Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BigBlackEquus]

I don't get it. What keeps these places afloat?

Some places come and go within 3 months before the construction guys come in and totally remake the store in a weekend.

I'm discussing non-teaching businesses that seem to have no customers. Day in and day out, when I walk by certain stores in my area, they are empty. Yet they stay open. I'm talking about restaurants, make-up shops, photo stores, and most definately the boutique "artsty" stores that sell cheesy $50 plates and figurines that you put on a shelf.

How do they do it?

Sometimes I theorize that there is a lot of family money made by other relatives that is going down the drain.

There were often stores like this back home funded by, as one example, a husband with a great job who had a pretty wife who needed her own boutique shoe or art store for legitimacy or something.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

[....]

[joe_doufu]

In China and Taiwan if you see a hair salon with lots of (female) employees hanging around and no (apparent) customers, it means they're providing extra value-added services in a back room somewhere. Whatever you do, don't trust them for a decent haircut.

[Demonicat]

In the states, one word...bodega. Out here that don;t to that too much, to my knowledge, so I'm not sure.

[BigBlackEquus]

Please teach this Canadian what on earth a Bodega is.

It sound like some kind of mexican food that would give me gas.

[Universalis]

I know exactly what you're talking about and my guess is that the owners use the business has some sort tax dodge.

By tying up their assets in a small business, profitable or not, and somehow obfuscating the legal ownership of it, they can move a big chunk of their money out their taxable income. YEs, they lose some money if business stinks, but it's probably a smaller "tax" than what the government would hit them with.

And you know, the government probably doesn't care, as this sort of arrangement creates jobs and does something for the economy.

Brian

[mishlert]

We have a name for these stores where I come from, they are called fronts.
Gotta get that money clean.

[nrvs]

[Demonicat]

[Harpeau]

A funny incident on Saturday morning. I went to the local hardware store to buy a new drill for the guitar shop. Get this. The door is wide open. There is some crap in the way from entering. I see the cordless drill and bits that I want hanging on the right wall. The guy is in the back sitting there looking dazed. I asked him if I could buy a drill~ pointing at the one at the wall. He waves at me and motions me to leave. I ask again. I think he says that he's closed. I tell him, it'll only take a minute. He turns around and goes back to his desk. Go figure! No wonder some of these shops suck at making money. So I go home and get my wood chiseling tools out. Long day! I'll try and go back there later on.

[JongnoGuru]

Not squarely on-topic, but Harpeau's post prompts this.

Roast chicken and dark beer.

Well, that's what the sign said, so what the hell. In I strode. This was last week, about four-thirtyish, and it was still light out. Two tables inside were occupied, so I knew they were serving. But as I was walking in, the owner, late 50s, jumps out from behind his counter chasing after me, arms flailing in accordance with the universally understood "no, no -- you go away!" gesticulation.

I had in one hand my motorbike helmet, in the other a sample book of material for roll blinds, a Swiss Army-type bag slung casually over one shoulder, as if it had no respect for the established order, and it rested lazily on my hip. My gyrating hip.

Whatever I said or tried to say, he just wanted me out of his place. He's serving -- didn't matter. Other customers were being served -- didn't matter. Then I realised that he thought I was there with my sample book in order to sell him something. (Yeah, a Westerner selling window blinds door-to-door in Korea -- whatever) So I flipped open the sample book and began pitching a 100% polyester model with a stylish minsok-y look to it. He's waving his arms again, and starting to physically push me in the direction of the door. Customers are all staring at us. This goes on for a bit, him raising his voice at me, me raising mine about how easy these roll blinds are to install and clean, just take a damp cloth, like this one, blah, blah.

Just as he's nearly got me out of his shop, his wife emerges from behind the chicken roaster, and she seems kinda curious about the quality products offered at affordable prices by the good people at Kolon Specialty Chemicals. So I plant myself at the very last table before the door and ask to see a menu. The owner's wife sits down with me, and we look through the sample book together. I order a half-chicken and 500cc, her husband doesn't budge, so she repeats my order and he finally makes with the goods.

She's asking about prices, I haven't the foggiest, and we discuss home remodelling, housing prices, and redevelopment rumours in our district. She cellphones her just-entered-grad-school daughter to come over & meet me. Practise English? I don't know what the angle is, but her daughter arrives before I order my second 500cc and is not only quite hotttttt, but also a lot of fun to talk to. Seriously. I made a tentative arrangement to meet her again. I mean the daughter. The gyrating daughter.

Sing it with me!!

Way down yonder in the Indian nation
Ridin' my pony on the reservation
In the Oklahoma Hills where I was born

Way down yonder in the Indian nation
The cowboy's life is my occupation
In those Oklahoma Hills where i was born