Korean Job Discussion Forums

ohahakehte · Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Location: The State of Denial

i think its amazing how many korean restaurants which only have a few things on the menu (like a kalbi joint or some seafood places) can stay in business while their highest prices are like 15,000 won. can they stay in business because they get so many customers? do they get government subsidies?

theres no way restaurants like that would stay in business long in canada. they'd have to charge high prices for everything on the menu or start attracting droves of customers.

The Cube · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

Gollum · Joined: 04 Sep 2003 Location: Japan

I know of at least one bar in Itaewon that hardly gets any customers. I went out on a few buddy-dates with the owner, and learned quickly that there were mob guys dropping in handing her big wads of like 5 million won at a time on a regular basis.

Pretty obvious she is a money-laundering joint.

djsmnc · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Dave's ESL Cafe

In Jong-ro and elsewhere, I've noticed that a lot of said restaurants go under within a year. Or, like the Supa owners, they seem to make just enough profit to hang on and support the family.

Randall Flagg · Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 6:27 am Post subject:

I can't understand how all the small, no-name supermarkets can stay in business. In my area there are 3 identical stores side by side. They all sell the same things at the same prices. All seem to never have any customers. How do they stay alive??

I always try to shop at these small family owned establishments rather than the franchises.

sadsac · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Location: Gwangwang

As a previous poster stated, they live at the back of the restaurant, family staff it and the cost of goods is nowhere as high as in the west. Most do only specialise in a few dishes and they do them well. Koreans don't sit and chat after a meal, they eat and go, so turnover can be high without it being very noticable. Smile

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

There is a huge amount of UNDERemployment in this country. One member of the family has a job and basically supports the family; the other parent runs a restaurant or mom & pop store on a shoe string budget and makes a small profit sometimes.

And no one in the family gets a million won a month to fritter away, like we way-gookins do.