Koreans Fret World-Beating Chaebol Destroy Small Business

Lee Bok Sun is ready to shut her 28-year-old fruit store in Seoul, after her customers switched to a new hypermarket owned by one of South Korea’s chaebol, the family-controlled business groups that dominate the economy.

“My baby brother gave me the money to start this shop to thank me for the years I worked as a seamstress to pay for his college fees,” said Lee, 63, as she counted the day’s earnings from a battered Nike shoe box. “He wouldn’t have gotten his job at a chaebol without that degree, and now I’m being put out of business by the same system I worked so hard to get him into.”