The student council 'Hogam' brought a fast-food chain to Kookmin University to keep their public pledge. 'Maxwell House' remodeled its interior and launched 'Cafe Namu'. Both stores have been growing in sales as soon as they opened. The Kookmin Review met the Vice Secretary-General of Kookmin Cooperative, Cho Yong-Hee, and talked about the story behind how the stores were opened and how they are running now.

·Cafe Namu

 There are two 'Cafe Namu's at KMU; one in the Student Union on floor B1 and one at the College of Art on the 1st floor.  Before the Cafe Namus were launched; Maxwell House was already in business at the same place, so why was the store changed to Cafe Namu? Cho explained the related story:
"Their (Maxwell House) lease expired in July or June. To choose the new company that would rent the place, we conduct an open bid every 4 to 5 years. According to this year's open bid, the same company ‘Yeongwoo’, which ran Maxwell House in the Student Union and the College of Art, was selected as a renter. In addition, Kookmin Cooperative and Yeongwoo were thinking of operating a new brand before the open bid. "
Cho added "As for Maxwell House, it's a franchise brand. There are Maxwell Houses outside the school. Thus Yeongwoo decided to run its own brand: Cafe Namu.
 Then why does Cafe Namu still use Maxwell House cups?
According to the Vice Secretary-General of Kookmin Cooperative, the new cups for Cafe Namu have not been made yet. "I think it takes time to produce new cups, because cups are manufactured in a mass production. Also, they haven't decided how to design the cup yet." That is why Cafe Namu still uses cups with the label 'Maxwell House' even though they have remodeled and launched a new brand.
I asked another question, "Are sales up this semester?"
Cho replied. "Yes. They are up by 5-10% because of the new interior and atmosphere."

 Cafe Namu offers a wide-range on their menus; sandwiches, cakes, bread, tea and coffee. The prices are between 1000 won and 2700 won. There's also good news for waffle lovers. Cafe Namu is planning to introduce  waffles replacing 'Coffee Club' which was famous around Kookmin University.

·'Mom's Touch' Kookmin University store

 Mom's Touch has opened this semester at the site of Coffee Club. Since Coffee Club was exclusive to KMU, many students still miss the coffee & waffle shop in the College of Engineering. The Vice Secretary-General of Kookmin Cooperative, Cho Yong-Hee revealed the story related to Mom's Touch.

Q: What was the biggest factor that brought about the opening of the fast-food restaurant Mom's Touch? Did the lease expire like the case of Cafe Namu with the public pledge of the student council 'Hogam'?
A: It was due to the electoral commitment of the student council that had the greatest effect on the opening of the store. At first, we were planning to have a fast-food restaurant at another place instead of Coffee Club. 'PC Room' located at the Student Union was considered a great deal as a place to open a fast-food chain. But PC Room was in the basement, and to make matters worse it has no water facilities or ventilation system. To establish an exhaust system for a hamburger shop, we would have had to construct the system on the rooftop. Then all the smoke and smells from fast-food store would have spread all around the Student Union, especially on the 4th and 5th floors. At last, there was no place other than Coffee Club. Moreover, the Coffee Club’s lease expired in July. And there are cafes in each building. In addition, Mom's Touch offers an Americano to meet the demand for coffee.  For those reasons, we closed Coffee Club and opened Mom' s Touch.

Q: What about launching Mom's Touch where the Beautiful Store used to be?
A: General Affairs of KMU decided to use that spot as an educational place. If we were to open a restaurant in the place where the Beautiful Store used to be, the Beautiful Store wouldn’t be pleased. General Affairs of KMU told them that the place would be used for educational purposes. And for those who want waffles, we requested Cafe Namu to have waffles on their menus.
Q: There are various fast-food brands like McDonald's, Lotteria and Burger King et cetera, why was 'Mom's Touch' selected from the choices of franchise brands?
A: Initially the student council, Hogam, wanted to launch 'Lotteria'. However, big brands have their shops directly managed by the company headquarters and some of them require the place to be of a certain size. We also thought: 'is it right to open a big franchise chain at a school?' In fact, the Kookmin Cooperative and the teaching staff didn't want to launch a fast-food restaurant at school, but there have been many students who wanted a hamburger shop at KMU according to a survey. We therefore selected the brand ‘Mom's Touch’ as we can negotiate the ingredients and price with the brand.

Since it will be opened at a school, we considered
the students' health as well. Mom's Touch usually uses Korean chickens and they all use 'chilled meat', not 'frozen meat' unlike other brands. In addition, Mom's Touch cooks the meat, seasons the meat and fries them after getting the order. They don't use ready-made meat unlike normal fast-food restaurants. For this reason, the preparation time for the meal is longer than other chains.

Q: Is there any difference between a general Mom's Touch store and Mom's Touch KMU store?
A: Mom's Touch KMU store gives 5% discounted price. And it also doesn't have a Bulgogi burger like the normal stores; we removed that from the menu. None of the cafeterias and restaurants at KMU use U.S beef.
Q: Are there more customers than last year?
A: Yes. Sales went up by 20% on weekdays. Amazingly, sales doubled on the weekends compared to last September.

Mom's Touch provides chicken, burgers, beverages and various other side menus. You can also have combo meals. Chicken combos are 6,500 won and 13,000 won. The price of burgers range from 1,900  won to 3,600 won. Coffee is 1,500 won and beverages are from 1,300 won.

yjkwon1993@kookmin.ac.kr