(Small businesses) Plight of the fried chicken places (2)

(See, also Hankyoreh has a ch'angôp theme in its internet news, under the topic Pench'ô, Chungso kiôp [Venture, small and medium enterprises]. See the list below the quoted article for other ch'angôp pieces.) An article in Hankyoreh tells that chicken places have until the bird fever epidemic been the most popular small business franchising item; fried chicken restaurants (not sure if they can be called restaurants) have seen sales fall 40-50%, and new are hardly being opened at all. One chain does not receive new franchisers at all, since the branch outlook is so gloomy, and there's enough work with the already existing places. 치킨점 프랜차이즈업체 관계자는 “가맹 문의가 끊기고, 점포 개설을 진행하던 사람들도 미루고 있다”며 “아무리 안전하다고 강조해도 사람들이 먹지 않는 데는 도리가 없다”고 말했다. 프랜차이즈 본사에 투자금을 물어내라고 요구하는 점포 창업자도 있는 것으로 알려졌다. 프랜차이즈업계는 지난달 말 ‘치킨외식산업협의회’를 만들어 농림부에 대책 마련을 촉구하기도 했다. The chicken businesses have hit the wall, and the otherwise dark economic perspectives are not encouraging for others considering a small business either. As the article says, chicken places (ch'ik'injôm) need only little capital and not much skill either, which make them a favourite kind of small business for beginners - until now. ==> Note the term saenggyehyông ch'angôp [생 계형 창업], "livelihood business opening", meaning to open a very small business with which one person or family is able make a living. Two fried chicken places in Sillim-dong, Seoul (c) AL 1999 Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: businesskeepers • neighborhood • Koreaneconomy