Shinsegae hit for using racist term in press release

Shinsegae Department Store's main branch in downtown Seoul / Korea Times file

By Park Jae-hyuk

Shinsegae has been criticized for using the controversial term “black consumer” in an official press release issued Tuesday afternoon.

The term, which was coined in Korea to refer to customers making unreasonable complaints to business owners, has been regarded as offensive to consumers with dark skin.

However, the conglomerate was indiscreet in its use of language, despite its plan to enter the U.S. market.

The press release starts with a sentence that reads, “Shinsegae Department Store will hang a declaration toward customers to protect staff from black consumers.”

It also reads that the retail giant will revise its manual to specify ways to cope with “black consumers.”

The measures came after a female customer's assault on salesclerks in July at Shinsegae Department Store's Jukjeon branch in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. The customer cursed the salesclerks and threw cosmetics products at them, while complaining of allergies to cosmetics she bought from the store.

Shinsegae called rude shoppers like her “black consumers.”

Foreigners, however, pointed out that the derogatory term does not convey that meaning.

“In the U.S., of course, black means African-American, and black consumer would simply denote an African-American consumer,” an American living in New York said. “Probably the most common phrase here would be customer from hell.”

Although Japan also has its own terms referring to such consumers, they are not as controversial as Korea's. They use the terms “claimer” and “monster claimer.”

A growing number of experts advise Korean companies to stop using the term “black consumer.”

“The term black consumer may be derived from blacklisted consumers,” said Kim Kyung-ja, a professor of the Department of Consumer and Housing at Catholic University. “Korea is the only country calling vicious consumers black consumers. As the term may be misleading, we should not use it.”

The professor suggested “problematic consumer” or “bad consumer” as alternatives.

Huh Kyung-ok, a professor at Sungshin Women's University's Department of Family and Consumer Science, also criticized the term “white consumer” which has been used by several news outlets and businesses here to refer to ethical consumers who demand their rights, not making unreasonable complaints.

“The term black consumer reminds people of dark skin,” the professor said. “We cannot compare behavior of consumers to such colors as black, white and grey.”

The Korea Consumer Agency uses the phrase, “consumer having excessive complaints,” instead of the controversial term, to avoid taking negative attitudes toward those who point out obvious mistakes made by business owners.

The nation's financial institutes and companies have also refrained from using the term “black consumer.”

The Financial Supervisory Service does not use the term in its own documents or official press releases. The Industrial Bank of Korea uses the phrase, “consumer with problematic behavior,” instead of “black consumer.”

A Shinsegae spokesman said his company uses the term as it is still used widely in Korea.