of injury or death.

Among the products they removed were toys and baby rattles that contained button batteries which weren’t properly secured and labelled. If swallowed by children, the batteries can burn through the oesophagus in just two hours, causing severe bleeding or death, the regulator said in a public warning. It urged customers who have bought products to stop using them immediately and return them to the store for a full refund.

Other questionable products that Consumer Affairs inspectors found at the store included items that failed to meet a range of safety standards, including cosmetics, the state’s consumer watchdog said. There were also items posing injury hazards, such as projectiles, or choking or strangulation hazards, it warned.

The thousands of goods removed by the regulator included bike helmets, archery sets, luggage straps, toy guns, children’s make-up sets, birthday cards, glitter balls, calculators and flashing toys.

The shock warning comes after the low-cost retailer, tagged as “Temu in real life”, opened its first store, in Cranbourne in the city’s south-east, last week. It was forced to close its doors early on Saturday after police were called to control crowds of bargain-hungry shoppers who tried to push past staff into the store. On Monday, there were still queues to enter.

“We know many Victorians are looking for bargains when they’re shopping given the cost of living, but they shouldn’t have to worry about picking up dangerous products at the same time, especially ones for babies and kids,” Consumer Affairs director Nicole Rich said.

“We’ve responded quickly to take action and remove these products from the shelves, but it’s up to businesses to understand the law, and not stock them in the first place,” Rich said.

Panda Mart Australia owner John Chen confirmed about 38 product types had been seized from shelves.

“We didn’t mean to be breaking the law,” Chen said. “But now we’ve learned, and we will hire a proper professional, someone who is in the industry, to check our stock in future.”

Panda Mart’s planned second store, which is due to open in Preston later this year, would not have the same issues, he said.

“We learned our lesson. We don’t want to get into trouble. We want to trade peacefully.”

Under Australian Consumer Law, businesses can be fined up to $50 million for supplying products that fail to meet mandatory safety or information standards. Consumer Affairs is continuing to investigate the incident.

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