투명사회를 위한 정보공개센터

By Jang Seong-hyun
(voluntary activist)

    While
self-employed businesses are rapidly dwindling, big franchise brands have grown
substantially in recent years. Under the current situation in which running a
business with small mom and pop stores became extremely difficult, I have
conducted research on the number of coffee and bakery branches of big franchise
brands. (Research period: December 12)

  The coffee brands that have been
investigated include Starbucks, Caffebene, Pascucci, Angel-in-us and Tom N
Toms. The number of branches these six brands have in Seoul amount to 1100.
Starbucks and Caffebene have around 250 branches, which is the highest number
among all. Other brands have approximately 100 branches.

For coffee branches, all brands in
common have their branches concentrated in Gangnam district and central Seoul,
which are business areas. The number of the branches located in the Gangnam district
(Gangnam, Seocho, Songpa) and central Seoul (Jongro-gu, Jung-gu) is 571, which
exceeds the half of the entire number of branches in Seoul. In comparison,
there is no brand that has more than 5 branches in suburban districts such as
Eunpyeong, Gangbuk and Nowon. Considering the fact that coffee had gone beyond
a favorite-food and became a cultural code that only limited people with a certain level
of spending power can purchase, the distribution of franchise coffee branches
can be an indicator that reveals a gap between the rich and poor.

 In comparison, bakeries have less
unequal distribution among regions since bread is not affected by whether it is
residential area or business district. However, the oligopoly of certain brands
are even severe. Paris Baguette has 800 branches in Seoul while Tous les Jours,
the nation’s No. 2 bakery chain, has less than half, which is 300.

 Shinsegae SVN has consistency
expanded its business by segmenting its bakery brand into 6 different brands
such as dayandday and Dalloyau even when there was a huge dispute over bakeries
owned by conglomerates. The number of stores owned by Shinsegae in Seoul is 40
which is even higher than that of Crown Bakery, which has been in business
since 1988. Moreover, Shinsegae is expanding its business by establishing
stores inside E-mart which also belongs to Shinsegae, a retail conglomerate.

  After the introduction of “Tongkeun Chicken”, the regulation on big
franchises and preservation of small retailers became an issue in our society.
Concerning this issue, big franchises have expressed opposition to anti-market
policies that restricts the free market competition. However, a fair
competition cannot be present under the current situation in which big
franchises and conglomerates compete with small retailers with their high brand
awareness and financial abilities.

Before the big franchises and conglomerates entered into the areas of
mom-and-pop stores, local retailers formed a commercial power which prevented
from the wealth being concentrated to the center and evenly distributed the
benefits of stimulated economy. However, under the current circumstances in
which the big franchises are dominating the market, mom-and-pop stores and the
local economy are rapidly declining as the wealth in the region is
concentrated in the center through franchise branches instead of local
retailers. In this case, the government should be actively involved in
protecting small retailers through regulation on big franchises. It is because
only this can guarantee a healthy economic structure where the benefits are
equally distributed to every citizen in Korea.