South Korea…Fried Chicken War!

On top of the whack job regime in North Korea shelling innocent civilians, and threatening to blow up things in an endless sabre rattling…

Move Over Colonel! This Bucket for $4!

South Koreans have a new crisis. A Fried Chicken War!

Latest Korean Crisis: Cheap Fried Chicken

One of South Korea’s biggest supermarkets began selling a bucket of fried chicken for about four bucks this week, which wouldn’t ordinarily seem like a big deal. But “few food products have left so much turbulence in their greasy wake, or revealed so clearly the insecurities that haunt Asia’s fourth-largest economy,” writes Leo Lewis at the Australian. The problem is that the price is about 60% cheaper than any competitor, leading to allegations of “fried chicken dumping,” government intervention, and debates on big-business-vs-small-business ethics.

Lewis places the controversy in context of the aggressive strategies that have brought the country prosperity in the tech world. “The same white-hot competitiveness that made Samsung smartphones readily affordable has also made dinner cheaper,” he writes. “But South Korea has also shown that, at least where food is concerned, it does not want the giants to run amok.” The store, Lotte Mart, caved to pressure from the government’s “co-prosperity committee” and said it would stop selling the wildly popular chicken this week.

 

Personally gave up on the stuff myself, to the benefit of my heart and weight when K-Fried and Popeyes became more expensive than a sit down meal at many lunch restaurants. When “fast food” starts costing more than food that is good for you… It’s time to move on.

 

Lawsuit Goes After Apple, AT&T iPhony Contracts

At Last! Someone has needed to take on the abusive cell phone “contracts”. and this just may be the vehicle.

Antitrust Suit Against Apple, AT&T OKed

Bought iPhone with a 2-year plan? You’re in on class action lawsuit

A federal judge says a monopoly abuse lawsuit against Apple and AT&T’s mobile phone unit can move forward as a class action. The lawsuit consolidates several filed by iPhone buyers starting in late 2007, a few months after the first generation of Apple’s smart phone went on sale, and takes issue with Apple’s practice of “locking” iPhones so they can only be used on AT&T’s network, and its absolute control over what applications can be installed on the phone.

The lawsuit also says Apple secretly made AT&T its exclusive US partner for five years. Consumers agreed to two-year contracts with the Dallas-based wireless carrier when they purchased their phones, but were in effect locked into a five-year relationship with AT&T, the lawsuit argues. The class includes anyone who bought an iPhone with a two-year AT&T agreement since the device first went on sale in June 2007. While the judge OKed antitrust portions of the suit, he dismissed other charges, including complaints about the OS update that “bricked” many phones.