한국국제교류재단

Convenience stores are spaces where disinterest is a virtue. Most peoplewho work there see their job as nothing more than a means of getting by. Butactually, in this line of work, people also have their dreams and affection forwhat they do.

“It’s not enough just to stand at the register.An important task for clerks like me is goingback and forth from the storage to thestorefront and keeping the shelves neatlystacked with products,” Lee Deok-ju says.

Lee Deok-ju, a fourth-year universitystudent set to graduate this summer,works at a GS25 convenience storenear Bucheon Station in Gyeonggi Province.For the last three years, he has been workingin a space of about 50 square metersfrom eight in the morning to four in theafternoon on weekends when he doesn'thave classes. His hourly wage is 6,470 won,the legal minimum wage for 2017, whichis 7.3 percent more than 6,030 won for theprevious year. If you multiply that by eight,his daily wage works out at about 50,000won, so working two days per week heearns enough pocket money for the followingweek.
Lee's case is probably not typical of thereality of Korean convenience store workers.His parents pay his university tuition,so he works only part time near home.He regards the work as part of a largerscheme: preparation to apply for an officejob at GS Retail, the company that runs thefranchise. This means he readily agreed toan interview while all the other 10 or moreconvenience store clerks I approachedeither refused right away or turned medown, after talking for two or three hours,when I asked permission to do a formalinterview and take photographs.
To say that this country is now a republicof convenience stores is no exaggeration.Walk past one convenience store and it'sbarely a hundred meters before you comeacross another. Therefore, part-time jobs inconvenience stores are some of the easiestto come by and the employee turnover rateis accordingly high.For Some, It's Preparation for the Job MarketConvenience stores sell all mannerof items. Lee said he didn’t know exactlywhat the number of product lines in hisstore was. But he did explain that, whilethere is a wide assortment of daily essentialson offer, drinks, snacks, and readyto-eat foods account for the lion’s share of sales. In the past, cup noodles, gimbap triangles,and small sachets of kimchi madeup the typical convenience store meal, buta couple of years ago lunchbox meals hitthe shelves and things haven’t been thesame since.

Convenience store chainscompete with one another by producingtheir own brand of lunchboxes, developingever more appealing recipes and packaging.At the GS25 where Lee works, it isthese lunchboxes that account for the highestproportion of sales. Last year, the chainalso launched its own coffee brand. A largeadvertisement for freshly ground Americano,1,000 won a cup, is strategically placedoutside the store.
I threw all the questions I had preparedat Lee in quick succession. Is a certain typeof personality more suited to the work?How do you learn to deal with the customers?Is there any particular knowhow forarranging products? Are there rules forhow to put items into carrier bags? Whoare the most difficult customers? Have youever encountered a petty thief? While preparingfor this article, I read Sayaka Murata’snovel "Convenience Store People,"which won the Akutagawa Prize, one ofJapan’s most coveted literary awards, lastyear. In this semi-autobiographical novel,written from experience working at a conveniencestore for over 18 years, there isan entertaining account of the two-weektraining program for becoming a "conveniencestore person," or, as the authorputs it, a “uniform creature.” For example,you should look the customer in the eyeand smile when you greet them; your voiceshould be cheerful and high pitched; whensomeone purchases sanitary towels youshould pack them in a paper bag; hot andcold foods should be bagged separately;and when you receive an order for fast food,the first thing you should do is disinfectyour hands.
But, judging from Lee's response, itseems that things are very different inKorea.
“I didn’t really go through any specialtraining. Of course it’s great if you can becheerful, but I actually avoid looking customersin the eye. They don’t particularlylike it when you make eye contact," hesaid. "It’s plenty just to scan the barcodescorrectly and say the total price clearly.There's no special knowhow for arrangingthe products, but there is one rule you haveto follow: first in, first out. The items thatcome in first should be sold first; the storeowner always emphasizes that I must followthis principle.”
In this area, there is a high concentrationof studio flats which are mainly hometo foreign workers. This means that manyof the customers are from other countriesand are looking to buy convenience food ordaily necessities. Customers who have notyet learned to decipher Korean will sometimesask for help in finding the productsthey are looking for. However, in the threeyears that Lee has been working at thestore, there has only been one occasionwhen someone said anything to him thatwasn’t related to a purchase. “I was sittingin the store on Lunar New Year’s morningwhen a man in his forties suddenly askedme, ‘Have you had a bowl of New Year’s ricecake soup?’ I couldn’t believe my ears," Leerecalled. "That was the first time anyonehad ever shown any interest in me while Iwas standing at the register. They all justpay and leave without even looking at myface. That’s more comfortable for me, too."

To be fair, customers coming in to buymilk and toilet rolls, unshaven and dressedas though they’ve just woken up, or whocome in late in the afternoon for a makeshiftmeal of triangle gimbap and cup noodlesat one of the small plastic tables wantnothing more from the convenience storeclerk than disinterest. Rather than being aplace where people meet, the conveniencestore is a place where people pass by eachother mechanically, a place where one’ssense of self is irrelevant.
The clerks are not allowed to eat by theregister. But neither can they leave thestore to have a meal. So, Lee stealthilylunches on cup noodles or some such foodwhen there are no customers around.
“I did once catch an elementary schoolkid trying to steal ice cream, but there hasnever been a scary thief. Male customersusually address me casually, ‘Hey, student!’That’s the nicer version. Generally it’s just‘Oi, you!’ Then there are customers who userough words and those who don’t just handthe money over but practically throw it atme. It’s a bit difficult to swallow sometimes,but it’s what comes with this line of work.Rather than thinking about whether customerslook down on me or not, I focus onhow they react to the products. My ultimategoal is getting a job at GS Retail,” he said.

From his experience as a convenience storeclerk for years, Lee Deok-ju has realizedthat the job requires not so much an appropriatelevel of friendliness but rather theproper level of disinterest.

The person I spent the longest time talkingto over a number of occasions, was acertain Mr. Park, a man in his early fiftiesworking at a Seven Eleven along the mainroad near Dongdaemun (East Gate). Buthe resolutely refused to be photographed. His situation was completely different fromLee's. Under the condition of anonymity, Icouldn’t help but include his story.
First off, for Park this is his main occupation.He works 12 hours a day. Insteadof a rotation of three eight-hour shifts, theworking day here consists of two shifts of12 hours. Park and the store owner lookafter the store half a day each, every singleday, and these fixed working hours aredue to the owner's special consideration ofPark’s situation.
“This is a workplace where I can eat andsleep without any great interference. I’mnot just working longer hours to earn anextra 20,000 won; these are the hours thatI need right now,” he said. Park, who startswork behind the counter at eight in the eveningand finishes at eight in the morning,does not have a home. He parted with hisfamily after a failed business enterprise.Right from the outset he chose to work at aconvenience store because he could spendthe night behind the counter.
“It’s like a tiny prison cell. But one thatyou can get up and walk out of anytime.This place faces east, so every morning Iget to watch the sunrise. It changes a bitwith the seasons, but when the sun rises Iknow it’s almost time for me to clock off,”he said.

As an increasing array of freshly preparedfoods are being added to convenience storeproduct lines, the clerks receive more frequentdeliveries from refrigerated trucks.

For Others, It’s Home
When his shift is over he usually startsthe day by washing his face and brushinghis teeth in the building's public restroom.On days when he’s particularly tired orwants to lie down, he will go to a jjimjilbang(Korean sauna) nearby. His target is to save1.7 million won a month, which amounts toabout 20 million won per year. If he keepsit up for five years, he will have 100 millionwon in the bank. He doesn’t drink orsmoke. It has already been two and a halfyears since the convenience store becamehis universe, so he is now half way toachieving his goal.
“I’m indebted to each and every customerwho comes in. With that in mind, I alwaysgreet people wholeheartedly... and thereare a few customers who come in regularlybecause they appreciate that. A lot of regularsdrop by even if it's just to buy a bottleof water," said Park. “The most importantthing with people is not money, you know,it's feelings. That’s even more so for peoplewho don’t have much else.”
Perhaps that’s why there are a numberof customers who suggest they eat togetherwhen he finishes work or even somewho bring him clothing left over from theirmarket stalls. When he first started, hethought he had hit rock bottom, but whenhe got down here he said he realized it wasactually a warm place to be.
Park’s daytime routine is not what youmight expect for someone who spends thewhole night behind the counter. He goes tosports dance classes at the local citizens’center, where 14 hours of dance lessons amonth costs only 20,000 won. He also frequentsthe local library. He has researchedmany different ways to spend the days productivelywithout using any money. Thereare times when he feels his life is fullerand more meaningful than when he was abusinessman with loads of cash to throwaround.
His thoughts on working in a conveniencestore are pretty much an outlookon life. “Apart from university student parttimerswho are saving for their tuition outof an extraordinary sense of independenceor because their families wouldn’t be ableto get by otherwise, the rest of us could beconsidered the losers of society. But, if youdon't care to brag in front of others, thisisn’t such a bad line of work. Is it only corporateemployees who earn a salary? I earna salary, too. The wages that come into mybank account each month, that’s the fruitof heaven. I realized that after I lost everything,"he said.
Park knew that the number of productlines in his store was exactly 852. For parttimersat convenience stores, it’s merelya question of following the rulebook.But, looking around this store, it’s easy tosee that the character of the clerk workingthere has a big influence on the atmosphereof the place. “There are loads ofconvenience stores around here, but oursis the most thoroughly cleaned and the binsare always in good order. I wouldn’t be ableto stand it otherwise,” Park noted.
He said that there was no need tokeep track of sales or balance the booksbecause the register is programmed todo it automatically. The sales and stocktotals appear on screen, so all he has to dois rotate shifts with the store owner. “It’sgreat if I sell a lot, but when the takingsaren’t good, I do feel sorry, like it’s my fault.I guess those are the only moments whenit’s not so easy,” he remarked.
From there, Park closed with his concernsfor the nation: “Individual peoplearen’t the problem. The national economyhas to improve, but is it possible when thebig conglomerates are siphoning off hugeamounts of money to people in positions ofpower? Even someone like me, who works12 hours a day for 70,000 won, knows thatmuch.”