Fried chicken and burgers become more expensive post-election

Goobne, Korea's fifth-largest fried chicken franchise by number of branches, raised the prices of nine chicken offerings by 1,900 won each in its first price adjustment since 2022. [YONHAP]

The food, dining and essential goods manufacturing sectors, once wary of government oversight, are now implementing price hikes following the general election.

Starting May 1, major convenience stores such as CU, GS25, 7-Eleven, and Emart24 will raise the price of the Monami 153 ballpoint pen by 33 percent to 400 won ($0.29). Stick-type ballpoint pens will also see a hike to 600 won from 500 won.

Some lighters will also see a 100 won uptick.

LG Unicharm's Sofy Bodyfit pads will see price increases with the medium size (four pieces) jumping to 2,600 won from 2,400 won, and the large size (16 pieces) increasing from 9,400 won to 9,900 won.

These price changes will be uniformly applied across the four major convenience store chains, with each company making variations in the items they handle.

The fried chicken and burger sectors have already hiked prices.

Goobne, Korea's fifth-largest fried chicken franchise by number of branches, raised the prices of nine chicken offerings by 1,900 won each in its first price adjustment since 2022.

Flagship items like the Goobne Pepper Crispy surged by 10.56 percent to reach 19,900 won while Goobne Original jumped to 17,900 won from 16,000 won.

Popeyes, a chicken and burger brand, increased its prices by an average of 4 percent (varying from 100 to 800 won) across various menu items.

Additionally, a differential pricing policy has been implemented for delivery orders, whose prices now average around 5 percent higher than those of in-store purchases.

“We inevitably had to adjust prices due to rising costs such as inflation, labor expenses and increased delivery fees,” Popeyes Korea explained.

E-commerce platform Coupang increased its WOW paid membership fee by 58.1 percent to 7,890 won a month.

Industry analysts foresee a domino effect, with other food and retail establishments likely to follow suit.

Elsewhere the fried chicken industry, both Kyochon Chicken and BHC Chicken raised prices last year. Shinsegae Food increased burger prices at its chain No Brand Burger by 400 won in February of 2024.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]