"Are These Prices Price Gouging?"... Soju and Beer Prices Vary Wildly from 1,800 Won to 7,000 Won

▲ Pub (File Photo)

Prices for soju and beer sold at general restaurants in Gwangju have been found to vary significantly.

While some budget-friendly eateries sell a 360ml bottle of soju for 1,800 won, high-end restaurants charge up to 7,000 won, leading some diners to suspect price gouging.

According to local restaurants and the liquor industry today (October 1), restaurant A in Baengun-dong, Nam-gu, sells a bottle of soju for 1,800 won, while restaurant B in Daein-dong, Dong-gu, sells it for 1,900 won.

Some restaurants located inside traditional markets sell 500ml bottles of soju and beer for between 2,000 won and 3,000 won.

General restaurants in areas such as Sangmu-district, Seo-gu, typically sell soju and beer for 5,000 won or 6,000 won.

Notably, a well-known Japanese restaurant in Seo-gu charges 7,000 won for a bottle of soju and raises the price of a bottle of beer to 8,000 won.

As the price gap for soju and beer widens, some drinkers have increasingly been seeking out restaurants with cheaper alcohol prices.

An office worker in his 40s, surnamed Lee, visited a famous Japanese restaurant in Seo-gu for a company dinner and said he was shocked to find that the bill for soju and beer alone came to around 100,000 won. After checking the menu and realizing that a bottle of soju cost 7,000 won and a bottle of beer cost 8,000 won, he said that his team now checks the alcohol prices before choosing a restaurant.

Attention is gathering on how much profit these restaurants make from selling alcohol.

An official from the Gwangju liquor industry hinted that the wholesale price supplied to general restaurants is about 58,000 won per box of 30 bottles of soju, and about 42,000 won per box of 20 bottles of beer.

This comes out to about 1,900 won per bottle of soju and 2,100 won per bottle of beer, which is similar to retail prices at regular convenience stores.

Viewed this way, a restaurant selling a bottle of soju for 1,800 won is taking a loss of about 100 won on alcohol sales alone, whereas the well-known Japanese restaurant in Seo-gu makes a profit of around 5,000 won on soju and 6,000 won on beer.

Some restaurant owners complain that overall restaurant profits are not large because living costs, including labor and ingredients, have risen sharply.

According to an analysis of the Management Status Survey Report on Foodservice Businesses published annually by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korea Rural Economic Institute since 2016, the proportion of ingredient and labor costs in the total sales of domestic general restaurants exceeded 70% for the first time in 2024.

As the growth rate of material and labor costs outpaced the increase in sales, the operating profit margin of general restaurants fell from 11.6% in 2022 to 8.9% in 2023, breaking the 10% mark, and dropped further to 8.7% in 2024.

The owner of restaurant C in Ssangchon-dong, Seo-gu, stated that labor costs and ingredient prices have risen by about 20% compared to three years ago, adding that alcohol profit margins are high, so higher alcohol sales are a great help to running the restaurant.

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