Who says inflation can’t kill? As Jamil Anderlini writes in the Financial Times, three people were killed and 31 injured in a stampede at a Carrefour supermarket in the western Chinese city of Chongqing over the weekend as shoppers slugged it out over five-litre bottles of rapeseed oil going at a 20% discount.

The promotion came after wholesale vegetable oil prices in China jumped more than 40% this year. Prices of other foodstuffs such as milk, pork and eggs have also rocketed, contributing to annual headline inflation of more than 6% – the highest level for more than a decade.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the state planning agency in charge of price controls, is taking action, but it is too little too late for those involved in the weekend’s tragedy. It issued a directive to domestic food oil producers last week ordering them to increase production and “ensure price stability”.

Also on the dangers-of-shopping topic, China's safety watchdog confirmed Saturday that toy beads recalled after sickening children last week contained a toxic substance that metabolizes into the "date-rape" drug gamma hydroxy butyrate when swallowed, AP reported. Millions of units of the popular toys, which are sold as Aqua Dots in the United States and as Bindeez in Australia, were recalled around the world after at least nine children in the US and three in Australia fell sick from swallowing the toy's parts.

Tests showed the toys were coated with the industrial chemical 1,4-butanediol rather than 1,5-pentanediol, a non-toxic chemical commonly used in computer printer ink.

Production of the toys had been outsourced to Wangqi Product Factory in Shenzhen by a Hong Kong agent of Moose Enterprises, the Australian-based maker of the toys. Wangqi decided to instead use the toxic compound, which, after all, was three to four times cheaper. I guess Wangqi reasoned that breathing problems, loss of consciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death were a small price to pay for increased profits. There have been no reports on the health of the factory's workers.

The date rape-drug-on-toys scandal is merely the latest in a recent epidemic of product quality scandals ranging from toothpaste to tires to seafood that has tarnished China's image as an exporter of reliable goods. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would be tempted to suggest it was a cunning plan to reel in China’s politically sensitive trade surplus.

If so, the latest trade figures show the plan is not working. According to a General Administration of Customs statement on its website today (reported by AP), October’s trade surplus grew 13.5% from the same month a year ago, reaching a new monthly record of $27.05 billion. The previous monthly record was $26.9 billion, set in June. September's surplus was $23.91 billion. China's trade surplus for the first 10 months jumped a massive 59% to $212.36 billion.

Rather than continuing to pressure Beijing to ease currency controls, which they claim undervalues the yuan and gives Chinese exporters an unfair price advantage, the US and other trading partners of China could stop importing dodgy Chinese goods and start making some themselves. But that’s even more fanciful than my conspiracy theory, and probably a good deal harder to put into play.