SEOUL, July 3 (Korea Bizwire) – Suh Kyung-bae, chief of South Korea’s top cosmetics maker AmorePacific Group, has become the country’s richest man in stock value, overtaking former No. 1 Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee, market data showed Thursday. Stocks owned by Suh were valued at 12.8 trillion won (US$11.4 billion) as of Thursday, while [...]
SEOUL, June 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Drive-thru stores, which first appeared in the country some 20 years ago, are increasing in South Korea as more consumers are favoring the convenience of such retail channels, market watchers said Tuesday. U.S. fast food chain McDonald’s, which opened its first drive-thru store in the country in 1992, operates [...]
SEOUL, June 29 (Korea Bizwire) – The most inconvenient aspects of Korean traditional markets are the lack of parking spaces and narrow aisles due to products stacked in the middle of the road. Sometimes, people and vehicles get stuck together in the middle of the narrow aisles, and more and more people refrain from shopping [...]
SEOUL, June 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Prices of couches and wardrobes sold by IKEA Korea, the local unit of Swedish furniture giant IKEA, are 15-20 percent higher than those in other countries, a poll showed Monday. The survey by local consumer advocacy group Consumer Research showed that the price of 126 products sold in the [...]
SEJONG, June 19 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Friday that it has slapped a 114 million won (US$103,100) fine on convenience store chain Ministop Korea for unfair trade practices, ordering the firm to take corrective action. The penalty against the local affiliate of Japan’s AEON group, one of the largest retailers in Asia, comes [...]
SEOUL, June 15 (Korea Bizwire) – South Koreans are increasingly turning to online channels for grocery shopping as they eschew their usual visits to grocers amid the continued spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), industry data showed Monday. South Korea has reported 150 MERS infections since the first case was confirmed on May 20, [...]
SEOUL, June 11 (Korea Bizwire) – SK Networks, who proposed using the Cerestar building for a new duty-free shop, unveiled plans to develop the Dongdaemun area to make it into an Asian Broadway. The retail arm of SK Group, the third largest family-run conglomerate in Korea, already proposed investing 450 billion to 550 billion won (US$460 [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Prices at SPA brand Zara’s Korean stores are higher than anywhere else in the world. According to Spanish press El Confidencial on June 9, Morgan Stanley employed analytics company AlphaWise to conduct market research on Zara. The research firm discovered that products selling in Korea were twice as expensive [...]
SEOUL, June 2 (Korea Bizwire) – Eight Korean retail giants have thrown their hats into the ring in a bid to secure the rights to operate two new duty-free shops in Seoul. Duty-free businesses are considered to be geese that lay golden eggs. According to the Korea Customs Office, as of June 1, the closing [...]
SEOUL, May 26 (Korea Bizwire) – Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T, two key affiliates of South Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung Group, said Tuesday they are planning to merge by the end of August. “Under the merger agreement, subject to approval from the two companies’ shareholders, Cheil Industries will acquire Samsung C&T by offering 0.35 new [...]