Prices for main menu items at railroad station restaurants have risen 20% to 30% over the past five years.
On the 6th, according to materials that People Power Party lawmaker Kim Mi-ae of the National Assembly's Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee received from KORAIL Retail, the combined average prices of six main meal items—kimbap, ramen, udon, jjajangmyeon, bibimbap, and pork cutlet—came to 43,136 won as of August this year, up 4.3% from the same month last year (41,367 won).
By item, kimbap rose 5.7% to 4,078 won, the largest increase, followed by jjajangmyeon (up 5.1% to 7,788 won), bibimbap (up 4.6% to 9,394 won), pork cutlet (up 4.5% to 10,026 won), udon (up 2.9% to 6,783 won), and ramen (up 2.8% to 5,067 won).
For most items, the rate of increase was higher than the overall cost-of-living index. While railroad station prices for kimbap rose 5.7%, the cost-of-living index rose only 4.8%, and the same was true for jjajangmyeon (5.1% vs. 2.9%) and bibimbap (4.6% vs. 3.8%). Only ramen saw the cost-of-living index increase (3.1%) exceed the railroad station price increase (2.8%).
Compared with August 2021, five years ago, the average price for the six railroad station menu items rose 24.4%. By item, the cumulative increases were highest for kimbap at 33.3%, followed by udon at 29.2%, jjajangmyeon at 29.0%, ramen at 21.5%, bibimbap at 21.2%, and pork cutlet at 19.5%.
During the same period, KORAIL Retail and tenant vendors held a total of 126 price hike consultations, including for Americano. By reason, cases citing only higher raw and subsidiary material costs were most common at 60, followed by 56 cases where raw and subsidiary material costs and labor costs both rose, two cases reflecting only higher labor costs, and eight cases citing other reasons such as easing store expense burdens.
The number of consultations fell from 31 in 2021 and 35 in 2022 to seven in 2023 and nine in 2024, then rose again to 21 last year, and by August this year 23 cases had already been received, surpassing last year's annual total.
KORAIL Retail said it agrees that price adjustments are needed and will move to improve the system. It plans to significantly raise the score weight for price appropriateness among non-quantitative evaluation items used when selecting tenant vendors, and to improve the process so proposal prices are compared and evaluated against posted prices. When an existing store requests a price increase, the company will verify the rationale more precisely based on objective supporting documents that back up factors such as higher raw and subsidiary material costs.