Korean Job Discussion Forums

[victorology]

It's a simple matter of supply vs. demand. If the demand was there, you would see a lot more foreign foods in the supermarkets. Prices would be cheaper, too because they could make money on volume.

You can't compare Korea to Hong Kong. First off, there's a much larger foreign population in Hong Kong. That means higher demand and lower prices. Second, the Hong Kong dollar is tied to the U.S. dollar.

[madoka]

[victorology]

It also seems American companies are getting in on the act. Look at Apple. Their MacBook Pro starts at $1999 in the U.S. In Korea, it starts at 3,099,000 won. Wait a minute, that's about a million won more than it was 6 months ago!

Not all of their products are marked up that high. A Mac Pro that retails at $2799 is 3,150,000 won. It's $800 more expensive than a MacBook Pro in the U.S. but only 51,000 won more expensive in Korea. The iPod shuffle starts at $49 but is 53,000 won in Korea.

I suspect the reason why some import products are marked up more is simply an inventory issue. The products that were imported when exchange rates were reasonable haven't been marked up as much while those that were imported at current exchange rates have been. That would imply that businesses are actually being quite fair by not raising prices across the board.

[wylies99]

Madoka, don't you live and work in Korea? Are you a manufacturer or importer? Probably not, but you are a CONSUMER, just like the rest of us.

Why make excuses for high prices charged by large manufacturers?
Do you believe EVERY EXCUSE large corporations give for charging higher prices? You shouldn't, because SMART consumers understand what's really going on.




Also remember that SMART consumers can see that the ridiculous tariffs against foreign goods that are NOT produced by anyone in Korea, are harming CONSUMERS, like you and me, and NOT protecting ANY Koreans.
Now that's as plain as day to everyone.

[travelingfool]

Not too long ago I was walking in Gangnam near Pagoda and YBM trying to find something to eat. Maybe I am blind but I was not at all impressed with the selection of restaurants. I have stayed at quite a few major hotels in Seoul and have found the same thing in those areas as well. Maybe they hide the places from idiot foreigners. Shanghai, Bangkok, Taipei, etc have much better choices.

As one poster said, when you calculate the cost of getting to and from the store, the groceries themselves, and the time involved, eating out makes more sense, especially if you are single. The problem I had though was that my neighborhood was full of restaurants that catered to groups and were very reluctant and often refused to serve one person. My choices were pretty much Pizza school, McDonalds, Lotteria, prepacked food from Family Mart, or street food.

For me the lack of food options in Korea is one of the biggest drawbacks of living there.

[madoka]

[wylies99]

Korean tariffs play a LARGE ROLE in the limited availability and high cost of products in South Korea. You don't agree?

[victorology]

[moosehead]

[Draz]

Goddamn, I was going to buy some oatmeal and bring it back in my suitcase... but I FORGOT!!!

It was like $5 CAD for 3kg in the most over-priced grocery store in butthump nowhere northern Saskatchewan. Other things in that store are priced the same as in Korea ($5 for a jar of spaghetti sauce for example) but not the oatmeal.

Whining? Pointing out that 16000 won/kg is a freaking insane price for oatmeal is not whining. I'd pay 10000 won (and did) but for 16,000 won it can rot on the shelf.

[exit86]

I second the point about Koreans world-wide having a very bad reputation for price gouging and price-fixing.
the L.A. Riots and Samsung being charged with price-fixing in the US market a while back come quickly to mind.

The problem the very typical short-sightedness which plagues many
Korean businesses. Get in, make quick money, and get out even quicker. I'm sure many of us have giggled at the "Since 2002"
or similar signs proudly displayed on business/restaurant signs in Korea; take a walk down any street in Manhattan and you'll be surrounded by businesses 50 to 100 years old, if not older, but "Since 2002" is
very much an achievement in Korean business thought.

We also are all familiar with Korea's "Ppalli, Ppalli" culture, which extends to business.

Taking the black market store mentioned earlier, imagine how many long-term customers this person could easily accrue if he 1. acquired
his goods legally 2. charged a fair price for such goods (maybe, instead
of 4 times the price, how about just double the original price so that he could still make a nice profit and have happy, assured customers
for the future, who would naturally spread the word to others, thus increasing his long-term profits.)
He is engaging in illegal activity though, so obviously his outlook is nothing further than short-term, "get in, get out" thinking.
He is lucky that he hasn'ty pissssed off anyone enough for them to call the cops or USFK on him; but, in his mind, that day will come. Why shouldn't it?

Obviously, this type of business and business outlook is self-defeating.

[KoreaninKorea]

[Typhoon]

But they will give you one serving if you already ordered two. This blows my mind away. My wife, daughter and I went out to restaurant last month. We ordered 3 orders of su-jae-bee and one order of 상고기. They restaurant flat out refused to bring the meat for just one order despite the fact that our order would have been close to 20 000 won already. This blew me away. We have ate their before and ordered a single serving after ordering a larger serving, but they just won't start off with one serving. We just said F it. We don't really want a lot of meat we wanted the su-jae-bi, so we went to another restaurant and they lost our business. The restaurant just lost 20 000 Won worth of business and a repeat customer. This is one of the craziest things about Korean restaurants in my opinion.