Heaters sell like hot cakes on cold weather
By Kim Jae-won
Sales of heaters and other warming electric gadgets increased drastically this year as the frost has hit the country earlier than previous years, industrial data showed Sunday.
According to data from E-mart, the nation’s biggest discount chain run by Shinsegae Group, sales of heaters spiked by 582.1 percent for three days from Monday to Wednesday from a year ago. Sales of electronic heating mats also soared by 135.2 percent during the same period. E-mart declined to unveil revenue figures in detail due to confidential reasons.
Experts say that unusually cold weather propelled customers to buy more heating devices.
“We are enjoying boosted sales thanks to the cold weather. Customers are rushing to buy heating devices,” said a spokeswoman for E-mart.
Lotte Hi-Mart, an electronics products wholesale company, also posted a big rise in sales of heaters. The company said that revenue in heating products rose about 2.5 times in the first 14 days of this month compared to the same period last year.
Long johns are selling well as consumers want to keep their body warm with minimal heating. E-mart said that its sales of female long johns rose by 53.4 percent during the Monday-to-Wednesday period from a year ago, while those for male consumers spiked 103.1 percent during the same period.
Japanese clothing company Uniqlo is one of the companies, which welcome the cold weather. The company expects its trademark long johns Heattech to sell 5 million pairs this year, up from last year’s 3 million. The company hosted a bargain sale event for the product last weekend, which attracted about three times more customers than its regular weekend patronage.
Convenience stores are also benefiting from the chilly winter. Popular outlet 7-Eleven said that sales of the company’s lip balms rose 143.6 percent in the first 13 days of this month from the previous year.
The convenience store chain said that sales of hot instant foods also increased by about 50 percent during the same period as consumers prefer to warm up their bodies.