During the program, a couple appeared to discuss conflicts over work, spending habits, and their future plans. When the girlfriend revealed that she hoped to open a cafe, Lee Hyori immediately cautioned her about how difficult the business can be.
Panelist Hanhae also shared his own experience, saying he previously operated a yogurt and coffee shop in Sangam-dong for about two years. He said the business struggled with high rent and competition from nearby franchise cafes offering much cheaper coffee, ultimately resulting in losses of around 150 million to 200 million won.
Hanhae said that out of roughly two years in business, only about six months felt like actually running the shop, while the remaining year and a half was simply enduring the losses. He strongly warned against treating cafe ownership as an easy or romantic business venture.
Lee Hyori then brought up Lee Sang-soon’s former cafe in Jeju, saying that customers once lined up for hundreds of meters and the cafe attracted enormous attention, but that they still did not make much money from it.
Lee Sang-soon operated the Jeju cafe for approximately two years before it closed on May 31, 2024.
Netizen Reactions
The sampled reader comments were largely skeptical about cafe ownership, with many focusing on high operating costs, intense competition, changing trends, and the difficulty of turning a cafe into a profitable business.
1. That’s why everyone buys a building and lives off the rent. Hey, you can too, right?
2. People in our country don’t really know that much about coffee. Just use decent beans, talk up how much you care about them, and focus on desserts and the atmosphere. These days, the real market isn’t coffee—it’s bread lovers.
3. People used to say you had to run a business to make real money, but these days it feels like businesses either fail or only make good money for a brief period.
4. From what I’ve seen, cafes that actually make money earn it more from desserts than drinks. They constantly diversify and change up the desserts, while selling drinks on the side.
5. Cafes and the food service industry are so trend-driven... They seem especially difficult compared to other businesses.
6. Even top-tier celebrities can fail at self-employment. If you start a business doing something anyone can do, you’re headed for ruin. Unless you’re doing something others avoid because it’s dirty and difficult, or you have a skill that isn’t easy to learn, just don’t do it.
7. Why on earth do people in Korea romanticize running a cafe so much? Is it just because the shops look pretty from the outside and the business seems easy?
8. Whether it’s a small business or a corporation, success ultimately comes down to the person running it and their ability.
9. Even famous celebrities struggle with this... If an ordinary person quits their job thinking, “Maybe I should open a cafe,” they get even less publicity, so of course a lot of them end up failing.
10. There are 110,000 cafes in Korea ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Do you really think that’s going to work? For comparison, as far as I know there are around 70,000 to 80,000 McDonald’s locations worldwide ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Most people are probably buying iced Americanos, and even selling 100 at 1,500 won each only brings in 150,000 won. Sell 200 and that’s 300,000 won ㅎㅎㅎ After ingredients and all the other expenses, how much is actually left? Selling 200 cups a day wouldn’t be easy either.
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