An instant tteokbokki from Dongwon F&B is on a path to break the 20 billion won ($16.9 million) mark in annual sales by the end of this year, backed by the global popularity of the spicy Korean street food. Sales of “God of Topokki” as of October surpassed 18.5 billion won, the company said. The 10-month figure is a 20 percent increase from total sales generated over all of 2020. A popular Kore...

Workers and restaurant owners have mixed reactions to return of drinking get-togethers

The South Korean food company Daesang has a new logo to mark its 65th anniversary. The new logo “reflects Daesang’s ambition to use the past 65 years as a steppingstone to leap into a global company continuing on for the next 100 years,” said Daesang Holdings CEO Choi Sung-soo. The group’s name now appears in lowercase letters that form a tree branching out into the sky. The changes signify the...

Tech giants, convenience stores and credit card firms offer discounts and specials

South Korea kicked off its annual nationwide shopping event Monday in the latest effort to boost private spending amid the prolonged pandemic. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said 2,053 companies will offer big bargains both online and in stores during the Korea Sale Festa -- the Korean equivalent of Black Friday -- that will run through Nov. 15. This year's run is the largest since ...

South Korean e-commerce giant Gmarket is offering various Korean products at discount prices starting Monday, commencing its biggest sales event, the Mega G Festival. During the festival, which runs until Nov. 12, up to 70 percent discount is being offered on products ranging from cosmetics and food to K-pop merchandise. Participating brands include cosmetics brands Amorepacific and Etude, food...

South Korea’s antitrust regulator on Friday approved a plan by E-mart, Shinsegae Group’s hypermarket chain, to acquire the Korean unit of eBay, judging that the acquisition will not restrain market competition. The Fair Trade Commission said the agency evaluated whether or not the acquisition would violate the country’s monopoly regulations, and to see if the companies would hamper competition i...

Starbucks Korea will provide free barista training to as many as 200 young job seekers next year, as part of a government project to tackle youth joblessness. The coffee chain inked a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Employment and Labor on Wednesday to participate in the ministry’s “Youth Employment Support Project.” The project aims to promote companies to provide work experie...

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...