SEOUL, Feb. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Convenience stores outperformed major department stores for the first time in terms of offline sales last year amid the country’s yearlong social distancing scheme, data showed Sunday. The combined sales of the top three convenience store chains — GS25, CU and 7-Eleven — took up 31 percent of the [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the number of public transport passengers dropped sharply in Seoul last year, dealing a heavy blow to the finances of the bus companies that are operated under the semi-public management system. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 1.45 billion passengers used the city’s [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — Perfume sales in South Korea have gone up despite the suspension of perfume testing at department stores. Last December, South Korean retailers suspended all practices of testing cosmetic samples at offline vendors in accordance with government regulations, which has led to a plunge in cosmetics sales at department stores. [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of burglaries in South Korea has dropped as more people are staying indoors due to the coronavirus pandemic. S-1 Corp., South Korea’s leading security solutions provider, analyzed customer data of 800,000 people, which showed that the number of burglaries last year dropped by 42 percent compared to [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Subscriptions to state employment insurance increased by the smallest number in 17 years in January amid the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the labor ministry said Monday. The number of subscribers reached 13.84 million in January, up 151,000, or 1.1 percent, from the same month last year, according [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Angelina Jolie pleaded with the world Friday to come together and stop acting selfishly amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Academy Award winning actress spoke virtually in her capacity as a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) during an international forum hosted by Yonsei University, [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — Associations of small merchants filed a petition on Thursday with the Constitutional Court, asking it to review whether virus-related restrictions violate their basic property rights. The petition is the third of its kind, with the first one filed by bar and internet cafe owners on Jan. 5 and the [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — People in Seoul spent less time working than usual and more time on media during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, a city government survey showed Thursday. According to the online survey of 1,000 Seoul citizens aged 18 to 69, people worked an average of 5 hours and 19 minutes [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent survey showed that negative emotions are rampant throughout South Korean society due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Korea Press Foundation carried out an online survey of 1,000 adults to identify how the emotions people feel about their everyday life have changed after the outbreak of the coronavirus. [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Online shopping in South Korea hit a fresh record high in December as more people purchased products via e-commerce platforms amid tougher virus curbs caused by the pandemic, data showed Wednesday. The value of online transactions stood at 15.9 trillion won (US$14.2 billion) in December, up 26.1 percent from [...]