What this is
AMS does not claim to explain every price and deal. It is a map for quickly getting a sense of where money flows inside the black box.
Not “we know everything” but “on what can be checked today, the structure looks roughly like this — if you know better, fill it in.”
PRICE CONTROLLER MAP
Who made this price?
Every detective ends up at this one question — without assuming a single culprit. Lay out everyone who could move the price, then narrow down only as far as the evidence goes, because why a price is high and who keeps the money can differ.
PriceCostMarginControlBottleneckWho benefits
Traced in this order; “who moves it most” comes only at the last step.
Who can move a price
ManufacturerFactory and supply prices, pack size and recipe
Raw-material supplierInput costs
Distributor / retailerMiddle margins, shelf and sales terms
PlatformCommissions, ads, delivery fees
FranchisorMandatory supplies, royalties, suggested prices, portion sizes
LandlordRent
LenderInterest, project finance, loan costs
Government and public bodiesTax, regulation, permits, administered prices
Dominant firmPower to set the market price
The industry as a wholeFollowing each other’s prices, holding prices together
Shopper behaviourHow high a price people keep paying
Holder of a scarce assetBottlenecks such as land, licences, networks, IP
Six things checked per actor
- Control power
- Can this actor set the price (or the size and recipe) directly?
- Cost contribution
- How much of the real cost is theirs?
- Margin capture
- How much of the final price do they keep?
- Pass-through power
- How much of their own cost rise can they pass on?
- Downward resistance
- Does the price stay up when costs fall?
- Market concentration
- Are there enough competitors?
Five roles instead of “the culprit”
- Primary price driver
- The factor that explains most of the riseEvidence: Confirmed only with each cost’s share and change; moving in the same direction alone is an estimate
- Margin capturer
- Who kept the largest share of the increaseEvidence: Needs margin data by stage or actor
- Bottleneck holder
- Who holds a hard-to-replace chokepoint — supply, distribution, licence, landEvidence: Structural evidence — share, contracts, permits. Holding a chokepoint and using it to raise prices are checked separately
- Price leader
- Who raises first while the market followsEvidence: Needs the dated order of increases from public records
- Confirmed collusion
- When the competition authority or a court found a cartelEvidence: Only a Fair Trade Commission decision or a court ruling; suspicion or press reports do not count
E.g. a developer sells the flat, but the bottleneck may be land, finance or permits; a restaurant lists the delivery price, but the added cost may come from platform fees, ads and delivery. Roles without evidence stay empty, and nothing becomes a score.
Subjects mapped so far
AFFORDABILITY BOTTLENECK
Why what already exists does not reach people
AMS traces why things that are already possible are too expensive to reach people.
People may not be refusing the product — only the price. If the same restaurant’s same soup sits empty at ₩11,000 and draws a queue at ₩6,000, the bottleneck was the price, not the product. Treatment, housing, education, transport and finance can be read the same way.
Product good enoughDemand existsPrice above the thresholdNo purchasePrice fallsLatent demand appears
- Technology — The product does not exist or is not good enough yet
- Signal: Even at a lower price there is nothing usable
- Quality — It exists but performs badly
- Signal: Cheaper, yet nobody comes back
- Information — People do not know it is good
- Signal: Those who find out buy at the same price
- Access — Too far or too complicated to get
- Signal: Use rises at the same price once it is closer or simpler
- Price — Good and needed, but too expensive
- Signal: Same product, place and quality — only the price drops, and demand jumps
If it is a price bottleneck, the next question is which: cost, scarcity, market power, regulation, financing, distribution margins, or incumbents protecting asset values — answered with evidence by the map above and each detective.
Which detective looks at which bottleneck
Each detective’s scope — not a finding about any one product.
THREE LAYERS
Known, estimated, unknown
- ■ Public layer — Known
- Laws, filings, rulings, official statistics and listings anyone can re-check.
- ■ Inference layer — Estimated
- Values AMS computes by connecting public data — ranges where possible, always with the method.
- ■ Insider layer — Reported
- Inside knowledge from workers and users, published only after anonymisation, evidence review and cross-checking.
- ■ Unknown — Unknown
- Blank on purpose; never filled with a guess.
Status on every value
VERIFIEDConfirmed by an official document, listing or statistic
ESTIMATEDEstimated from public evidence; the method is shown
INDUSTRY REPORTEDReviewed report from an industry insider
USER REPORTEDReport from a shopper
UNKNOWNNo public evidence; left blank on purpose
Confidence for estimates and reports
HighTwo or more independent sources (public data or documented reports) agree
MediumOne public source plus a stated method, or one documented report
LowAssumption-heavy, or an undocumented report — direction only
Ranges over single numbers where possible, e.g. cost estimate ₩2,800–3,500 · confidence medium · basis: commodity prices + process + 3 insider reports. Confidence never appears without its basis, and nothing is rolled into a score.