Five Guys Explains "Not Sneaky Promotion"... Additional US Price Details Revealed

"Price Setting Based on Virginia State-Owned Store"
Explained as '13% Cheaper Compared to the US Mainland'

Five Guys, which recently opened its first store in Korea, clarified the controversy surrounding claims that "the prices of products at domestic stores are higher than those in the U.S. mainland," stating that prices were based on the Virginia direct-operated store due to differences in taxes and labor costs across states in the U.S. Five Guys also released prices from other stores with high foot traffic, not just the Virginia store, in an effort to quell the controversy.

On the morning of the 26th, citizens lined up in front of the Gangnam branch of the American hamburger brand 'Five Guys,' which opened its first store in Korea.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

At the time of Five Guys' opening, Hanwha Galleria promoted that the prices of products at Five Guys' domestic stores were 13% cheaper than in the U.S. mainland and 17% cheaper than in Hong Kong. However, some netizens and media reported that prices at domestic stores were actually higher than in the U.S., sparking controversy.

On the 28th, FG Korea, which operates Five Guys in Korea, explained, "Taxes and labor costs vary by state in the U.S., and franchise stores have 'price autonomy,' so the prices of products at over 1,500 stores inevitably differ." They added, "Due to practical reasons that make it impossible to explain the prices of every store individually, after discussions with the U.S. headquarters, we decided to use the Virginia direct-operated store price as the standard." They further stated, "Claims that we deliberately used prices from a higher-priced region as a deceptive marketing tactic or to mislead customers are untrue, and we apologize for not clearly explaining this situation during the press conference."

Along with this, Hanwha Galleria also disclosed product prices from four U.S. stores with high foot traffic, including the Los Angeles store in California. According to the released data, the cheeseburger prices at U.S. stores are 16,783 KRW (9.5% sales tax) at the Los Angeles, California store; 16,553 KRW (8% sales tax) at the Washington D.C. store; 16,272 KRW (8% sales tax) at the Times Square store; and 15,701 KRW (9.9% sales tax) at the San Francisco, California store. All prices were calculated using an exchange rate of 1,300 KRW, while the cheeseburger price at the Five Guys Gangnam store is 14,900 KRW.

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