'Dual pricing' controversy... Coupan Eats “Baedal Minjok is the problem” vs Baedal Minjok “misleading”

[Korea Financial Times, Park seulgi] The war of nerves between Coupang Eats and Baedal Minjok(Bae Min) is intensifying. This is because Coupang Eats has expressed a position that seems to target the Bae Min in connection with the introduction of the double price system. Bae Min countered, saying, "It may be misleading."

Coupang Eats said on its website newsroom on the 24th, "The problem of 'double pricing' in which delivery menus are priced higher than in-store menus is that certain delivery companies have passed on delivery costs to restaurant owners, which was misinterpreted as if all delivery companies, including Coupang Eats, were a problem." This is an explanation for the growing controversy over the double pricing system, especially among franchisees.

The “specific delivery company” that Coupang Eats is referring to is Bae Min. The company's stance comes after burger franchises such as McDonald's, Lotteria, KFC, and Papa John's recently revealed “double pricing” through the Bae Min app.

In particular, Coupang Eats emphasized that it has frozen its existing fees and is not charging for door-to-door packaging, and said it does not want people to mistake the problems of certain delivery companies for the problems of all delivery companies.

“It has been pointed out that other companies are passing on the costs of free delivery to restaurant owners and consumers by changing their pricing plans, charging for packaging, increasing brokerage fees, and passing on customer delivery costs to the business owner,” he said, emphasizing that Coupang Eats does not pass on any burden to the business owner.

Bae Min countered that “Bae Min Delivery, which is a self-delivery product identical to Coupang Eats, also bears all customer delivery costs,” and that “the brokerage fee is the same at 9.8%, and the business owner's fee is the same at KRW 2,900.”

In particular, Bae Min said Coupang Eats position was misleading. “As Coupang Eats stated, the brokerage fee increase was only a change from 6.8% to 9.8%, which is the same as the existing industry,” he said.

He also pointed out that only the free delivery brokerage fee was reorganized, not the store delivery brokerage fee. Bae Min said, “For store delivery, the owner sets the delivery fee, and the store delivery brokerage fee is 6.8%, which is 3% lower than Coupang Eats.”

Recently, Lotteria raised the price of its delivery menu to KRW 700~800 for single items and KRW 1,300 for set menus from offline prices, saying that the introduction of the free delivery service will further increase the cost burden on franchisees and worsen their profitability. KFC and Papa John's also introduced a dual pricing system, and McDonald's explained that the delivery price of the Big Mac set (KRW 8500) is higher than the store price (KRW 7200).

Park seulgi (seulgi@fntimes.com)