<Anchor>



These days, large marts are vying for chicken for around 6,000 won.

It's so cheap compared to other chicken places in the market, so there are people who buy it at the mart and sell it back with a few thousand won.



This ultra-low price competition that is spreading to other products was covered by reporter Jung Jun-ho.



<Reporter>



Today (19th) at 3 pm at a large supermarket in Seoul.



It is crowded with people who want to buy a chicken for 5,980 won.



[Jonghyun Kim / Gangseo-gu, Seoul: I got the last number, so I was lucky, so I came because I was told to come at 3 o’clock.

How good is it for a cheap price?

How much better than franchise chicken.]



After Homeplus opened its 'half price chicken' at 6,990 won per chicken in June, E-Mart sold 5,980 won, and Lotte Mart sold one and a half chicken for 8,800 won. The so-called 'chicken game', a price competition between large marts, began as they sold.



As some stores only sell limited quantities, there was a competition to buy cheap chicken, and some even sold them back to second-hand markets.



The ultra-low price competition is spreading to other goods.



A pizza brand is selling a set of pizza and Coke for 6,000 won for a certain period of time.



A household goods store offered ampoules for 5,000 won, which are sold at 20,000 to 30,000 won by brand cosmetics companies.



As ultra-low-priced products appeared one after another in the era of high prices, voices emerged that existing companies with relatively high prices were taking profit.



The companies counter that the pricing structure is different.



[Franchise Chicken Official: Delivery agency costs, labor costs, rents, electricity, gas, etc. are very expensive (more expensive)]



Price competition is good for consumers, but half-price products are also used as bait. It is also pointed out that it is just a tactic to induce other consumption.



(Video coverage: Park Jin-ho, Video editing: Lee Seung-yeol, VJ: Jeong Young-sam)



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Let's talk more about chicken with reporter Jung Jun-ho, who covered



<Anchor> .

Q. Why the price difference?







[Reporter Jung Jun-ho: No one is revealing the exact price structure, so if we estimate from people in the industry, the chickens we use are different.

The franchise uses No. 10 chicken, which weighs around 1kg, and processes it like salting and hands it over to the franchisee for 5,000 won.

In addition, frying oil and packaging costs about 3,000 won, delivery fee of 6,000 won, and rental and advertising costs.

It is estimated that if you sell a chicken for 20,000 won, you will be left with about 2-3 thousand won.

So, if you say chicken at a supermarket is 7,000 won, you use chickens No. 8 or 9, which are smaller than franchises, which is about 4,000 won, and it looks like it will cost about 1,400 won for oil or packaging.

There is almost no rental fee or delivery fee because the chicken is fried and sold at the original store in the mart.

Marts claim that there are some surpluses to sell, but I suspect that the franchise industry would have given up on margins.]



Q. Comparison



... , Since supermarket chickens use small chickens, they weigh up to 200g less.

Taste is subjective, so I can't evaluate it, but many consumers responded that mart chicken was okay considering the price.]



[Sun-hee Shim/Gangseo-gu, Seoul: (Mart chicken) was similar to what I usually ate, and it also had a slightly tastier feel.

Have you ever eaten too expensive?

I have some thoughts like this.]



Q. Is it different from the past?



[Reporter Jung Jun-ho: That's right.

Twelve years ago, Lotte Mart's Tonken Chicken came out.

At the time, it was said that it was an infringement of an alleyway, and sales were stopped within a week, but this time, public opinion criticizing the mart doesn't seem that big.

It seems to be because of the high price and limited sales in some stores.

However, the franchise owners are in the position of being unfair to criticize the fact that they made a huge profit even though they really have nothing left after paying the mortgage, rent, and delivery fee.]



[President of the franchise: I'm doing this to leave...

.

(Mart) is using it as a means to create something else because of it, so it just sighs.]



[Jung Joon-ho Reporter: However, there are places where the operating profit rate of franchise chicken companies is over 30%.

Now, it seems necessary to come up with a way to reduce the burden on franchisees and consumers.]



(Video coverage: Park Jin-ho, video editing: Lee Seung-yeol, VJ: Jeong Young-sam)