Kwak Yeon-soo is a digital editor at The Korea Times creating, editing and curating digital content for the newspaper’s website, mobile app and social media. She previously covered a diverse array of cultural, political and business topics.
Retailers remove Japanese products from Chuseok gift sets
By Kwak Yeon-soo
By Kwak Yeon-soo
With the Chuseok holiday just around the corner, major retailers and convenience stores have decided to remove Japanese products from their holiday gift sets, and instead offer more home-grown goods amid widespread anti-Japan sentiment, according to industry officials, Thursday.
Chuseok, which falls in autumn and is sometimes compared to Thanksgiving, is considered the nation's biggest holiday, when people traditionally exchange gift sets that consist of everything from fresh fruit to premium Korean beef. This year's Chuseok falls from Sept. 12 to 14.
Hyundai Department Store said it will remove sake and wagashi, a type of traditional Japanese confectionary, from its gift sets, citing “negative consumer sentiment toward the products.”
Instead, it will offer high-quantity premium Korean beef, called hanwoo, to local consumers.
“We removed about three to six Japanese products from our gift-giving guidebook,” a Hyundai Department Store official said. “Instead, we've prepared 52,000 gift boxes of hanwoo.”
Shinsegae Department Store excluded wagashi, mochi and roll cakes from its gift sets, all of which it sold last year, while Lotte Department Store removed gift sets offering sake and Japanese seasoning mix.
E-mart, Korea's largest discount chain, said it decided to remove Japanese whisky from its gourmet gifts. “The primary reason we decided to leave out Japanese whisky from the gifts was due to low sales last year,” an E-mart official said.
“Nonetheless, we won't introduce any new gift sets that contain Japanese products for this year's holiday.”
The official added that the move is not expected to affect sales.
“Most of the time, not just this year, holiday gifts are mainly comprised of local products such as hanwoo, dried yellow croaker and fruit,” he said.
“Since the boycott started in July, all Japanese products are being removed from shelves. So, the removal won't affect sales.”
A voluntary campaign to boycott Japan-made goods has been taking place since Tokyo imposed export curbs on high-tech materials to Seoul, July 4, which was seen as retaliation against South Korean Supreme Court rulings that ordered Japanese firms to provide compensation to surviving South Korean victims of forced wartime labor.
Later on Aug. 2, Japan removed Korea from its whitelist of preferred trading partners, further igniting the boycott movement here.
CU, one of Korea's largest convenience store chains, said about 97 percent of its gift sets, excluding liquor, were made up of local products.
“Given that agricultural products largely account for gift sets, we will introduce a lot of locally grown fruit and encourage consumption of domestic items for the Chuseok holiday,” a CU official said.