Younger generation visit traditional markets more often than older people

Shoppers at Gyeongdong Market in Seoul, South Korea. By Joonheon Lee

#Gyeongdongmarket#Delicious #Noodles #Foundoutagreatplace. Ms. Kim (27), an office worker who recently visited Gyeongdong Market in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, with her friends, posted a photo on Instagram and tagged it with these words.

For people in their 20s, the identity of Gyeongdong Market is more like a place with “unique restaurants" than a market specializing in "medicinal ingredients.”

Most of the approximately 30,000 posts with the tag "#Gyeongdongmarket" on Instagram, searched on April 18, were photos of various foods, such as chicken, sundae, pyeonyuk, noodles, and toast. There are about 169,000 and 1.16 million posts related to Mangwon Market and Gwangjang Market in Seoul, respectively, and most of them are photos of various foods.

KB Kookmin Card said that sales at traditional markets increased by 34 percent last year compared to 2019, the year before the coronavirus pandemic, due to the recent influx of new consumers in their 20s.

About half of the consumers in their 20s who visited traditional markets for the first time since 2019 enjoyed food and coffee in restaurants and cafes in the markets. This shows that younger generations are increasingly recognizing traditional markets as places that are full of great restaurants.

According to KB Kookmin Card's analysis of credit and debit card consumption data from 89,000 stores in traditional markets nationwide, 18 percent of those who visited traditional markets last year were new consumers who had not visited them in the past four years.

By age, 26 percent were in their 20s, 21 percent were in their 60s and older, and 20 percent were in their 50s. When it comes to the sales by type of business, restaurants accounted for 40 percent of sales, followed by groceries at 22 percent, and agricultural products at 19 percent. By type of business, restaurants were the most visited places by new consumers at 46 percent.

There were also differences in the items consumed by different age groups. People in their 20s and 30s spent the most money on coffee and beverages (26 percent in their 20s and 22 percent in their 30s). On the other hand, those in their 50s and older mainly purchased processed foods (31 percent) and those in their 60s and older bought agricultural products (48 percent).

The main customers were still older people. Forty percent of sales at traditional markets were made by people aged 60 and older, followed by those in their 50s (26 percent), in their 40s (17 percent), in their 30s (10 percent), and in their 20s (7 percent). It is encouraging that the customer base is expanding, but there are also concerns that the original function of traditional markets could be weakened.

Mr. Kim (41), who runs a butcher shop in a market in Seoul, said, "Traditional markets have come alive as young people perceive them as a food market where there are many good restaurants and visit more often than before. However, the markets are becoming more stagnant because the original function of the markets is selling agricultural products and groceries.”

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.