Anti-graft law eats into dining landscape in a month

By Choi Sung-jin

“I used to have at least three drinking dinners a week before, but attended only a few in the past month,” says a section chief in the PR department of a large company. “I arrive at home far earlier with some food in my hands and spend more time with my wife and children.”

A strict anticorruption law, which went into effect a month ago, is changing the evening lives of many office workers.

The Act on Prohibiting Unlawful Solicitation and Accepting Bribery, or the “Kim Young-ran act,” named after the former Supreme Court justice who first proposed it, bans buying meals priced 30,000 won ($26) or more, giving gifts worth more than 50,000 won and offering cash gifts of 100,000 won or more for weddings and funerals.

Appointments to entertain clients and others have sharply decreased. When they -- businesspeople, government employees, journalists, etc. -- meet, each pays for his or her meal.

Few people are visiting expensive Korean restaurants or steakhouses at plush hotels, while grocery sales at large discount stores have noticeably increased. For instance, sales of fresh food, including fruit, vegetables and dairy products, at Emart between Sept. 28 and Oct. 26 have jumped 13.5 percent from the same period last year. Beer and confectionary sales marked increases of 12.4 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively.

“Given the sales growth in the first nine months of this year stood at 4.9 percent, we can see how the implementation of the anticorruption law has pushed up our food sales,” said Choe Hun-hak, a marketing team leader at Emart. “Family shoppers’ food purchases have sharply risen.”

Restaurants that serve “hanjeongsik” (Korean table d’hôte) have been hit hardest. One place that has operated in Insa-dong -- the traditional quarter in downtown Seoul -- for two generations has developed the “Kim Young-ran menu” priced at 29,000 won a person, but visitors have been few and far between.

“Previously, not only rooms but halls were fully booked but we have only two teams of guests today,” said its owner, who wanted to be known by her family name of Kim. “It seems as if people have started a ‘let’s-not-meet-together’ drive.” Western restaurants at the Lotte Hotel have seen sales plunge 20-30 percent.

Diners queuing at checkout counters to pay their own bills have become routine. “Previously, one person footed the entire bill of a table but now each person pays exactly for his or her meal, taking far more time and effort at counters,” said a restaurant manager near City Hall.

Officialdom is changing, too. “Before, we used to dine out during lunchtime but now we eat in the cafeteria most of the time,” said a division director at the Government Office Complex in Gwanghwamun. “If we have appointments with outsiders in the evening, we finish it with just dinner and no longer go another round (for drinking).”

As public officials use moderation in meeting outsiders, the jobs of businesspeople at large companies responsible for dealing with government offices have become more difficult and complicated.

Changes brought by the new law can be confirmed by credit card use.

According to Shinhan Card’s analysis of corporate card use before and after the implementation of the law, the number of corporate card uses fell in most businesses related to entertaining people, such as bars (-5.7 percent), restaurants (-4.4 percent), golf courses (-6.4 percent) and flower sellers (-3.4 percent).

The times people use credit cards have also changed. Most corporate card use has gone from around 8 p.m. to 7 p.m. The number of credit card uses for taxis before 7 p.m. has increased while that between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. has declined. Payments for midnight “express taxis” have also fallen.

Credit card use near homes from 6-10 p.m. rose, as seen by growth rates of 3.6 percent, 5.8 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively, at convenience stores, home shopping and delivery services. “As most workers return home earlier, family shopping is expected to show continuous growth,” a company official said.

Meanwhile, there have been only three cases of violations of the law. No government officials have received gifts worth 1 million won or more. The three cases were reported by public workers themselves. In one case, a suspect of assault tried to give 10,000 won to a police officer to show appreciation. When the latter refused to accept it, the person dropped it into the police station and left.

Most of about 300 reports to police were inquiries about what is allowable and what is not, asking whether it is OK to give soft drinks or cookies to teachers, doctors and nurses.