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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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 Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 11:01 pm Post subject: No tofu, eggs or soju at E-Mart if Seoul gets its way |
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It's not just E-mart, either. It would also include Lotte Mart, Homeplus, and Costco. This is simply ridiculous. What is the point?
http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2968294&cloc=joongangdaily|home|newslist1
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The Seoul city government said yesterday they will advise large discount chain stores and super-supermarkets (SSM) to stop selling dozens of goods as a measure to protect local merchants running smaller markets.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said they have designated 51 goods that need to be taken off the shelves of large discount chain stores such as E-Mart and Lotte Mart as a measure to stimulate consumer consumption at traditional and smaller markets.
These are the goods that the municipal government has designated: 17 kinds of vegetables, including onions, bean sprouts and cabbage; seven kinds of seafood, including mackerel and squid, five kinds of animal products including beef feet and beef leg bones; eight kinds of dried goods including seaweed and anchovies; nine kinds of perishable foods including tofu and eggs, as well as five goods including soju, beer and trash bags.
The city government said the plan is only a recommendation for those large discount chains but doesn�t have legal binding force yet.
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The larger stores must put up a legal battle over this and educate consumers about the issue.
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Large discount chains strongly oppose the designation. �We judge that our total revenue would decrease by about 15 percent,� a PR official of E-Mart, the largest discount chain in the country, told the Korea JoongAng Daily.
�When the city government forced large discount stores to close on weekends last year, it didn�t help those small store owners generate more revenue. It rather made people purchase more from the Internet and television home shopping networks.�
The official also added that many middle and small size companies who currently supply about 75 percent of goods being sold at large chain stores could be seriously damaged by the city government�s move.
�It would be inconvenient,� a 34-year-old Seocho, southern Seoul, resident said. �It means that we have to go to large chain stores to buy industrial products and drive to smaller markets to buy vegetables. Those stores generally don�t have parking lots.�
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byrddogs
Joined: 19 Jun 2009
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 11:39 pm Post subject: |
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| The radical thinking/non-thinking that abounds in Korea never ceases to amaze. Is this for real? So, large chain supermarkets would have to stop selling many staples that locals can buy more cheaply and conveniently? I'm glad I live in Shanghai now where at least things are cheap no matter if I shop at mom and pops (which I do often) or go to the big chains (which I do often as well). Oh yeah, I'm not forced to shop at either and can go to Tesco, Carrefour or Wal-Mart on any Sunday in this commie country. |
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hogwonguy1979
Joined: 22 Dec 2003
Location: the racoon den
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| Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 2:40 am Post subject: |
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this is getting freaking insane, every other Wednesday the big stores are closed, now this.
I thought now that election was over we'd see this vote pandering stop |
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Old fat expat
Joined: 19 Sep 2005
Location: a caravan of dust, making for a windy prairie
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| Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 3:29 am Post subject: |
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I guess they weren't after your vote  |
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Dodge7
Joined: 21 Oct 2011
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| Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 6:44 am Post subject: |
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Hmm. Let me get this straight. So the government cares so much about the mom and pops stores but sticks a middle finger up to the citizens because now they would have to make another stop at a different store to complete their shopping making it terribly inconvenient to their already busy schedule. Does this make any sense to you? You'd swear the mom and pops were paying off these crazy politicians in outdated ice cream and snacks (you know the kind of places I'm talking about). It's like the government is treating smaller business like little children and protecting them from the big bad wolves disguised at Lotte Mart and Costco. So bizarre.
This country is so backwards sometimes. |
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lemak
Joined: 02 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 8:37 am Post subject: |
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| byrddogs wrote: |
| can go to Tesco, Carrefour or Wal-Mart on any Sunday in this commie country. |
In some areas capitalist South Korea is more socialist than it's actual commie neighbors, lol.....although granted Chinese Wal-Marts kind of suck. Viva La Metro, Comrade!!! |
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tiger fancini
Joined: 21 Mar 2006
Location: Testicles for Eyes
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| Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 3:45 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm generalising here, but if Mom and Pop stores stopped employing miserable, unhelpful people and offered more choice and a cleaner environment then I would be more inclined to visit them. |
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byrddogs
Joined: 19 Jun 2009
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 4:22 pm Post subject: |
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| lemak wrote: |
| byrddogs wrote: |
| can go to Tesco, Carrefour or Wal-Mart on any Sunday in this commie country. |
In some areas capitalist South Korea is more socialist than it's actual commie neighbors, lol.....although granted Chinese Wal-Marts kind of suck. Viva La Metro, Comrade!!! |
Haha, for real, right? So, the Wal-Marts here suck? I haven't been to one, but if they are anything like the Sam's Club (which I wasted $ to join a couple of years ago-went only that one time) I imagine that they do. I'd forgotten about Metro; good mention on that. I wish there was one closer to me. I can walk 10 minutes to both a Tesco and Carrefour. |
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sendittheemail
Joined: 15 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Mom and Pop Shop = The new welfare. Open one of these shops, and apparently the government will ensure that you don't fail. This is by far the dumbest idea the Klown government has had recently, and they've had a lot of really, really, really dumb ideas on a fairly frequent basis for a long, long, long time. |
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mayorgc
Joined: 19 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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| I'd like to see someone here rationalize/defend this decision from an economic point of view. |
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Stan Rogers
Joined: 20 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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| mayorgc wrote: |
| I'd like to see someone here rationalize/defend this decision from an economic point of view. |
I'll bite. Historicly special preference was given to big business (chaebols) and they have become so big and powerful that they now dominate the Korean ecomony. Their expansion has often come at the expense of small business. Just take a walk outside and see how many businesses are Chaebol owned/operated/affiliated etc.
The government wants to right this past wrong and give preference to small business so that the Korean economy will become more diverse and not dominated by a few super wealthy families.
As a foreigner you or I may not like how they do it but I understand their logic behind it. It's also politically expedient. |
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Squire
Joined: 26 Sep 2010
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 9:56 pm Post subject: |
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I'm not dead against this as long as the medium sized shops are unaffected. Places like Jinmart, as opposed to Emart. On the other hand...
| tiger fancini wrote: |
| I'm generalising here, but if Mom and Pop stores stopped employing miserable, unhelpful people and offered more choice and a cleaner environment then I would be more inclined to visit them. |
Yes! For cigs I used a small shop right outside where I lived for my first 6 months in Korea. It was run by an old couple, the woman was friendly which was the only thing keeping me going there because the guy was a miserable old b******. Never uttered a word and clearly held me in contempt. It was clearly a huge effort to pull himself away from his all day soju sessions to do something as demeaning as serving a customer. Despite the glacial pace they went about everything I kept going until one day the old guy was fighting with another old guy (beating him up really) outside the shop and hit his wife when she tried to pull him away. He probably sounds like an OG, but he wasn't a very nice one
How can people go on like that and expect customers to continue using them when there was a perfectly good GS25 about 50 metres away? I've never seen any of the girls there fighting in the street. Nor have I seen Emart staff fighting while they're meant to be serving customers |
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optik404
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 12:43 am Post subject: |
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One on hand, I can appreciate the efforts to help small businesses, but on the other hand, it seems futile. Also, imo, they are going at it the wrong way.
Let's be honest, in most developed countries, big business run things. This will never change. |
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mayorgc
Joined: 19 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 1:31 am Post subject: |
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| Stan Rogers wrote: |
| mayorgc wrote: |
| I'd like to see someone here rationalize/defend this decision from an economic point of view. |
I'll bite. Historicly special preference was given to big business (chaebols) and they have become so big and powerful that they now dominate the Korean ecomony. Their expansion has often come at the expense of small business. Just take a walk outside and see how many businesses are Chaebol owned/operated/affiliated etc.
The government wants to right this past wrong and give preference to small business so that the Korean economy will become more diverse and not dominated by a few super wealthy families.
As a foreigner you or I may not like how they do it but I understand their logic behind it. It's also politically expedient. |
Not an argument, but a question.
By handicapping the super-marts, how does that create a more diverse economy? |
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sendittheemail
Joined: 15 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 2:27 am Post subject: |
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| When you have two shops selling the same product, and the government comes in and tells one shop that they can no longer sell that product, they are essentially forcing the public to either stop buying the item, or to patronize the second shop. How this benefits the public is a mystery. Let's say that Emart cannot sell eggs anymore. What is to stop the mom and pops from rising the price of eggs by 400%? The government has effectively eliminated their competition. |
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