Shinsegae DF temporarily stored its duty-free products in a disabled restroom at Incheon Airport on Thursday morning due to a lack of space in the pickup area, the airport corporation and Shinsegae DF confirmed Friday, after complaints raised the previous day.

“Our pickup area is much smaller than that of Lotte Duty Free or Shilla Duty Free, and the airport instructed us to temporarily keep the products in the restroom,” said a spokesperson for Shinsegae DF.

Once duty-free products are purchased at downtown outlets, they are sent to the pickup area at the airport until the customer’s departure from Korea.

Photos of the products in a men’s disabled restroom were posted to an online community Thursday by a user who said that he was trying to use the restroom when he discovered the piles of duty-free products.

A spokesman for Incheon International Airport acknowledged the situation, saying that it was a “temporary measure” taken after a staff member had monitored the use of the men’s restroom and determined it could be briefly used as storage.

“The expansion of downtown duty-free stores last year led to a rise in the amount of duty-free products coming into the pickup counters at the airport,” he said.

Shinsegae DF newly opened a downtown duty-free store in Seoul after winning an operating license two years ago.

The spokesman said that the airport will make its schedule for delivering duty-free goods from warehouses to the pickup counters more flexible, adding the number of deliveries and changing delivery times to “minimize confusion at the pickup counters at peak times.”

The duty-free operators at Incheon International Airport share three pickup counters. Shinsegae DF only operates at the C pickup counter located on the west side of the passenger terminal, while larger operators Lotte and Shilla operate at multiple counters. 

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)