Office worker Park Mi-won had never bought her lunch from a convenience store, until her favorite lunch buffet raised prices by more than 10 percent to 9,000 won (US$6.93) as South Korean inflation soared to a 14-year high.
“After the price rise, I went to convenience stores instead, where I thought the prices were reasonable while food also tasted good,” the 62-year-old said. “So now I go there two to three times a week.”
Global food prices last month surged 23 percent from a year earlier, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said.
Photo: Reuters
Moscow’s war against Ukraine has affected supplies of grains from there and Russia, and caused energy and fertilizer prices to soar.
Offering cheap instant noodles, sandwiches and gimbap (rice rolls) for under US$5, convenience stores are gaining in popularity as salaried workers such as Park seek ways to cut costs.
In the first five months of the year, sales of instant meals at South Korean convenience shop chain GS25 increased more than a 30 percent from a year earlier.
Seeing increasing demand, GS25 has also launched a new meal subscription service for office workers, which comes with price discounts and deliveries directly to offices.
Peers, including CU and 7-Eleven, have seen similar surges in demand, while Emart24 saw a 50 percent jump in lunchbox sales in areas with a large number of office buildings.
The gains came as the price of restaurant dishes in South Korea last month rose 7.4 percent from a year earlier — the fastest pace in 24 years.
Dubbed “lunch-flation,” the price of beloved dishes such as galbitang (beef stew with rice) jumped 12.2 percent and nengmyun (cold noodles) rose 8.1 percent, government statistics showed.
While convenience store lunches have not been immune from rising costs, their much lower overall prices have helped them become more popular.
In the capital, Seoul, average nengmyun prices have exceeded 10,000 won, the Korea Consumer Agency data showed, whereas instant ramen noodles are still available at slightly above 1,000 won at convenience stores.
The Bank of Korea estimates that each 1 percent price increase in imported agricultural products pushes up the price of processed foods by 0.36 percent in the next year and restaurant prices by 0.14 percent in the next three years.
Some operators have said that diners should expect bigger price hikes.
“As a matter of fact, I need to raise the price even higher,” said Lee Sang-jae, who runs a galbitang restaurant in Seoul’s central district and has raised prices twice this year — from 10,000 won to 12,000 won.
“Instead, I am giving up some of my profit margin, as I also have to consider office workers’ light wallets these days,” Lee said.
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