The Waiting War at Popular Restaurants: Even Spots in Line Are Bought and Sold

Reservation Wars Fueled by "Black and White Chef" Craze
Reservation Tickets Selling for Up to 400,000 Won

"I want to enter at 7 p.m. on Saturday. If you can get a waiting number for that time slot and send me a verification photo, I will transfer the payment to you."

A transaction post related to waiting agency services posted on the secondhand trading platform "Danggeun". Screenshot from Danggeun.

Recently, a new type of transaction has become popular: buying and selling restaurant waiting tickets to avoid the so-called "waiting hell." The trend of experiential consumption, where people visit restaurants featured on Netflix's "Black and White Chef Season 2," has further fueled the competition to stand in line. This experiential consumption has become even more active as it is shared through social networking services (SNS).

On January 2, secondhand trading platforms were flooded with posts offering to sell screenshots of waiting numbers from waiting apps or to stand in line on someone else's behalf for an hourly rate of at least 10,000 won to allow entry at the desired time. During the year-end season or on weekends, premiums are common. Some sellers even demand between 100,000 and 400,000 won per reservation ticket, or auction them off to the highest bidder, effectively making the price negotiable.

Shin Jaesung, a 39-year-old office worker in Busan seeking someone to stand in line at a popular pizza place, said, "I really want to try this famous pizza, so I'm looking for someone to help." Lee Suyeon, 26, said, "I love sweet foods and pistachios, and I'm searching secondhand marketplaces because I want to try 'Dubai Jjondeuk Cookie.'"

In reality, competing for reservations and standing in line have become essential rites of passage for visiting popular restaurants. According to a sample survey by WiseApp Retail of Korean smartphone users, the number of monthly users of major restaurant reservation and waiting apps surged from 1.02 million in August 2022 to 2.91 million as of August this year, nearly tripling in three years.

Heo Kyungok, a professor in the Department of Consumer Industry at Sungshin Women's University, said, "Buying and selling waiting tickets is a personal choice, and for restaurants, it can have a marketing effect. However, it is true that, from a societal perspective, excessive amounts of time and money are being consumed. Consumers should avoid being swayed by the reputation of a 'restaurant worth lining up for' and make rational choices."