Korean Fast Food Industry In A Slump

The Korean fast food industry is trying to win back customers with special give a ways and reduced prices after losing many customers to the recent well being fad:

Korea’s leading fast food chain Lotteria on Monday said it will give out cell phone call vouchers worth W4,000 (about US$4) to customers who buy set menus for the same price. But while the last-ditch strategy seems to go against common sense, a Lotteria staffer said the company, while expecting no great profits, was not losing out because it buys the free call vouchers in bulk at 30 percent of face value.

Fast food firms continue to slash prices for set menus amid fierce competition in a dwindling market. Set menus typically consist of a burger, French fries and soft drink, and prices have already dropped to below W3,000 in some chains, making a single hamburger more expensive than a set.

Lotteria would have to give me a free car before I would eat anything there. Lotteria has to have the most disgusting fast food so it is no wonder they are getting hit especially hard:

Despite such efforts, the number of fast food outlets is dwindling. The number of Lotteria branches fell from 890 in 2003 to 811 in June and 800 in November this year. McDonalds saw the number of outlets shrink from 343 in 2003 to 305 in September. The industry nonetheless maintains hope that the worst is over.

This is no joke about the fast food outlets reducing their restaurants. Whenever I go to Uijongbu station there is a McDonald’s in the station that I will usually stop and eat at, or should I say used to eat at because it is closed down now. I am still amazed it closed because every time I would go there the place was packed but I guess not packed enough. It is the same thing with the Lotteria’s. I have seen a couple of them close down not that I am concerned about Lotteria’s.

Oh well I can live without McDonald’s it just means I will need to eat bibimbap for lunch instead the next time I go to Uijongbu Station.