By Cho Jae-hyon

Should retailers try and read Cheong Wa Dae’s mind before determining at what price they should sell their products? It seems the presidential house thinks so.

The dispute over Lotte Mart’s 5,000-won ($4.4) “tongkeun chicken” has raged for weeks, fueled by loud support from interest groups.

“Tongkeun” literally means a big bucket in Korean ― “tong” being bucket and “keun” meaning big. It also implies being generous or audacious.

At the ridiculously-low price, less than one third of that of other popular franchise brands, the tongkeun chicken ― a smart brand name easy to pronounce and remember ― attracted huge crowds who were willing to wait in long lines for hours.

Consumers hailed the buckets of chicken with such a low price tag.

However, the rock-bottom price, possible only by discount chains run by big conglomerates, drew fire from mom-and-pop fried chicken venders.

These businesses cried foul against Lotte, claiming that the conglomerate was unfairly selling the chicken for below market cost as bait to attract customers to its outlets and buy other products. They argued its dumping practice disrupts sound market order and would eventually destroy them.

Lotte initially didn’t budge. But the small businesses received unexpected support from Cheong Wa Dae. For these merchants, Jeong Jin-seok, a senior advisor for political affairs for President Lee, was a savior.

On Dec. 9 when Lotte Mart’s outlets across the nation started selling the controversial buckets of chicken, Jeong posted comments criticizing the giant retailer via Twitter.

“Lotte Mart is selling tongkeun chicken, even suffering losses in a bid to cajole customers into buying other products. With the market cost for a bucket of chicken estimated at about 6,200 won, it is swallowing a 1,200-won loss for every chicken it sells,” he said.

His remark was taken seriously by Lotte which must have taken it as a message from Cheong Wa Dae.

Lotte was not audacious enough to ignore the call from above. On Dec. 13, it announced that it would discontinue selling fried chicken after Dec. 16, killing the tongkeun chicken venture after just seven days.

Franchised venders seemed to win the “chicken war” against the big retailer.

President Lee Myung-bak, who was supposed to be busy charting strategies to thwart any further provocation from North Korea, abruptly gave a new twist to the chicken debate on Dec. 15.

During a briefing session by the Fair Trade Commission on its New Year’s plans, Lee told the participants that: “I also order and eat (franchise chicken) once per two weeks but I think it’s expensive. These franchise venders’ right to do business needs to be protected, but it’s also important for consumers to eat at a cheap price.”

Lee’s comment ran contrary to the remark of his advisor Jeong, baffling all players engaged in the chicken war. His comment, apparently improvised, made the dispute more complicated.

The President’s remarks weigh heavily on every sensitive issue, often swaying key government policies. Lee’s meddling in the chicken war came at a time when the military was put on the highest alert against possible attacks from the North ahead of the live-fire drills near Yeonpyeong Island.

Understandably, the President must have wanted to side with consumers who were stripped of an opportunity to eat fried chicken at a cheaper price.

Some netizens launched an online campaign to boycott expensive chicken franchises, deepening the woes of venders who are already suffering falls in sales following the breakout of the chicken war.

They are also being investigated by the fair trade watchdog over possible price collusion. Given growing public complaints about relatively high chicken prices, franchise owners will come under greater pressure to slash prices.

In this chicken war between Lotte and franchise owners, the biggest loser might be the mom-and-pop chicken store owners. In contrast, Lotte which started the game of chicken ― doesn’t seem to be losing much.

Originally, in a game of chicken, two motorists drive towards each other on a head-on collision course ― one must swerve, otherwise they will crash, but if one driver swerves and the other doesn’t, the one who swerved will be called “chicken.”

Should Lotte be called a coward as it swerved first? No, rather, its marketing seems quite rewarding as it made headlines for weeks ― there is no such thing as bad publicity. And it was just trying to sell chicken cheaply, wasn’t it?

It’s nothing new for the nation’s top conglomerates to venture into the business fields of small companies and eventually drive them out of the market. Their greedy pursuits are merciless.

These sprawling conglomerates have recently been rebuked by President Lee, who has heralded the catchphrase of a “fair society,” for their failure to make efforts to help and coexist with smaller companies.

But as the chicken war shows, the big fish always emerge unscathed, leaving smaller ones fried. And policymakers’ thoughtless remarks could turn the playing field far from fair.