South Korean cafes struggle with students who refuse to leave

South Korean cafe owners are grappling with a unique problem, students who refuse to leave.

Talking to BBC, Hyun Sung-Joo, who owns a cafe in the affluent Seoul neighborhood of Daechi, said, “Rents are very high and if a person occupies a seat for all day, it becomes difficult to run a cafe.”

Hyun’s cafe often gets visited by young South Korean students who prefer to study or work at cafes.

He revealed, “A customer once set up the whole workspace in his cafe including two laptops and a six-port power strip to charge all his devices,” adding that he had to cut the power to get the student going.

The issue of Cagongjok, a term used for young students in South Korea, is most prevalent in areas with a large number of students and office workers.

Starbucks Korea, a prominent coffee chain has also expressed concerns as it revealed that some of the customers are going further than laptops bringing in monitors, printers, partitioning off desks and leaving tables unattended.

The American coffee chain issued a new set of guidelines aimed at curbing prolonged setups that disrupt other customers.

BCC reports that some theft cases have also been reported as people leave their belongings unattended.

According to a survey from Jinhaksa Catch of more than 2000 Gen Z job seekers, revealed that 70 per cent of them study in cafes at least once a week.