In this file photo, customers examine products on the shelves of Emart 24′s first staff-free, grab-and-go store located in COEX Mall in southern Seoul on September 23, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Convenience stores, open even during the holidays, are seeing rising sales of pharmaceuticals and parcel delivery services.
CU, South Korea’s top convenience store chain, saw sales of essential drugs jump by 16.5 percent in 2018 and 10.5 percent in 2019 during the four-day Chuseok fall harvest holiday. This year, drug sales jumped by 20.5 percent.
Digestive medicines normally account for 20 percent of all sales. Over the holiday, however, they jump up to 35 percent.
GS25 also saw sales of essential drugs jump by 122 percent during the Chuseok holiday last year.
Convenience stores also see rising sales of parcel delivery services over the holidays as other parcel delivery services are unavailable.
CU saw the use of its parcel delivery service rise by 125.3 percent in 2020, 194.5 percent in 2021 and 231.7 percent this year over the Lunar New Year.
GS25 also saw the use of its parcel delivery service jump by 257 percent over the Chuseok holiday last year.
“As many service providers are closed during the holidays, the role of convenience stores becomes very important during the holiday,” said BGF Retail Co., which operates CU.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
