Category: K-Food

For generations, kimbap and baekban (a home-style set meal of rice, soup and side dishes) were Korea's low-stakes, everyday lunches. But as ingredient costs, labor, and rent have all climbed at once in recent years, the shops that sold these familiar meals are quietly disappearing.

In Seoul, kimbap prices have crept up to around 3,500 won (about $2.60) — barely different from a convenience-store triangle kimbap or kimbap roll, which sit at similar prices. Owners describe a bind: raise prices to cover higher ingredient costs and risk losing customers, or hold the line and eat the loss.

The numbers show it. Gobongmin Kimbapin's store count fell from 591 in 2020 to 383 this year. Kimganae dropped from 459 locations in 2021 to 335 today. Barda Kimseonsaeng shrank from 150 stores in 2021 to just 87 this year, and the original flagship of one of Korea's first-generation kimbap chains, in Seoul's Jongno district, recently shut down.

Kimbap is notoriously hard to automate — it requires cooking rice, prepping eggs, vegetables and meat, and rolling each one by hand. Baekban has its own labor problem: fresh side dishes need to be prepared daily, meaning the labor-to-revenue ratio is thin.

Interest in Korean food has grown abroad — banchan (Korean side dishes) even made it into English dictionaries — but at home, kimbap and baekban are still expected to be cheap. Experts note the irony: Koreans will happily pay more for trendy dishes like mala tang or tacos, but resist price increases on kimbap and baekban.

With Chuseok, Korea's fall harvest holiday, approaching, gift-set lineups across the food and retail industries are splitting into two camps. Amid ongoing pressure from high prices and interest rates, budget-conscious, practical sets are multiplying right alongside limited-edition items priced sky-high.

CJ CheilJedang expanded this year's holiday gift lineup to its largest-ever number of items, building a new premium line around one of its tuna brands and outlining plans to grow its seafood offerings further. Daesang's Chungjungwon brand likewise paired everyday staples — seasonings, cooking oil — with a high-end line of olive oil sets sorted by varietal. Dongwon F&B put together more than 100 sets, with a noticeably bigger share going to high-protein tuna products.

Convenience store chains are leaning hardest into novelty. Humanoid walking robots and emotion-sensing social robots showed up on shelves with price tags in the tens of thousands of dollars and the thousands of dollars, respectively, alongside cheaper options like a Go-playing robot or a robot-shaped keyring that can hold conversations. In the liquor aisle, a wine set built around a specific vintage came in just under $7,000, next to bottles of long-aged whisky.

Character IP merchandise and desserts built on hotel bakery recipes are aimed squarely at younger shoppers. Others went the opposite direction, leaning into fresh food: hanwoo (Korean beef) and gulbi (dried, salted corvina) — Chuseok staples — made it onto convenience store shelves, including smaller hanwoo portions sized for shoppers spending the holiday alone.

Department stores, meanwhile, widened pre-order volumes and discounts. Some sharply increased their hanwoo-focused meat set inventory, while others expanded pre-order categories to include liquor, desserts and health foods — with some pre-order discounts reaching as much as half off.

Korea's convenience store chains are locked in a quiet rivalry over dessert lineups. GS25, run by GS Retail, is pushing a modernized take on traditional Korean sweets, while 7-Eleven, operated by Korea Seven, is leaning on snacks popular in Japan — and the shelf-space competition is heating up.

GS25 announced on September 3 that it's the first convenience store chain to launch a yogurt rice cake, made in partnership with a dessert brand that started on the café-lined streets of Seoul's Seongsu-dong and a specialty manufacturer. The brand has drawn long lines at food halls in Shinsegae, Hyundai and Lotte department stores, and is considered a must-visit stop for foreign tourists in Korea. The new product is sold frozen and priced at 3,900 won (about $2.90).

A pre-launch trial run also drew buzz. At a store in Seoul's Gangnam office district, workers lined up on their lunch break, while travelers stopped by a store at an international airport terminal before their flights. The combined stock at both locations sold out within 15 minutes of going on sale.

Around the same time, 7-Eleven revamped its chocolate-coated mochi lineup. It added a summer-limited shine muscat tart flavor and a late-summer sweet potato flavor to its existing injeolmi and chocolate options, bringing the total to four varieties. The series debuted last year and became a steady seller, moving more than 130,000 units within about two months of launch.

Behind the rivalry lies a sense of urgency: with more than 53,000 convenience stores now open nationwide, growth from simply opening new locations has stalled. Industry watchers say chains increasingly need exclusive products that draw customers to specific stores. That logic was reinforced earlier when GS25's bread series, made in partnership with a publisher and themed around world literature, sold 200,000 units in just a week.

According to data from the National Tax Service's tax statistics portal (TASIS), the number of bunsikjeom — casual Korean snack shops that sell gimbap, ramyeon, and other quick eats — dropped to 47,863 nationwide as of June 2026. That's down from 53,760 in December 2023, a steady 31-month slide that first pushed the count below 50,000 last September.

Data from the Korea Consumer Agency's price-tracking service showed Seoul's average price for a single roll of gimbap hit 3,869 won (about $2.87) last month, up 6.8% from 3,623 won ($2.68) a year earlier. Compare that to other dine-out staples over the same period — kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup) rose 3.6%, samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly) 3.3%, naengmyeon (cold noodles) 2.2%, jajangmyeon (black bean noodles) 2.1%, and bibimbap just 2.0% — and gimbap's price climb was nearly double the next-fastest riser. The roll has crept up steadily, too: 3,723 won in December, 3,800 won in January, 3,838 won in June, and finally 3,869 won in July.

Gimbap's labor-intensive prep is a big reason the price keeps climbing — every roll is hand-assembled, so wage increases flow straight into the menu price. South Korea's hourly minimum wage crossed the 10,000-won threshold for the first time last year at 10,030 won, then rose 2.9% to 10,320 won (~$7.64) this year, with another 3.7% hike to 10,700 won (~$7.93) already locked in for next year. Heat-driven "heatflation" hasn't helped either — the average retail price for a 10-sheet pack of dried seaweed (gim) climbed every year, from 899 won in 2021 to 1,422 won this year.

It's not just mom-and-pop shops feeling the squeeze — major franchises are shrinking too. Per Fair Trade Commission disclosure filings, Gobongmin Gimbap-in, the brand with the most franchise locations, shrank from 591 stores in 2020 to 383 this year, and parent company KBM's operating loss ballooned to 990 million won (about $733,000) last year. Kimgane, the No. 2 chain, peaked at 459 locations in 2021 and has fallen for five straight years to 335 stores — its flagship Daehangno location closed at the end of last month. Other brands, including Yamsaem Gimbap, Ssada Gimbap, and Bareun Gimbap Sun-saeng, are seeing the same downward trend in store counts.

Industry insiders point to a mix of causes: convenience stores, workplace cafeterias, and meal kits have all become viable substitutes, while fewer entrepreneurs want to open new snack shops in the first place. In response, some chains are shifting from made-to-order counters toward refrigerated grab-and-go cases, automating kitchens, or looking abroad for growth. Yamsaem Gimbap already operates locations in Indonesia, the US, and Taiwan, and is preparing to expand further into China and Australia.

bhc's new store near Gangnam Station isn't just a place to grab fried chicken — it's built as a full experiential space that ties the menu, layout and service together. The interior leans on retro branding pulled from an old company name, while the exterior uses travel-suitcase graphics to fit the buzzy Gangnam commercial district.

The floor-by-floor layout is the whole point. The first floor targets office workers and passersby who want speed: an automated frying robot does its work in full view of customers, while takeout orders and boxed meal sets keep the line moving. The second floor is a more relaxed dining space for small groups or solo diners, built around a customizable menu where guests choose their cut, frying style, portion size, seasoning and sauce.

The third floor is for bigger groups and both domestic and international tourists. It offers platter combos with chicken, cheese balls and fries, along with drinking-food dishes like soup-based tteokbokki (rice cakes), spicy fish cake stew, whelk salad and fried chicken thigh — plus new and premium menu items that debut on this floor first.

The pre-opening event two days before launch, on Aug. 2, drew 130 guests who got an early look: a welcome plate, a condiment and sauce bar, limited-edition merchandise, and a photo zone. Dining Brands Group CEO Song Ho-sub said the space is meant to capture the brand's flavor and philosophy, calling it a hoped-for landmark for anyone visiting Gangnam.