Lotte boosts ready-to-eat meals to counter rising lunch prices

Customers purchasing ‘Yorihada World Buffet’ products at the Lotte Mart World Tower branch on the 14th. [Courtesy of Lotte Mart]

South Korea’s major supermarkets are increasingly focusing on enhancing their ready-to-eat meal offerings and in-house dining options, striving to create affordable food solutions. This trend is growing as more people turn to supermarkets as a refuge from restaurant “lunchflation” a combination of rising lunch prices and inflation, as the cost of a typical meal surpassed10,000 won, or $7.46.

According to the retail industry on Sunday, Lotte Mart began offering its “Yorihada World Buffet” at four locations in June 2024, including the Zettaplex Jamsil, Seoul Station, and Eunpyeong Grand Grocery stores. These stores generated 600 million won ($446,000) in sales during the 57 days leading up to August 15th, 2024, with over 135,000 items sold. Lotte Mart has expanded this offering to additional locations, including Uiwang and Gunsan, since July 17th. The Yorihada World Buffet is currently available at 27 stores, with plans to roll it out across all locations.

The Yorihada World Buffet brand offers over 60 buffet-style items, including eel chirashi sushi, egg noodles, and spicy shrimp, priced at 3,990 won or 4,990 won. This shift represents a new strategy in the ready-to-eat meal sector, moving from the traditional large-portion products priced at 10,000 to 20,000 won toward smaller, more affordable offerings.

This shift toward affordable meals is a response to the sharp rise in restaurant prices, which has changed how consumers approach lunch. With the average cost of lunch exceeding 10,000 won nationwide, the Lotte Mart World Tower store in Songpa-gu has become a popular spot for office workers, with lines forming even before noon. Dishes like “Nasi Goreng” and “Garlic Chicken Steak,” ideal for a single meal or as a side dish, are particularly popular.

“The price of a helping of ginseng chicken soup is almost 20,000 won, making dining out quite intimidating. I often buy discounted sushi from the mart during the day,” Kim Eun-kyung, a 30-something office worker living in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province, said.

Lotte Mart has been able to maintain its relatively low prices due to economies of scale. The company’s ability to make bulk purchases has increased since it implemented an integrated procurement system for both supermarkets and grocery stores at the end of 2022. Items like salmon and pre-processed vegetables are purchased through joint bidding, allowing the company to secure prices lower than market rates.

Similarly, T-Café, the in-house dining option at Emart’s Traders Wholesale Club, has gained popularity as a go-to spot for value-conscious consumers and has been a key driver of Traders’ overall sales growth in the first half of 2024. T-Café’s sales growth rate was about three times that of Traders’ overall growth As of July 2024, with Traders posting a 6.1 percent increase in sales while T-Café saw a 17.8 percent jump.

The number of customers visiting T-Café has steadily increased over the past three years from 5 million in 2022 to 6 million in 2023. There were 4.1 million customers as of July 2024, and the company projects that 7 million customers will visit T-Café by the end of the year.