As the summer dog days approach, convenience store chains are rolling out a series of ready-to-eat health-boosting meals featuring eel, duck, abalone and more. With dining-out costs rising, they are targeting summer demand with ready meals priced around 10,000 won.
GS Retail's GS25 said on the 5th it will launch new health-boosting products such as lunchboxes, triangle gimbap and ready meals. The flagship item is "lunchbox of the month July dog days edition," which debuts on the 8th. It features freshwater eel and sliced smoked duck as mains, with hamburger steak, gochujang garlic bulgogi, quail eggs and stir-fried kimchi as sides. The price is 6,900 won.
On the same day, it will also release a premium ready meal, "smoked duck & eel" (14,900 won), which combines eel and smoked duck. In addition, it will roll out "bigger spicy marinated grilled duck" (1,900 won) made with duck, and on the 15th a triangle gimbap, "bigger abalone & innards fried rice" (2,000 won), with abalone and innards sauce.
CU, the convenience store chain operated by BGF Retail, introduced items that reinterpret samgyetang as a hamburger and triangle gimbap. It launched the "health-boosting samgye burger (4,700 won)" with a chicken breast patty and herbal sauce, as well as the "health-boosting samgye triangle gimbap (2,000 won)" and "health-boosting eel samgye rice (5,500 won)."
It also unveiled the "health-boosting whole eel set (8,200 won)," topped with an entire grilled eel coated in a special sauce. CU said it cut costs by purchasing eel in bulk in advance this year, reducing the price by about 20% from last year's whole eel set.
E-Mart24 will also sell eel-based ready meals starting on the 8th. Flagship items include the "eel chirashi sushi lunchbox" (9,900 won) and "freshwater eel gimbap" (6,500 won). On the 10th, it plans to release "whole chicken leg samgyetang" (6,900 won), made with a whole chicken leg and Korean-grown fresh ginseng.
Ahead of the dog days, the price of samgyetang, a representative health-boosting dish, is soaring, increasing the dining-out burden on consumers. The price of samgyetang has risen nearly 30% over the past five years. With the price of broiler chickens, a key ingredient, up 20%, rising expenses across the restaurant industry appear to have driven prices higher.
According to the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA)'s price information portal "Chammgagyeok," the average price of a bowl of samgyetang in Seoul was 18,154 won as of May this year. That is up 29.0% from five years ago. At some well-known samgyetang specialty restaurants, a bowl exceeds 20,000 won.