SEOUL: You Young-sik has tried his luck running businesses, but when his convenience store, a sausage factory and a second-hand furniture shop all failed, he realised he had found a niche, one that he understood well: Helping people go out of business.
Tough social distancing rules to curb a second wave of coronavirus have markedly slowed retail traffic and emptied cafes across Seoul since mid-August.The tables and chairs that You collects from closing businesses will end up in recycled kitchenware shops, such as Dajoobang in a run-down part of Seoul’s Hwanghakdong.
While policymakers brag that retail sales returned to growth in June and per-day exports recorded the slowest decline in seven months in August, small businesses are failing at a rate not seen since the global financial crisis, data from Statistics Korea show.The hardest-hit sectors in Asia’s fourth largest economy include hospitality, retail and restaurants, which are traditionally small, family-run businesses.
But unprecedented social distancing restrictions imposed on eateries in Seoul since late August, banning onsite dining after 9pm and limiting coffee and bakery franchises to takeout and delivery, has made trading tough for new start-ups. Moon has raised the legal minimum wage by about a third in the past three years to 8,720 won an hour for 2021 and capped weekly work hours to 52 hours, raising costs and making layoffs inevitable for small businesses.
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