Recent news from a self-employed business owner, looks pretty grim.jpg (Ppomppu, opens in a new window)

The posters said that sales had been cut in half and staff had been reduced, and that business has gotten really hard lately. On Ppomppu (opens in a new window), the reaction was that business got even worse after Chuseok in September. On Ruliweb (opens in a new window), people looked at the restaurants and empty storefronts and vented about the state of small businesses, with many saying office workers are struggling too. On Ygosu (opens in a new window), the replies kept saying that only the places with lines out the door are busy, and blamed the government and changing consumer trends.