BTS comeback sets tills ringing across retail industry

A convenience store near Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul is crowded with customers, Saturday. A banner on the left reads "Another CU outlet is straight ahead." Courtesy of BGF Retail

Retail outlets and hotels in Seoul have seen sales soaring off the charts due to tourists and fans visiting the Korean capital for the comeback concert of K-pop phenomenon BTS on Saturday.

Sales of BTS merchandise and other items at roadside shops around Gwanghwamun Square jumped by hundreds of percent from the previous week.

The concert, however, did not appear to benefit every corner of the retail sector. Restaurant and shop owners in the tourist hotspot of Myeong-dong, some 20 minutes on foot away from Gwanghwamun Square, showed mixed responses to the highly anticipated K-pop event, as the massive crowd appeared to have diverted other visitors away, resulting in lower sales than usual Saturdays.

Convenience stores were among the biggest beneficiaries of BTS’ comeback. The country’s four major brands all saw notable increases in sales on Saturday and throughout last week.

GS Retail said Sunday its five GS25 convenience stores in the Gwanghwamun area saw their sales on Saturday rise 233 percent and visitors' volume 181 percent from a week ago on average. The highest week-on-week sales increase surpassed 378 percent.

Popular items included foods, beverages, hot-packs, portable chargers, batteries and prepaid public transit cards. GS25, the exclusive distributor of IGIN highball co-founded by BTS member Jin, saw the liquor’s sales surge 1,742 percent from the previous week.

BGF Retail, operating CU convenience stores, said three stores closest to the concert venue saw sales increase by 547 percent from previous week and 10 others in the vicinity 270 percent on average. People began crowding Gwanghwamun Square hours before the concert began at 8 p.m. and stayed in the area even after the event, buttressing the robust daily sales, according to the company.

Among the hot items at CU were gimbaps (steamed rice rolls with fillings), sandwiches and BTS’ new albums "ARIRANG." Triple-A batteries for light sticks brought by concert-goers were among top five items with highest sales.

A GS25 store in the Gwanghwamun area in Seoul with posters of BTS' Jin promoting IGIN highball on the store front is crowded with visitors, Sarturday. Courtesy of GS Retail

Korea Eleven said sales in 40 7-Eleven stores around Gwanghwamun increased 101 percent from the previous week on average. Retail giant Emart’s 36 Emart24 stores in the area also witnessed a 39-percent week-on-week sales hike on average, with a store with the highest sales seeing a 301-percent jump.

“The stores served not only as a retail space but an on-site convenience hub, offering meals, snacks, cold-weather items, and mobile device-related products all in one place for the spectators,” a GS Retail official said.

Hotels and other lodging businesses took a major windfall as well. Lotte Hotel, The Plaza, Four Seasons and other hotels in Gwanghwanun and City Hall areas saw their rooms completely reserved before and after the concert.

A purple banner reading "Welcome BTS ARMY" is seen at a convenience store in central Seoul, near BTS' comeback concert venue, Sunday. Yonhap

The booking frenzy is in line with projections by the Ministry of Justice that previously said visiting foreigners to Korea from March 1 to18 reached nearly 1.1 million, an increase by 32.7 percent from the previous year.

Sales at Lotte Department Store’s main branch in Myeong-dong rose 20 percent year-on-year during March 20 to 21. Sales generated by foreign customers at the store during the same period increased 2.4 times from a year earlier.

At Shinsegae Department Store’s main branch in Myeong-dong, sales grew 41 percent year-on-year between March 20 and 21. As fans gathered and waited outside for long hours, sales of ready-to-eat meals and desserts surged 2.8 times each.

The benefits of the K-pop fandom, however, was not shared by every store in Myeong-dong, which saw the number of customers drop below usual volumes.

“We had prepared almost double the usual volume of ingredients. But last night’s sales even fell short of usual Saturday. We were totally beat,” manager of a pig’s trotters restaurant, usually frequented by foreign tourists, said.

The complaint was shared by other restaurants in Myeong-dong’s core shopping district including a Chinese food place and a spicy stir-fried chicken restaurant.

Industry officials attributed this to tourists and other visitors avoiding the area in anticipation of large crowds, leading to lower-than-expected turnout. While the initial estimate put attendance at around 260,000, HYBE reported around 100,000 attendees, which was a bigger figure than Seoul Metropolitan Government's estimate of around 40,000.

Apparently, safety concerns have also played a role. Due to police crowd control near the venue during the concert, people were not allowed to stay in one place and were required to keep moving along designated safety fences. As a result, some Gwanghwamun shops outside the pedestrian flow had fewer opportunities to attract customers.