Rising prices put a damper on year-end parties in Korea

A restaurant sign in Myeongdong showing samgyeopsal (pork belly) [NEWS1]

Eating cheap and wrapping up early is the defining trend for year-end parties in Korea, with the rise in prices for eating out and drinking putting a brake on festivities.

The rise in consumer prices has affected the way Koreans organize their company outings this year. Company dinners are switched out for lunches, cheaper restaurants are sought out and second rounds of drinking are skipped over.

This is largely due to the jump in restaurant meal prices. Costs for eating out increased 4.8 percent on year as of November, according to data from the Statistics Korea on Wednesday. It has once again gone up after a sharp hike of 8.6 percent last year. Considering that consumer prices rose 3.3 percent in November, compared to a 5.0 percent increase last year, the rise is much steeper.

The rate of increase in restaurant meal prices as of last month exceeded the overall average for 30 consecutive months. A bowl of bibimbap costs 10,577 won ($8.07) and naengmyeon (cold noodles) costs 11,308 won in Seoul as of October, according to the Korea Consumer Agency. The only foods available under 10,000 won are kalguksu (hand-cut noodles), a kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) set meal and jjajangmyeon (black bean noodles), which cost 8,962 won, 7,846 won and 7,069 won, respectively.

Kim, who works as a team leader at a game company in Pangyo, Gyeonggi, has been looking up the same three keywords online in preparation for the team’s company dinner: year-end party, cost-efficient and popular restaurants.

An allowance of 500,000 won for company dinners is provided by the company each month, which is a tight budget for a team of 10. A once-a-month team lunch replaced company dinners until November. But having decided to hold an evening outing for the end of the year, Kim worried about the skyrocketing restaurant prices.

Kim eventually settled on a Chinese restaurant near the company for the team’s year-end party, because of its cheaper prices compared to barbecues or Japanese and Western cuisine restaurants. “Most of the team members are in their 20s and 30s who enjoy good food and like to drink, so it’s hard to organize a year-end party without using [our] own expenses,” said Kim in regards to the decision. “I at least reserved a room at a ‘fusion’ Chinese restaurant that does not feel old, to try and make the atmosphere more end-of-year-like.”

The JoongAng Ilbo calculated the expenses of a typical dinner outing for 10. At a barbecue spot in Jongno District, central Seoul, one portion of samgyeopsal (pork belly) goes for 18,000 won. If two portions are ordered for each person, or a total of 20 portions, meat prices come to 360,000 won. For drinks, five bottles of soju and 10 bottles of beer, which cost 5,000 won each, add up to 75,000 won. Add 10 portions of the commonly accompanied side dishes of doenjang jjigae (fermented soybean stew) and rice, at 5,000 won per portion and 50,000 won altogether, and the total meal reaches a cost of 485,000 won.

Chinese restaurants, while less costly than pork barbecue stores, are not exactly cheap either. A Chinese restaurant in Sejong charges around 45,000 won for shared dishes, bringing the total to 180,000 won for four dishes. Again, five bottles of soju and 10 bottles of beer adds up to 75,000 won at 5,000 won per bottle. At 10,000 won per bowl, 10 servings of jjajangmyeon cost 100,000 won. This comes to a total of 355,000 won.

“The bill for a [typical] dinner meeting comes to at least 30,000 to 40,000 won per person. When shared dishes and expensive liquor is also ordered, there are many cases where the bill goes way over 500,000 won,” said the owner of the Chinese restaurant.

It’s not just the cost of restaurant meals that has gone up. Alcohol prices and taxi fees also rose simultaneously, which further strain the pockets of those on a night out.

Prices for soju sold at restaurants rose 9.7 percent last year and 4.7 percent this year as of November. Similarly, beer prices at restaurants rose 9.4 percent last year and 5.0 percent this year. Soju and beer manufacturers had raised wholesale prices in November, leading to some restaurants adding on extra margin to charge 10,000 won for a bottle of soju or beer.

“I didn’t worry about alcohol costs in company outings before Covid-19, but now there are times when the bill for drinks ends up larger than for food,” said office worker Lee.

Taxi fees rose 20.7 percent on year as of November. This was due to the Seoul government raising the base fare from 3,800 won to 4,800 won in February. Also, people are now charged with the more expensive late-night taxi fares from 10 p.m., with the window having been expanded from midnight to 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. starting last year December. Some opt to forego additional rounds of drinking, so that the outing ends before 10 p.m.

“The culture of hosting year-end parties significantly shrank after Covid-19, but will not completely go away,” said Lee Eun-hee, a professor of consumer studies at Inha University. “Yet due to the influence of the three prices associated with company outings sharply rising, the year-end party culture has become less weighed down,” she added, in reference to the rise in alcohol, taxi and restaurant meal prices.

KIM KI-HWAN,KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]