- The popular burger chain Five Guys opened its first location in South Korea earlier this week.
- Hundreds of customers were lined up before the store opened, per local media reports.
- One customer went viral for trying to resell two burgers and a large order of fries for $76 online.
South Korea got a new look at American fast food this week, as the first location of the popular Five Guys burger chain opened in Seoul Monday.
Locals were excited to get a new taste of American cuisine, according to reports from local media and the Washington Post. Hundreds of customers were lined up prior to the restaurant opening Monday and Tuesday, with some people showing up around 12 hours before the store opened, or attempting to sell their spots close to the front of the line, per the Post.
In one particularly brazen example, a customer tried to resell his order of two cheeseburgers and an order of large fries on Danggeun Market, a popular resale app in South Korea. The listing went viral on social media in the country, as the user was trying to sell the order for 100,000 South Korean won, which is just under $76 and nearly seven times as much as the store charges for one burger, according to the Korea Herald and the South China Morning Post.
It’s unclear whether the burger and fries were successfully sold, but a spokesperson for Dangguen Market told local media that food could indeed be sold on the platform as long as it is sold untouched in its original packaging.
One customer identified by the Washington Post, Karl Kim, took the sixth spot in line at 5:45 a.m. and tried to sell it for at least $1,500 after the store informed its soon-to-be customers that the first 20 people in line would get a goody bag in addition to their order. Kim ended up keeping the spot and getting a free t-shirt in addition to his burger.
Many people took pictures in line and while inside the restaurant, with some celebrities taking selfies with Five Guys’ iconic baskets of free peanuts. Some of the roughly 2,000 customers the company told the Post it served on its first day also posted about their experiences online, showing how crowded the restaurant was, including with South Korean celebrities.
The US Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg attended and posted photos of his experience to Twitter as he cut the ribbon to open the store, and congratulated the company for the successful opening.
Customers were divided, as the first official customer the store served told the Washington Post his food was delicious, while another, Il Ryu, said his 40-minute wait wasn’t worth the hype, as he thought the burger was average and overpriced.
Insider has previously compared the price and taste of Five Guys’ burgers and found the US location offered better value than a UK one. The burger market in South Korea has grown in recent years, and Five Guys joins Shake Shack as the newest popular American chain to expand to the country. Five Guys has previously opened stores in China, Singapore, and several other countries across Europe and Asia, per its website.
Five Guys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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