Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cave Dweller]

This law about hypermarts closing on odd Sundays is beyond stupid.

Other than the obvious reasons, I noticed a few more glaring problems with it just today, as today the local E-mart was closed.

There is a local outdoor market. One of the ones Dictator Park seems to have a hard-on for. 3/4 of it is closed for the next 5 weeks for remodeling. So people are supposed to shop where?

The second was, another local medium sized supermarket was closed today due to it being the sabbath. Well I am all for people taking a break when they need one, but they have that 나들 가게 sign, which is part of the reason E-mart is forced to close today. Now they don't even take advantage.

I can live without the hypermarts for a day. Just make it for the right reasons.

[420bro]

Yeah it sucks supporting small mom and pop businesses. What kinda *beep* would want to do that. I am not saying the dictator is an altruist but I am sure she wants to garner votes and this seems like a wise populist move despite its inconvenience. Ill concede it can be a pain in the ass but I tend to remember that its only twice a month (2nd and 4th Sundays). If you really hate support supporting local businesses then do your shopping Saturdays and Mondays.

[CentralCali]

[nicwr2002]

+1

Furthermore, since they know there is no competition on that day, they raise the price of some goods. Most everything is overpriced anyway, but even more so on those days.

[atwood]

An article the other day compared the cost of a basket of 30 staples in different districts. Districts with five hypermarkets had the lowest prices while areas with none, such as Jongno, had the highest.

Mom and pop operations of all sorts in Korea refuse to do what it takes to be competitive. High prices and shoddy quality and poor service. There's a convenience store very near me that's been there for 40 years. And it looks it.

Besides that choice is nonexistent, except for cigarettes, and the guy doesn't take credit cards.

Then there's all the kimbop places and boonshiks that are now having to compete with chains which do the same things much better and in nice clean spaces.

The government is helping no one with this policy.

[Cave Dweller]

If the mom and pop stores were as good or better than big places, I'd shop there. Almost 90% of my eating out is small places. They are better than chain places.

These stores could try being more competitive instead of cutting the throat of their competitor and playing the sympathy card.

[Cave Dweller]

Just going to add an anecdote from the local shoopah.

I was at one of the neighbourhood medium-sized super markets. I picked up some bottle of juice that was labelled at 1500 won. They tried to charge me 2300 at the register. I called them on it, and they said 'sales start tomorrow. The sale price tag was put out a little early'. So I said 'I'll buy it tomorrow then.'

I was walking by there the next day so I grabbed the same juice. Once again, 2300 won came up. I called them out on it, and they sold it to me for 1500 won.

About a week later at the same place, I bought bananas that were clearly labelled at 2900 won. The cashier picked up the bananas and shouted to her supervisor 'how much do you want to sell these for?' He answered '3500 won.' I called them on that and pointed to the sign that said 2900 won which was within eyeshot of the register.

I have been a much less frequent shopper there lately and probably would never go back if not for E-mart being closed twice a month.

[CentralCali]

And let's be realistic about the so-called "Mom & Pop" places. They're chain franchises. They're just smaller franchises and badly-managed.

[denverdeath]

[motiontodismiss]

The glaring logical fallacy of this policy seems to be that mom and pop stores and the E-marts of the world cater to a different clientele altogether, so to achieve the desired effect, the e-marts of the world will have to disappear.

Closed every other sunday? Fine, I'll just shop on saturday. Or online. That's what I do when I need something from NC which closes every sunday.

I frankly think this is a product of lobbying from NongHyup. Hanaro mart is not a megamart? Since when?

[atwood]

[Steelrails]

For vegetables and meat, markets are better. For processed and imported groceries, big box stores are obviously the way to go.

A country should be careful about the long-term ramifications of an economic policy that focuses on cheap consumer goods as a panacea for what ails it.

[Cave Dweller]

I would hardly call any food in this country cheap. The supply chain is clogged up with middle men aka fgat ajosshis in shiny suits sitting at a desk and making money for doing nothing. They drive the price of food up to be much higher than necessary.

True, Hanaro Mart should also be closed. So should Kim's Club. Imagine back in the states, a lawsuit preventing Walmart from opening on certain days, but Target is allowed to open. I'd be like WTF?

[Qonny]

[Steelrails]

I wonder what people's reaction would be to some company like YBM or CDI creating behemoth Hagwons that employed people at 1.5 million won/mo. wages that drove the other Hagwons out of business because of their cheap prices, modern facilities, and prepared and organized materials, not some haphazard curriculum thrown together by whoever this year's teacher is. Oh, how people would howl.