Startup Around Body develops Korea’s first flushable menstrual pads

The Coca-Cola Company on Monday released its first label-free plastic bottles in South Korea. The company has removed the plastic label to increase recycling efficiency and adapt to the nonlabel trend in the industry to protect the environment. According to the company, they implemented a contour crafting design on Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero plastic bottles. The history of the design goes al...

Lettuce and other weather-sensitive vegetables took a direct hit, hence the short supply and soaring prices. The average wholesale price for a 10-kilogram box of medium-grade lettuce was 21,938 won ($18.76), a whopping 174 percent jump from a year ago. It was also 62 percent higher than the average over the past five years, according to data from the Seoul Agro-Fisheries and Food Corporation, w...

Consumers are expected to spend more money during the year-end season this year amid growing excitement over the government’s gradual plan to live with COVID-19, a new survey has found. The survey, conducted on e-commerce platforms Gmarket and Auction earlier this month, showed consumers are willing to spend some 641,000 won ($546) on average during the platforms’ annual shopping event “Big Smil...

South Korea’s coal briquette consumption is likely to drop below 500,000 tons for the first time this year on lower demand and higher coal prices. According to the Korea Mine Rehabilitation and Mineral Resources Corp. on Sunday, domestic coal briquette consumption fell to 508,000 tons last year, a 21 percent drop on-year. The consumption of coal briquettes has been continuously falling since 20...

Telling what’s really eco-friendly is becoming harder for consumers, as companies eager to show their green credentials

Starbucks Coffee Korea said Friday it will stop using disposable cups at all of its stores on South Korea's southern resort island of Jeju within this year in the latest move to protect the environment. Starbucks said it eliminated all single-use cups at four of its stores on Jeju in July during a trial run before applying the policy to all of its 23 operations on the island. The four stores on...

Seven out of 10 restaurants in South Korea serve kimchi made in another country, said a local research institute in a report released Thursday. According to the Korea Foodservice Research Institute, which looked into the country of origin of food ingredients used at 976 restaurants across the country, 40 percent of the surveyed use kimchi made outside of Korea. Another 28 percent use both local...

With the Netflix hit “Squid Game” spurring interest in all things Korean, e-commerce giant Gmarket said it is offering discounts on various South Korean products for international consumers next month. The platform’s annual Mega G sales event will take place Nov. 1-12, as part of its year-end promotion Big Smile Day. A record-breaking number of Korean brands will participate in the discount eve...

As Korea anticipates ‘living with COVID,’ businesses are counting on pent-up demand

SPC Group’s bakery chain Paris Baguette will enter Indonesia, opening its first franchise store in Jakarta next month, it said Monday. According to the South Korean food and bakery maker, it has has set up a joint venture with Indonesia’s Erajaya Group for the purpose. The joint entity will operate Paris Baguette bakeries in Indonesia. Following the November opening of the first store in the ca...

Stung by its employees‘ first collective action, Starbucks Korea said Sunday that it will hire 1,600 more baristas and store staff by the end of this year and improve working conditions. The hiring plan is part of the firm’s package of measures announced in response to recent complaints from in-store staff that they were overworked and underpaid. “We plan to hire in order to secure more staff a...

Sales of air tickets to Madrid increased 625 percent on-month in September amid growing hopes for a resumption of overseas tourism, as vaccination speeds up in South Korea. According to Interpark Tour, a leading travel agency here, demand for flights to European destinations sharply increased last month, compared with a month earlier. Sales of plane tickets to Zurich soared 275 percent, while t...

Along with food companies, local coffee chains launched Halloween-themed menus for the season. Hollys Coffee, a South Korean coffee chain, introduced three limited edition menus this month, inspired by various themes of Halloween. One of them is the “Witch Chocolate Berry Hollyccino,” a dark chocolate iced beverage topped with berry sauce and decorated with a chocolate witch garnish. Starbucks ...

Franchise stores grew in numbers during the coronavirus pandemic last year though sales remained nearly unchanged, a new report from corporate tracker CEO Score showed Wednesday. The number of franchise brand stores in 2020 increased by 4,559, up 4.5 percent compared to 2019, according to the report which drew data from the Fair Trade Commission. With a total of 105,837 stores operated by top f...