À̹ÌÁö È®´ë [Photo by Han Joo-hyung]
PC bangs, or internet cafes where Koreans hang out for group games, and fried chicken shops, popular late-night snack and drinking locations, closed most in Seoul in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government¡¯s study on 100 mom-and-pop business sectors, the closure rate was highest in PC bang category with 4.3 percent after 88 locations were shuttered in the April-June period.
Fried chicken diners came next with a 4.2 percent closure rate, or 278 closures, followed by private study rooms and noraebangs, or singing rooms.
Travel agencies, another sector that took a big hit from Covid-19 outbreaks, reported near-zero new openings in the second quarter as the result of the pandemic development with an opening rate at 0.2 percent. During the second quarter, only 12 travel agencies filed anew. That is less than a quarter of openings than the same periods in 2019 and 2018.
Both closure and opening rates fell compared to the previous two years across the board, suggesting that many of the small businesses are standing over the edge.
Conditions in the service sector would have worsened in the second half due to business suspensions from strict social distancing rules for over a month from mid-August and again in November around the capital.
Small business owners are calling on the government to provide more support during this extraordinary time. ¡°The biggest burden is the fixed expenses such as monthly rent and utility bills,¡± said Lee Cheol, a Korea Food Service Industry Association director.
By Kim Hyo-hye, Kang Min-ho, and Cho Jeehyun
[¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]