Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gollywog]

Happy Fourth of July, all you Yanks out there!

What better time for a little vocabulary lesson in food?

The supermarket specials circulars this week often have pictures of traditional Fourth of July picnic fare: Watermelon, corn on the cob, potato salad, cole slaw, cherries, apple pie, apple pie a la mode, ketchup, mustard and soda. And then there's the steaks, hamburger and hot dogs.

And there's lots of the regular stuff. Korean kids, and adults, will probably be interested to see what sort of seafood Americans eat. And there's the cookies and candy. If you're lucky, they might have some Spam on sale, and even some ramen noodles. Look closely.

You could ask them whether they have this or that item in Korea or not. For a little fun, you could ask them whether they like that food, or whether they would like to try it. If they say they don't like it, ask them if they have ever tried it, and when.

You could also talk about the exchange rate. Good time to pull up one of those charts showing the trend in the Korean won vs the U.S. dollar.

The rest of you posters out there might want to take a look at these supermarket flyers. If you see any ads for Australian beef, or anything at all about mad cow disease, please post it!

You know, the Koreans ranting about mad kow disease really should be taking out ads in the American newspapers to warm Americans about the imminent danger they face. Because no one has bothered to tell Americans that their cows are killing them.

There is Australian beef being imported into the U.S. in relatively small quantities. America does not have protectionist tariffs, at least with its friends. The best I can find is that McDonalds is importing some beef from Australia. Anyone see ANY ads in the U.S. for Australian beef, and particularly, for Australian beef as a way to avoid contracting mad kow disease?

I wonder if there is some Australian beef being sold as a gourmet item, at premium prices?

Here are some supermarket ads for you to start with:

http://midatlantic.inserts2online.com/customer_Frame.jsp?divID=029&drpStoreID=00210

http://albertsons.shoplocal.com/albertsonsllc/default.aspx?action=entry&storeid=2407919&pretailerid=-98457&savezone=Y

http://giantfood.shoplocal.com/index.aspx?pagename=shopmain&zipcode=20817&dssid=be5d3f13-acde-43bb-9dff-8b1cb981a7bd&storeid=1040845&sf=true

http://fredmeyer.inserts2online.com/customer_Frame.jsp?drpStoreID=417

http://shop.safeway.com/superstore/sixframeset.asp?mainurl=http://safeway1.inserts2online.com/storeReview.jsp?drpStoreID=641

Price Chopper has real big flyers. But you may need need to select a store. Try this:

http://www.pricechopper.com/WeeklyAd/WeeklyAd_SW.las?-token.test=&-token.date=2008-07-05&-token.S=3B0T9R386861138P76c1720FrwWN6L522DFB9E|134134|0807050947||139|1|080629|

https://securesite.pricechopper.com/WeeklyAd/WeeklyAd_Login_S.las

I've got to say that I especially like Kroger's "Meat Mania" headline on the front of its flyer. That's how completely, totally unaware the United States is of this "mad cow" nonsense in Korea. For you Koreans, "mania" is a synonym for madness or insanity. This, of course, is not what the headline is referring to. It's just some advertising hype.

You can pick any town in the U.S., type it into google with the word supermarket, and get the names of local stores. You may need to go to the chain's website and enter a zip code to get the sales flyer.

Of course, you can do this with pretty much any country. I wonder if there is any Australian beef advertised in Canada, which has closer ties? Heck, I wonder if they sell American beef in Australia?

This is also a good way to remind yourself of what normal, non-Korean food prices are like.

Doesn't look like they have had any significant food price inflation in the States. In fact, I can't find any price increases in the past five years, at least from looking at the sale prices.

Oh, and Price Chopper has Black Angus top round for $1.99 a pound. That's about 400 won for 100 grams.

[icicle]

Not exactly what you are looking for (in terms of ads) but interesting just the same for your purpose

This is the link to USDA on US Statistics on US Beef and Cattle industry including exports and import amounts. Much more is imported than exported. Stats are for 2002 to 2007 (so pre and post BSE)

http://www.ers.usda.gov/news/BSECoverage.htm

It includes:

"U.S. beef exports (commercial carcass weight and value):
2002: 2.447 billion pounds, $2.629 billion
2003: 2.518 billion pounds, $3.186 billion
2004: 460 million pounds, $631 million
2005: 697 million pounds, $1.031 billion
2006: 1.144 billion pounds, $1.616 billion
2007: 1.431 billion pounds, $2.175 billion

Beef and veal imports from all sources (carcass weight):

2002: 3.218 billion pounds
2003: 3.006 billion pounds
2004: 3.679 billion pounds
2005: 3.599 billion pounds
2006: 3.085 billion pounds
2007: 3.052 billion pounds "