{"id":65890,"date":"2026-08-05T23:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T23:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/65890\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T23:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T23:06:11","slug":"consumer-watchdogs-visited-panda-marts-brisbane-store-before-it-opened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/65890\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumer watchdogs visited Panda Mart’s Brisbane store before it opened"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inspectors from Queensland\u2019s Office of Fair Trading and the state\u2019s Electrical Safety Office completed a \u201cjoint operation\u201d at Panda Mart\u2019s Brisbane store before it opened to ensure the new retail venue complied with product safety rules.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tArticle ID: 342329\n\t\t<\/p>\n

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The store, which is located at Rocklea, south of the Brisbane CBD, opened to long queues and viral social media posts over the weekend, sparking a frenzy among shoppers who were keen to pick up a bargain.<\/p>\n

It is the third Panda Mart store<\/a> to open in Australia, following similar launches in the Melbourne suburbs of Cranbourne and Preston.<\/p>\n

The two Melbourne stores were forced to close for three days<\/a> in December last year, after inspectors from Consumer Affairs Victoria obtained an urgent injunction following the discovery of hundreds of illegal items in the stores.<\/p>\n

Earlier in 2025<\/a>, shoppers had been warned to stop using products purchased from Panda Mart, after government inspectors seized thousands of products from the South African retailer over safety concerns.<\/p>\n

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Panda Mart continues to face 147 criminal charges<\/a> over unsafe products being sold at its Cranbourne store.<\/p>\n

In response to questions from SmartCompany, a spokesperson for the Queensland Office of Fair Trading (OFT) confirmed the office is monitoring the situation with the Brisbane store.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Office of Fair Trading takes consumer product safety seriously,\u201d the spokesperson said. <\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tArticle ID: 313644\n\t\t<\/p>\n

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\u201cPrior to the store\u2019s opening, OFT completed a joint operation with the Electrical Safety Office to confirm regulatory compliance, and we are working with Panda Mart in Queensland to ensure unsafe products do not enter the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like its counterparts in other states and territories, the OFT supplies businesses with information about product safety and enforces consumer protection laws. <\/p>\n

The Electrical Safety Office oversees regulations around the safety of household electrical equipment, including product registration, certification and compliance monitoring.<\/p>\n

In Victoria, the electrical regulator previously warned shoppers<\/a> about unsafe table lamps purchased from the retailer, which it said could be \u201cdeadly\u201d.<\/p>\n

SmartCompany has contacted Panda Mart for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inspectors from Queensland\u2019s Office of Fair Trading and the state\u2019s Electrical Safety Office completed a \u201cjoint operation\u201d at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99,82095,71723,82096],"class_list":["post-65890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brisbane","tag-brisbane","tag-fair-trading","tag-panda-mart","tag-product-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}