Are Delivery App Prices Higher Than In-Store?..."Same Store Address but Multiple Names"

It has been confirmed that the food prices on the app for some stores registered with Baedal Minjok are higher than the prices inside the stores. Photo by Baedal Minjok

[Asia Economy Reporter Hana Na] It has been found that the prices of some stores registered on food delivery applications (apps) are set higher on the delivery app than the prices inside the stores.

According to the Korea Consumer Federation, on November 17-18 last year, they directly visited a total of 65 stores?5 from each food category?registered on the 'Baedal Minjok' app in the Gangnam area of Seoul. They announced on the 31st that in 37 stores (56.9%), the prices on the delivery app were higher than those in the stores.

All 5 cafes and dessert stores set their delivery app prices higher than their in-store prices. Among Korean food, late-night snacks, and lunchbox stores, 4 out of 5 had higher prices on the delivery app. For Chinese food, 3 stores had higher prices on the delivery app.

Hwang Suhyun, a secretary at the Korea Consumer Federation, said, "Franchise stores, where consumers are well aware of the prices, showed little or no price difference."

The Korea Consumer Federation analyzed that these price differences arose because some businesses reflected part of the delivery fee in the food price, which is due to the delivery fee structure shared between the store and the customer.

Since charging customers a high delivery fee may reduce orders, businesses lower the delivery fee but set the food prices higher than offline stores accordingly.

Some businesses were also found to use a strategy of setting higher menu prices on delivery apps and then attracting consumers by offering discount coupons.

Additionally, some businesses were identified that, although having the same business information, advertise under different names, or use multiple business registration numbers with the same representative or store address to appear as different stores.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.