[Media Literacy Education for Prospective Freshman Voters] “The Anam commercial district where ‘COVID-19’ passed… Recovery is ‘yet’ and change is ‘just around the corner’.”

– It’s the first vacation since the end of Covid-19, but owner-operators are suffering from low sales… Opinions on changes in consumption patterns

Around 12 p.m. on the 2nd of last month, around Anam Station in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, people who came out for lunch began to flock to the Chamsal-gil formed around Anam Station. It was a waiting line that would have been invisible during the semester, but only office workers and a few students remained in the commercial district of the university district during the vacation. It was the first vacation since the end of COVID-19 was declared, but it was difficult to realize the remarkable change.

In fact, such quietness is also a characteristic of the university’s commercial district, which has a clear difference in the floating population during vacation and semester. After the mask mandate was lifted, a large crowd gathered again near the school in the first semester of this year.

According to the Korea Micro Enterprise Development Corporation’s commercial district analysis, the average daily floating population in Anam was 13,873 as of May 2023, an increase of more than 1.5 times compared to the same month last year.

▲ Anam commercial floating population (data source: commercial district analysis of Small Enterprise Development Corporation) ⓒ An Isaac

Graduate student A also said that this year’s festival was particularly crowded (near Anam), perhaps because it was the first consecutive game since Corona.

The Anam commercial district seemed to be revitalized with the start of face-to-face classes, as a university commercial district that had no choice but to rely on the floating population. However, the store owners whom the reporters met in person were telling a different story.

Is the Anam commercial district, where students have returned, really returning to its previous form?

 

The ongoing “COVID-19 aftermath.”

“I think it’s worse than last year? I don’t know why, but it’s a little lower than last year.”

“I think the vacation period is worse than the time of COVID-19.”

“This is my first vacation after Corona and it’s the worst compared to the whole regardless of Corona.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic prolonged, the damage was especially severe in business districts of universities. “It’s always vacation. There were no students, so it’s vacation all year round.” B, who has been running a soup restaurant near Korea University for five years, sighed, recalling the time of COVID-19.

He said, “It was half the business if it went well, and if it didn’t, it was about the usual ⅓.” Before COVID-19, B, who ran a store in two branches near the back alley of Anam Station and the main gate, eventually had no choice but to take out the rent deposit and reduce the number of branches to one in order to pay off the loan. He said that even if he wanted to clean up the one remaining store, it was difficult to close the business because the loan was not paid off.

According to the “owner operator 2022 Performance and 2023 Outlook Survey” conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries this year, about 40% of 500 self-employed people, including restaurants and lodging businesses, are considering closing their businesses within the next three years. However, even that figure does not include self-employed people who are holding out due to the conditions that they have to repay all their loans when they close down and the withdrawal of the premium, so the situation of small business owners today is expected to be even more serious.

On the other hand, most store owners responded that this summer is the first vacation since the end of Corona, but they do not know why the sales are low compared to previous vacations.

Mr. C, who has been running a cafe for three years, confessed that he started his business during the Corona period, but sales this year are the most difficult.

“Since (COVID-19) is lifted and immigration is free, students go out and foreigners go back home, so I think sales have fallen a lot (compared to the vacation during the COVID-19 period).”

Jang, who has been running a chicken rib restaurant in Anam-dong for more than 15 years, was also looking for the cause of the sluggish sales in that the number of students taking seasonal semesters and exchange students decreased significantly. The drop in sales to this day seems to be due to the fact that students who stayed near schools during the vacation after the lifting of the distance went outside, including overseas, and even the existing fixed consumers were lost.

On the other hand, some pointed out the changes in overall consumption patterns after COVID-19. D, who ran a bar for about five years, said, “It seems that students’ lifestyle patterns have changed a little after COVID-19.” He explained that the store, which used to be full until 3 a.m., is now selling after 1 a.m. He said, “These days, students’ lifestyle patterns do not seem to be like they are drinking until late at night. I just drink moderately and go home.”

As such, the aftermath of COVID-19 was not limited to the decline in sales. Jeong Won-seok, director of the Policy Future Small Business Research Institute, explained that the changes that COVID-19 has caused in the self-employed business should be largely examined in terms of time, space, and digital transformation.

Director Chung said, “Due to the nature of self-employed businesses with high debt, more businesses have reduced their business hours or only engaged in lunch or dinner to reduce fixed costs, and there has also been a tendency to reduce offline space by conducting delivery businesses.”

Delivery at the same time, kiosk installation is the trend… Store owners’ reactions are mixed

In fact, the delivery industry enjoyed a noticeable boom during the COVID-19 period. As the overall demand for non-face-to-face services increased due to social distancing, the number of people ordering delivery or purchasing online also increased.

According to a survey on the use of delivery apps conducted by the Korea Consumer Agency, online food service transactions in Korea increased 839.7% in 2021 compared to 2017, with transactions jumping nine times in five years.

What do store owners in Anam Alley think about delivery? “Everyone was having a hard time during the COVID-19 period, but sales increased through the delivery business,” said E, who has been running a bar in Anam for about seven years. He was able to overcome a big crisis during a difficult time because he stopped operating the hall in the early days of COVID-19 and focused on delivery.

However, there were also store owners who responded negatively to the parallel delivery business. Mr. B, who runs a soup restaurant, cited ‘low reliability and difficult use of terms on the platform’ as the reason for not starting delivery during the COVID-19 period.

He expressed difficulties in the process of entering the platform, saying, “I tried to register on the delivery app, but I was confused whether they were following me well because they used the same words in their terms.” However, he also revealed that he was considering participating in a local government program that supports entry into the delivery platform again when the number of stores was recently reduced to one.

Yeongcheol Burger, which has been keeping the Anam-dong alley for more than 20 years, does not offer delivery or takeout at the same time. The store owner said in an interview with reporters that he has no intention of starting delivery in the future.

On the other hand, although delivery began due to COVID-19, there were still negative reactions about the effect. “Since I deliver so much, competition among restaurants is fierce, so there is no margin for sales,” said D, a bar owner. He explained, “Giving delivery fees, taking courage, and giving service is not very helpful for sales. I only maintain the level of costs.” Like D, the criticism that the effect of the parallel delivery industry was insignificant could also be confirmed in the survey on the actual condition of online distribution transactions conducted by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Businesses this year.