Lockers like these allow women to pick up delivered goods outside their homes. (image: Daejeon’s Jung-gu Office)
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Kim Ji-yoo is a self-claimed shopaholic. The 31-year-old paralegal turns to shopping to kill time and relieve work stress.
However, there’s one thing she avoids: online shopping.
Despite the perks of online shopping — the low price, the variety of choices and the convenience of having goods shipped to her doorstep — she makes sure to shop in the traditional way, however tired she is.
Her stubbornness derives from fear.
“I don’t want parcel boxes showing my name and personal information lying around my front door. The last thing I want is someone with ulterior motives to see this and find out that I live alone,” she said.
“I know that it may not be the most effective way to prevent bad things from happening, but I feel that I’ve got to do something,” said Kim, who lives in an apartment building without a security guard.
It wasn’t always like this. But Kim put the brakes on online shopping after seeing CCTV footage of a man trying to enter a woman’s apartment just a few seconds after she had gone in.
In the video that went viral, the man forcibly shakes the door knob and lingers in the hallway for a few minutes. He was later charged with attempted rape.
For those like Kim, public lockers may be a solution.
As part of efforts to improve women’s welfare, the Seoul metropolitan government and community offices across the country are expanding public lockers that can be used as delivery pick-up points.
First introduced in 2013 to prevent criminals from disguising themselves as deliverymen, over 2 million people have used the service.
The government recently expanded the service so that people can use the lockers to send goods.
“We are monitoring and expanding the service in line with a growth in the number of woman who live alone,” said Yoon Hee-cheon, a city official who oversees policies for women’s welfare.
In South Korea, there were 2.83 million women living alone in 2017, more than doubling from 1.28 million in 2000, according to government data.
“I don’t think it’s the perfect solution,” Kim said. “But it’s good to know there’s another option out there.”
(Yonhap)
