Home Plus celebrates 12 years with special promos

Mega retail store Home Plus announced that it will celebrate its 12th year of establishment by selling domestically-produced raw chicken at the super special price of 1,000 Won each starting on March 24th, Digital Times reported.

A total of 200,000 home-bred chickens were pledged to be sold by Home Plus for the event. This is about 10 times the number of raw chickens that are sold at Home Plus on any given day. Through this event, which will last from March 24 to March 30, the price of the 1,000 Won chicken is 80% cheaper than the normal selling price.

According to Kyunghyang Shinmun, as part of their one-month "Friendly Price" campaign to celebrate their 12th year of establishment, Home Plus began their campaign on March 3rd by freezing the price of products such as bean sprouts, tofu/bean curd, pork belly (sam-gyup-sal), Korean beef, LED TVs, and refrigerators as per industry rates for 5 weeks.

Translated by tokkicheonsa

Poll says eating out costs university students over 200,000 Won per month

According to the SBS CNBC job portal, in a survey conducted by Incruit covering 203 students currently attending classes at various universities, students spent an average of 243,000 Won per month on eating out. The survey revealed that male students spent 262,000 Won and female students spent 211,000 won.

Kyunghyan Shinmun reports that students who live separately from from their families spend 270,000 Won, whereas ones living at home only spend 214,000 Won on average. It was further reported that university students in the Seoul area spent an average of 262,000 Won per month, while students outside of Seoul spend 226,000 Won on eating out.

The average meal cost for students who ate out was 5,685 Won total. Men spent more than women each month, but for each meal, females spent an average of 5,913 Won while males spent only a 5,537 Won average per meal.

When asked about where they ate, 42.4% of students said they use the school cafeteria, 35.0% said they eat somewhere near the university, 11.3% said they eat at home, 8.9% get food from a convenience store or other small vendor, and 2.5% claimed "other," according to Kyunghyan Shinmun.

Translated by Steven Wilson

Record sales figure for Pororo stamps, says Korea Post

Photo captured from EBS

Koomin Illbo reported that, according to the Korea Post, "Pororo, the Little Penguin" commemorative stamps sold 3.2 million pieces (80% of the 4 million pieces produced) by March 2nd, just 9 days after the stamps became available to the public for purchase on the 22nd of February. The Korea Post further explained that given the current situation, it is possible that the stamps will be sold out earlier than expected.

Following the announcement that the stamps were slated to be issued early this year, the Korea Post received many inquiries through their website and call center about the release date of the stamps, reports Newsis. This, coupled with the long lines in front of sales counters, is an indication of the popularity of this hip little penguin and his friends.

When compared to last year's most sought-after commemorative stamps from the "Korea's Skating Victories" collection, which featured figure skater Kim Yuna and 10 other "Ice Heroes" and only sold 1.92 million pieces (35% of the 5.5 million pieces produced) over a period of 9 days, Pororo really "stamps out" previous commemorative stamp sales numbers.

Translated by Kaye Lam

Point system allows Seoul citizens to pay taxes with credit card

Seoul citizens can now pay their taxes through credit card points. The Korean Economy revealed that the City of Seoul made an agreement with seven credit card companies (Kukmin, Shinhan, BC, Wayhan, Hana SK, Nonghyup, and Citi) and will start a credit card point based service for taxes on March 6th.

The City of Seoul announced that they expect to expand the service to every credit card company by next year. One point is worth one won and collecting one point allows for use. According to Money Today, all Seoul City taxes are payable, including the automobile tax, property tax, acquisition tax, registration tax, and water utility bills.

Sources involved in the agreement indicated that "taxes will be payable through the city's internet tax payment system", and that "future plans include transactions at convenience stores".

Translated by Bret Chernoff

Public opinion poll suggests citizens want sports lottery leisure tax to be used to develop sports scene, not local government.

The Korea Sports Promotion Foundation conducted a public poll regarding the imposed leisure tax on the sports lottery.

The poll targeted a total of 1,000 males and females between the ages of 20 and 59 who live in the metropolitan areas of Seoul, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan, and Gwangju. Yonhap News reported that last year, Kim Jeong-gwon of the Han-nara party, along with 13 other members of the National Assembly, moved to amend the bill to allow the leisure tax to be used to fund local governments, which prompted the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation to conduct the poll.

According to The Kyunghyang Shinmun, the public opinion poll conducted on February 22 reflected that 75.5% of the respondents felt the proceeds from the sports lottery leisure tax should be used to develop the sports scene. In contrast, only 18.5% were of the opinion that the local tax law should be amended to allow the proceeds to also be used for local government funding.

Translated by Kaye Lam

Lack of housing causes increase in rental prices

In metropolitan areas, including Seoul, the price for leasing a small apartment or studio has risen dramatically in the past year due to a serious shortage in rental housing. Last year in Seoul, a newly constructed two-bedroom apartment could be leased long-term with 70 million won but the same apartment now costs more than 100 million won for a long-term lease.

In Korea, there are two ways to rent a house: 전세(cheon-se) and 월세 (weol-se). 전세 is a long-term lease system that requires a large amount of “key money” to be paid upfront upon signing the lease, and 월세 is a monthly rent system which requires a smaller amount of key money plus a monthly rent fee. Both the key money and lease price on small apartments near subway stations has nearly doubled and the space is extremely expensive to purchase. As the shortage in rental housing increases, there is also a price increase in multiplex housing, especially in major areas of Seoul such as Hwagok-dong, Gangseo-gu, Sinsa-dong, Jung-gu, Sadang-dong, Dongjak-gu, Jayang-dong, Gwangjin-gu where the amount of money required for any type of rental has increased to 80% of its sale price. According to Maeil Business News, one real estate business claimed that the leasing price for one apartment increased by 20 million won in just ten minutes.

Global inflation leads to local price increase in Korea

An increase in prices for consumer goods are being seen across the board in Korea. This includes a price hike for your favorite beverages, snacks, seafood, farm products, and gasoline. According to NocutNews, the bakery and confectionery industry is also considering raising prices to match the increased price of sugar and flour. Seafood prices have also seen a jump, which is a direct result from a decrease in catches. The price of mackerel has seen the biggest increase with 50%, and hair-tail (beltfish) with a 12.9% increase from last year.

Agricultural products have also increased. The price of vegetables such as spinach and young pumpkins has gone up 30% in a week's time. Gasoline also went up 5.3% on the first day of 2011, increasing to 1,800 Won per liter, which is the highest price seen in 2 years and 4 months.

In addition, according to 서울신문, the board of KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) has decided to increase their licensing fees from 2,500 Won per month to 3,500 Won per month. This increase will result in a 12,000 Won per household hike on electric bills each year (TV licensing fees are included in electric bills).