The owner of an independent Manchester restaurant has shared a heartfelt thank you to the visitors that showed their support over the weekend.
Hundreds of hungry people were spotted queueing around the block for a chance to get into The Thirsty Korean restaurant in Chorlton this past Sunday after Sacha Lord announced he’d be footing the bill and paying for everyone’s food and drink.
The Parklife and Warehouse Project co-creator told people to the most of his card being behind the till at the Manchester Road restaurant as he promised to cover all costs on the night from between 4pm and 10:15pm, regardless of how many visitors turn up.
Lord revealed he had chosen The Thirsty Korean to support as he had previously met with the owner, Eunji Noh – who he called “amazing” and said has “great pride in what she does” – and explained that he first became aware of the restaurant after Eunji was reported as having been bullied and was suffering racist abuse in the midst of advertising her business.
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The Altrincham-born businessman encouraged Mancs to “stand up to the bullies” and “rinse me” by turning out to show their support for the beloved indie restaurant.
After the event proved to be so successful, with hundreds making their way down and many even struggling to get in, owner Eunji Noh has taken to The Thirsty Korean’s official social media pages to share her “thousand thanks” to the public in a heartfelt message.
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She also explained why the support means to her.
We’ve seen neighbours coming out and offering people in the queue cups of tea. Manchester at its finest.
“A thousand thanks… no no no…. a zillion thanks for visiting us,” Eunji said on social media, as she revealed her difficulty journey to this point after founding the restaurant in 2019.
She continued: “I arrived in Manchester in October 2018. Opened The Thirsty Korean in June 2019, and I was busy for five weeks until lockdown started due to COVID in March 2020.
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“All I had was the money I made over the last five weeks [plus] a Government grant, which I spent on venue lease and standing bills. When I was able to reopen again in June 2020, I had about £700 left in my business bank [which] I had to decide [if I would use to] buy a flight ticket to go back to Korea and drop everything here, no more The Thirsty Korean, or buy minimum ingredients for food and pouring beers as possible just to reopen.”
Eunji explained that she chose the latter of the two choices, but then made a “wrong decision” by working with a marketing company that “didn’t guarantee any outcome” and had to continue not being paid and doing everything she could and using all she had just to “maintain the business”.
She continued: “Since last year, I was hit by energy price hikes and the expensive prices of all imported ingredients. I am very honest here now, I had to put all of my money just to pay electricity bills which was charging us over £1,600 only for three weeks… [and] this year, we are facing alcohol prices being more expensive again.
“This is not only my story. This is what every independent business is going through. Many of them went through much worse and had to close forever.
“I am lucky that I have survived this far.”
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Closing out her statement, Eunji thanked everyone once again for visiting The Thirsty Korean over the weekend, and urged people to continue to “be supportive to local indies” and praised those businesses for helping to make local communities “diverse and beautiful”.
Trainline and Virgin Atlantic among companies being investigated for ‘misleading’ pricing
Emily Sergeant
A number of companies are currently under investigation for ‘misleading’ pricing practices.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched three new consumer protection investigations into Trainline, Virgin Atlantic, and RED Driving School over concerns that customers were not shown the total price upfront when buying things like train and coach tickets, holidays, or even driving lessons.
The investigations are part of a wider CMA clampdown on misleading pricing practices – in this instance, where mandatory charges are separated from the headline price, or added later in the buying process, which is known as drip pricing.
These practices leave consumers facing ‘unexpected’ costs or having to calculate the so-called true cost themselves.
Such practices can also impact competition between businesses, as a firm using drip pricing may falsely appear to be cheaper than a competitor pricing correctly, and therefore attract more customers.
Trainline and Virgin Atlantic are among the companies being investigated for ‘misleading’ pricing / Credit: Northern | Aric Cheng (via Unsplash)
Trainline is being investigated over whether all mandatory fees have been included in the upfront prices displayed to consumers buying tickets in advance on its app and website, while Virgin Atlantic’s investigation will focus on whether mandatory resort fees and local taxes have been included in the upfront prices shown to customers buying package holidays.
RED Driving School is being investigated over how a mandatory booking fee and ‘digital’ fee have been displayed to people booking driving lessons – specifically whether these fees have been included in the total upfront price.
“At a time when many households are watching every pound they spend, it is important that people are not surprised by extra fees,” commented Emma Cochrane, who is the Executive Director for Consumer Protection at the CMA.
“Clear pricing helps people compare offers confidently and choose the option that works best for them.
“Unexpected mandatory charges make this much harder, which is why the CMA initially put these firms on notice over concerns about their pricing practices and is now opening formal investigations.”
The CMA says it’s at the beginning of its investigations and has reached no conclusions about whether these firms have broken the law.
If it finds there has been an infringement of the law, the CMA can order businesses to pay compensation to affected customers or be charged up to 10% of global turnover.
Featured Image – PNW Productions (via Pexels)
Business
Plans unveiled to deliver 50,000 council and ‘genuinely affordable’ homes in Greater Manchester
Emily Sergeant
Plans to deliver 50,000 council and ‘genuinely affordable’ homes in Greater Manchester have been unveiled.
By removing ‘blockers’ to development and transforming disused public land into new housing schemes, Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig has set out her plan to tackle the housing crisis and deliver ‘a new generation’ of homes – with 50,000 new ‘genuinely affordable’ homes to be available across the city region by 2039.
It’s expected that 10,000 of these homes will either be built, on site, or in the pipeline with planning permission ready to go by May 2028.
To meet the scale of this ambition and deliver the homes the region needs, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) says it will need to ‘pull every lever at [its] disposal’, from remediating brownfield land, to bringing forward dormant sites in public ownership.
That’s why the Mayor will be asking Greater Manchester‘s public bodies to carry out a public land review and identify sites that could be brought forward to deliver homes.
GMCA has already used its Brownfield Housing Fund to support several schemes that are delivering thousands of affordable homes – including social rent homes – as part of the £2 billion Good Growth Fund.
If you’re unfamiliar, the Good Growth Fund is investing in a pipeline of projects to deliver new homes, regenerate town centres, create jobs, and build infrastructure to connect people and places.
“When I was Manchester City Council Leader, I built more council and social homes than Manchester had built in 25 years,” Bev Craig declared. “But we need to go further and faster in every bit of Greater Manchester.
“We will be leading by example when it comes to freeing up disused and dormant public land for development and I’m calling on other Government bodies to join us.
“I know first-hand the security that a Council house brings, and that’s why I am absolutely committed to delivering the Council and social homes that people here in Greater Manchester need, so everyone can have the foundation of a good life in our city region.”
Currently, land supply for 78,585 new homes of all tenures up to 2030 has been identified.
Greater Manchester is in line to receive an initial £1.8 billion from the Government’s Social and Affordable Homes Programme, and the Mayor will meet with Government in the coming weeks to set out joint plans to achieve these ambitions.
Emily Sergeant -
22nd August 2023 
