"Frying Chicken and Boiling Udon"... Convenience Store Turns into a Restaurant

GS25 Tops Sales with Ssonsal Chicken... Expanding Ready-to-Eat Food
Seven Eleven's 'Food Specialty Stores' Increased by 300 This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Convenience stores are expanding their cooking-specialized stores and menus, going beyond triangular kimbap, cup noodles, and ready-to-eat foods that can be heated in a microwave, to frying chicken and boiling ramen.

◆ Cooking Convenience Stores = According to the convenience store industry on the 6th, sales of ready-to-eat foods have significantly increased from January to September this year compared to the previous year. During this period, GS25's representative product Chicken25 sales increased by 20.3%, and instant cooked ramen sales rose by 13.9%. CU's total ready-to-eat food sales grew by 11.3%, and Seven Eleven's increased by 34.5%.

As ready-to-eat foods gain popularity, each convenience store is focusing on expanding product types and sales locations. GS25 sells Chicken25, instant cooked ramen, instant fish cakes, and instant roasted sweet potatoes. The 'Ssonsal Chicken,' currently sold in over 5,000 stores, has recorded the highest sales among all products, receiving explosive responses.

In addition to chicken, product varieties such as 'Ssangssang Fish Cake Bar' and 'Mozza Cheese Donkatsu Skewer' are steadily increasing. Instant cooked ramen, which was mainly operated in stores around the Han River, is now being expanded to general stores. Winter specialty instant fish cakes began sales at about 1,000 stores starting from the 1st of this month.

CU handles a total of 10 types of ready-to-eat foods, including chicken, pizza, roasted sweet potatoes, and sausages, at over 7,000 stores nationwide. Seven Eleven sells a total of 30 types of ready-to-eat foods such as chicken, hot dogs, and fried dumplings at about 3,800 stores. Emart24 is piloting the sale of instant foods at around 200 stores.

On the 6th, customers are purchasing ready-to-eat food at the Seven Eleven Food Dream store.

◆ Differentiation through Specialized Stores = Seven Eleven is differentiating itself with Food Dream specialized stores that strengthen ready-to-eat foods more than general stores. As of the end of August this year, Seven Eleven had 467 Food Dream stores and plans to increase this to 500 by the end of the year. This means expanding the number of stores by about 300 this year alone, compared to 192 last year.

Food Dream is a large store of about 132㎡ (40 pyeong) focusing on products such as ready-to-eat foods, differentiated beverages, fresh foods and home meal replacements (HMR), wine, and daily necessities. It offers ready-to-eat foods like noodles and udon, which are hard to find in regular stores. It also sells instant hot dogs called 'Big Bite,' roasted sweet potatoes, and Slurpee (a drink made by mixing ice and juice), which were introduced to Korea in 1989 through the US Seven Eleven.

As Food Dream specialized stores gain popularity, their profitability is also higher compared to general stores. According to Seven Eleven, the average daily sales of Food Dream stores are 66.5% higher than the average of general stores, and the average spending per customer is 20.9% higher. While tobacco, which has a low margin, accounts for 40% of total sales in general stores, it is at the low 20% level in Food Dream stores. Instead, sales of products such as ready-to-eat foods, beverages, and refrigerated products are high, resulting in Food Dream stores having a profit margin more than 6 percentage points higher than general stores. A Seven Eleven official said, "We expect Food Dream to be a new concept convenience store model that can greatly contribute to increasing franchisee profits and securing brand competitiveness."

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