On August 8, change in the dynamics emerged in Korean fried chicken market, with the appearance of Dangdang Chicken (Proud chicken, in English). Dangdang Chicken is a newly launched private labeled fried chicken brand by Homeplus, the major retail company. The product went viral thanks to its exceptionally low price of 6,990 KRW, which is almost a third of the market average. Fried chicken, the most iconic snack of Korea, has been blamed for overpricing recently. While the consumer price index (CPI) of Korea has increased by 3.4 percent, the price of fried chicken has risen by 10.9 percent, according to Statistics Korea. In fact, fried chicken is the product that marked the highest price increase over the last year. Adding to the skyrocketing price, the peaking delivery fee is causing the consumer’s extra burden. Increase in delivery because of COVID-19 pandemic let the delivery services raise their fare. The delivery fee reportedly has risen 1,000 KRW at the least and over 60 percent of the citizen of Seoul replied that the delivery fee is overpriced in the survey by The Seoul Institute. There are mixed opinions on Dangdang Chicken. Most consumers welcome the appearance of cheap, “reasonably” priced fried chicken, saying that the fried chicken companies have been profiteering,
taking advantage of price fixing. The consumers are hoping for Dangdang Chicken to ease the increase in the ever-rising price of fried chicken. However, the brand is facing criticism from its competitors that the product is the typical loss leader to attract customers and increase sales on other products. In other words, the reason Homeplus could sell fried chicken at such low price is because the company is a major retail company making incomparably higher profits than fried chicken franchises. Following Dangdang Chicken, other retail companies released cheap fried chicken products such as Hantong Chicken and 5 Minute Chicken, respectively by E-Mart and Lotte Mart.