Bobok til you drop: S Koreans roar back to malls as coronavirus curbs ease

Hyundai Department Store Co

04/05/2020 24:00

By Cynthia Kim and Yena Park
    SEOUL/JEJU, South Korea May 4 (Reuters) - At a glitzy Chanel
boutique in downtown Seoul, Kim Soo-yeon joined dozens of others
in festive shorts and flare dresses, her eyes out for a clutch
purse she had coveted for weeks during the coronavirus pandemic.
    One floor down in the Lotte Department Store, long lines of
shoppers thronged bakeries and a health-supplement store while
staff restocked shelves with freshly baked cakes.
    "I'm out shopping for the first time since the Lunar New
Year holiday" in January, said 29-year old Kim, showing off the
clutch she bought for just over 1 million won ($820), as she
hastily put on a face mask to talk to a reporter. "It's so warm
and so good to be out finally."    
    From malls in Seoul to jammed expressways leaving the
capital to South Korea's southern vacation island of Jeju,
shoppers and travellers crowded malls and beaches on the first
long weekend since the country began easing coronavirus curbs
last month.
    With early-summer weather helping retail therapy return with
a vengeance, the term "bobok sobi" - revenge shopping - has
trended on the nation's social media, as people rush to make
purchases delayed by social-distancing rules.
    After an initial explosion in infections made South Korea
the first major outbreak outside China from the virus and
COVID-19, the disease it causes, the authorities have limited
the spread with widespread testing, intensive contact-tracing
and tracking apps, avoiding the long lockdowns seen in many
countries.
    Seoul began easing curbs on April 19 and has still managed
to bring down new daily infections from over 900 in late
February to around 10 in the past week. The government will
relax the rules further from Wednesday, Prime Minister Chung
Sye-kyun said on Sunday.
    "Revenge shopping" quickly spread online after Wu Xiaobo, an
economist from neighbouring China, was cited discussing the
emergence of "revenge consumption" in February. A South Korean
blog post on Wu's forecast was widely shared, while news outlets
increasingly have used the term to describe the bounce-back in
spending.
    In Jeju travellers crowded the sandy beaches, ate
Korean-style barbecue and hit the golf courses, many abandoning
face masks and recent separation norms, to enjoy 20-degree
Celsius (70 Fahrenheit) weather.
    The spree is boosting the economy after the pandemic knocked
40% off department-store sales in March from a year earlier, but
economists caution the bounce will likely be short-lived. 
    Shares in Hyundai Department Store  069960.KS  and Shinsegae
Department Stores  004170.KS  have rebounded by about one-fourth
over the past month, while cinema chain CJ CGV  079160.KS 
surged more than 50%. South Korea's stock market  .KS11  has
bounced 35% from the year's low in March. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2CA2I7
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2C60GZ
    "The general unleashing of pent-up demand will lift
consumption in the second quarter, but that won't do much in the
face of a bleak outlook for international trade and dropping
corporate investment," said Park Sang-hyun, chief economist at
Hi Investment & Securities.
    The pandemic crushed Korea's exports in April, with the
fastest drop since the global financial crisis signalling grim
prospects for Asia's fourth-biggest economy to snap back from
its deepest biggest contraction since 2008 in the first quarter.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2C92IJ  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2CG22K
    At Jeju's Sanbangsan, a rocky peak famous for yellow
rapeseed blooms, cars queued for parking spots, while tourists -
often without masks - asked strangers to take their picture.
    Online reservations for Jeju tee times were fully booked on
one site, and the turnout at Eco Land Theme Park Golf & Resort
seemed bigger than during the Chuseok holiday, usually the most
crowded of the year, said sales manager Park Sung-wook.
    At a rest area near Seoul heading into the long weekend, a
mother looked after her two daughters as she sipped an iced
latte. She said she would splurge on a cup every day during her
holiday.
    "I'm going to make up for the self-control I have been
keeping up at home - I think I've had enough of self-isolating,"
she said, but added, "I'm still going to wear a mask."

($1 = 1,220.5100 won)

 (Reporting by Cynthia Kim and Yena Park; additional reporting
by Minwoo Park, Dogyun Kim and Soohyun Mah; editing by William
Mallard)
 ((Cynthia.Kim@thomsonreuters.com; 822 3704 5655; Reuters
Messaging: cynthia.kim.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))