[이데일리 남궁민관 기자] Mr. A, an office worker in his 40s, who had been unable to find a regular jjamppong restaurant following Corona 19, recently heard that this jjamppong restaurant had joined a delivery app. He turned on the delivery app in a happy mood and ended the app without being able to press the final payment. This is because the price of spicy Jjamppong, which he enjoyed eating, was 8,500 won, but the delivery fee was 3,000 won for orders over 15,000 won, and 5,000 won for those less than 15,000 won.
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According to the industry on the 14th, as major domestic delivery apps reorganized their rate plans one following another this year, the increase in delivery costs, which had been on the rise due to a shortage of riders (delivery drivers), is getting steeper. Baeminwon (1) and ‘Coupang Eats’ of Baedal Minwon (Baemin), which have been fiercely competing for the so-called ‘single delivery’ service that delivers only one meal at a time This is because restaurant owners, who have grown burdened by ending promotions and improving profitability, are inevitably facing the reality of raising delivery costs.
In particular, as prices have already skyrocketed due to the recent prolonged Corona 19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this trend of increasing delivery costs seems to be acting as another axis of inflation.
The rate plans of Baemin 1 and Coupang Eats have been changed to a substantially similar form. Baemin 1 (basic) lowered the brokerage fee from 12% to 6.8%, and maintained the existing 6,000 won for the delivery fee shared between restaurant owners and consumers. Coupang Eats (standard type) also lowered the brokerage fee from 15% to 9.8% and the delivery fee from 6,000 won to 5,400 won. On the surface, they all seem to relieve the burden on restaurant owners, but in reality, because Baemin 1 and Coupang Eats have applied promotions (brokerage fee of 1,000 won and delivery fee of 5,000 won) to their existing rate plans, the burden has actually increased.
For example, if you order 20,000 won worth of Jjamppong restaurant food in Baemin 1, in the case of the existing rate plan to which the promotion is applied, restaurant owners only have to pay 1,000 won for brokerage fees and 2,000 won for delivery (the remaining 3,000 won is borne by consumers). If you take into account the settlement fee and VAT on the total payment amount, the amount of money that the restaurant owner will have by selling 20,000 won is regarding 15,740 won. However, in the new rate system, the burden on restaurant owners increases with the brokerage fee of 1,360 won and the delivery fee of 3,000 won (the remaining 3,000 won is borne by the consumer). Similarly, if VAT is taken into account in the settlement fee, the restaurant owner will have only 14,244 won in hand even following selling 20,000 won.
Of course, if you sign up as a paid member, the money you have in your hand will decrease even more, but considering the recent surge in the prices of raw and subsidiary materials such as various food materials, the actual profit of this restaurant owner will decrease significantly. In the end, restaurant owners are in a situation where they have to make a profit even if they raise the delivery cost that they share with consumers.
Delivery app companies complain, “Due to the surge in delivery costs due to the lack of riders, delivery apps are also adding to our funds with our funds.”
In fact, in an online community where self-employed business owners such as restaurant owners sign up, they even opened an open chat room called ‘Baemin Tyranny Response Room’ and started collective action to realize brokerage fees and delivery costs. In the community, the receipt says, ‘I don’t like Baemin. The story of the restaurant owner who wrote to consumers by writing such words as ‘a fee of 8,000 won or more’ and ‘Do not use Baemin 1’ was also revealed and drew attention.
Consumer sentiment is also high. On major second-hand trading sites, so-called ‘joint purchases’ of food delivery are frequently posted, and there are also a number of people who have started the ‘delivery cut-off challenge’ on social media. In fact, according to the ‘People’s Perceptions Related to Delivery and Delivery Service’ survey conducted by the Korea Institute of Public Administration and Security on 2,000 men and women over the age of 20 at the end of last year, 53.4% of the respondents said that the cost of food delivery was inadequate. 45.5% of the respondents chose between 1,000 and 2,000 won as the appropriate delivery cost, showing a significant difference from the current maximum of 5,000 to 6,000 won.