The Consumer Council (CC) hosted its “Best Certified Shop” and “Excellent Certified Shop” Awards Ceremony yesterday at the Macau Fisherman’s Wharf Convention and Exhibition Centre, with 20 “Certified Shops” receiving awards as the city’s “best” retail outlets, the council said in a statement.
The statement quoted Consumer Council General Committee President Ho Pui Fan as pointing out that the certified shop mechanism was launched over 20 years ago, while the “Best Certified Shop” award event was first held last year to determine the best certified shops that passed the programme’s “rigorous standards”.
The activity, the statement noted, praises “the best” and aims to help “elevate the overall quality of the ‘Certified Shops’ team”, with requirements for the participating shops even stricter than before this year.
The statement said that shops participating in the “Best Certified Shop” programme are graded according to three major categories—display of information, sales policy and their environment and services —which are then further split into 14 minor categories. The statement added that an “Excellent Certified Shop” list is first chosen for re-evaluation, with the top 20 with the highest scores being awarded the “Best Certified Shops” honour.
The awardees come from industries ranging from jewellery to dried seafood products, while 34 “Excellent Certified Shops” and 135 merit prizes were also awarded at the ceremony.
Qualified merchants from the retail industry were also awarded with the “Star Merchant Award” certificate of the “Quality Tourism Services Accreditation Scheme”, while 30 tourism-related “Certified Shops” were given the “Star Merchant Award”.
Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Deputy Director Cheng Wai Tong was quoted by the statement as saying that MGTO and the council have been collaborating in the “Quality Tourism Services Accreditation Scheme x Certified Shop” project since 2019 to protect consumer rights and praise merchants that offer “quality services” in the tourism industry, as well as encouraging them to enhance their services.
Meanwhile, applications for the 2023 awards have already started and will end on January 30, the statement underlined. Shops bearing the “Adherents” or “Certified Shops” title on or before December 31 are entitled to apply.
This handout photo taken and provided by the Consumer Council (CC) yesterday shows the 20 outstanding “Certified Shops” that were honoured with this year’s “Best Certified Shop” award posing with Consumer Council General Committee President Ho Pui Fan (first row, 7th from left)
