Korean Job Discussion Forums

[shawner88]

I just mentioned this in another post but I thought it would make a nice topic. Is there anything more annoying than paying a lot of money for groceries then getting charged 20 won extra for a bag? 20 won is like 1.8 cents. It's so utterly annoying to me. It's not the money - it just seems so rude and irksome to me. How about you?

[whatthefunk]

Noooooo!!! Not 20 won!!!!! It's nice because it encourages people to reuse their bags, but those who don't reuse then probably couldn't care less about the 20 won.

[intergalactic]

I think it's a good idea, but they should be 100won.

[posco's trumpet]

[lawyertood]

I always thought a good marketing ploy would be to bag the groceries in those neighborhood bags that you have to use for garbage. Instant recycling.

[Gord]

When I was younger, all the big-name grocery stores always charged for bags. It wasn't some new concept that I ran into when I arrived in Korea.

That and HomePlus charges 50 Won.

[little mixed girl]

......

[Drakoi]

[Penelope Pitstop]

[Sejong]

Lots of countries around the world charge for shopping bags, why should Korea be any different? Same thing for takeout coffee/fast food cups. It's never bothered me a bit -- frankly, I think stores should be charging for them back home. (Provided the money goes to covering recycling costs, of course)

Some of my students work in retail and fast food jobs, and they say Korean customers really hate paying the extra cost, though... had to laugh when one told me he spends half his shift at BK apologizing to livid ajummas forced to pay an extra nickel or so for their paper cup.

[dogbert]

It's the law!

[Seoultrader]

Shop at Lotte

[komtengi]

the store can be charged some stoopid amount..... I think 5 million by the government for not enforcing the 20 won bag rule. My local supermarket owner is always telling the africans that he cant give them a bag for free, so hes got a sign up to explain it.

[Raoul Duke]

Yes it's the law-

It was an attempt to stem the flow of littering and over-packaging that was engulfing Korea. You would buy something as small as an eraser and into the black baggie it would go. McDonalds biodegradable take-out paper bags would go into a McDonalds plastic bag. A ridiculous state of affairs.

The Korean tradition of placing importance on packaging as well as contents (coupled with an abundance of litter-bugs) was running amok. The idea of charging for bags was to prevent store owners from over-packaging as much as it was to encourage customers to bring their own bags and/or re-use old ones.

I think they should charge between 100-500 Won depending on the size. Then maybe people would start using their own re-usable shopping bags. I had a few that folded up very compactly when not in use making such a practice very easy to get into the habit of doing. They were given away free by banks and other places.

[mack the knife]

TIP O' THE DAY

Buy a re-usable cloth bag (they're ubiquitous).

Also, Carrefour will refund W50 for every bag of theirs that you return, my parsimonious friends.