Post by Sunday at midnight
[2 articles]
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Shopping Trends in Korea Go Green for the first time, as a strong trend, this year
3. Marketing news from the Korea Times indicates that this was a main theme. Other themes was how perpetual media fear about flu drove people to consume certain things--perhaps the worst being the untested vaccines of course.
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12-03-2009 18:46
'G.I.R.L.' Sums Up 2009 Shopping Trends
By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
For local shoppers, it turns out this year was largely about green living, flu prevention, revisiting the past and bargain hunting.
Shinsegae E-Mart, the nation's top discount retail chain, analyzed 2,874 different types of products sold from January through November to 210 million visitors.
And if their findings are any indication of shopping trends, most of the money went to goods that can be summed up in one buzzword: the acronym "G.I.R.L."
"G" stands for green consumer, "I" for the effects of influenza A (H1N1), "R" for rebirth and "L" for low price, the retail expert said Thursday.
Products related to green living saw a steep sales jump this year, indicating that eco-friendly consumption is anything but a fleeting trend.
More than 850,000 reusable shopping bags were sold this year alone, up from just 1,800 last year, according to company data.
Sales of mugs and non-plastic food containers soared 62 percent and 15 percent, respectively, while sales of paper cups and plates saw almost a 35-percent drop from the previous year.
The outbreak of the H1N1 flu, which took a turn for the worse in late summer, drummed up sales of all kinds of flu prevention products in the second half of this year.
E-mart said masks, hand sanitizers and thermometers flew off the shelves early, but sales of health-related products, such as red ginseng and vitamins, soon started catching up.
Sales of red ginseng and vitamins climbed 25 percent and 59 percent, respectively.
"The flu has been a real boon to retailers this year," said Chang Joong-ho, an E-mart marketing expert, who added that the flu scare brought positive ripple effects across other health-related goods.
Another category that enjoyed solid growth this year is traditional goods, namely "makgeolli," (Korean traditional rice wine) and red thermal underwear.
E-mart statistics show that sales of makgeolli jumped nearly 200 percent from one year ago, labeling the product as one of this year's hit items. Red thermal underwear sold 30 percent better than last year.
The final shopping trend reflects the toughened economic reality this year.
"Consumers didn't stop shopping altogether, but they did go after the cheapest," said Chang, who highlighted "low price" as the top shopping keyword of the year.
According to data, sales generated by E-mart's own label goods accounted for almost 24 percent of the retailer's overall revenue this year, showing that many consumers turned to the discounter for its dirt-cheap in-house brands.
jhan@koreatimes.co.kr
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http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2009/12/123_56635.html
[2]
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Politicized Consumption in Korea: several cases of price rigging across state and private institutions
3. Fascinating on the commentary at the conclusion--that this rigging of the price of liquified natural gas has been coordinated for six years between 'competitors' in Korea without anyone in the Korea government seeming to notice? I find that hard to believe no one noticed. Why? Given other cases of consumptive flows, without multi-institutional agreement around the flow, certain captive consumer flows and price hikes like this one would have been challenged long ago--when it started in 2003. The article is a list of other 'market items' in Korea that have been found out as having rigged, coordinated prices among competitors as well.
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12-03-2009 17:50
War on Price Rigging
LPG Suppliers Fined for Hampering Fair Competition
The nation's antitrust regulator is waging a war on rampant price rigging by
consumer product manufacturers,
fuel suppliers and
construction firms.
But the country still has a long way to go before firmly establishing competition rules and better protecting consumer rights. Needless to say, price fixing and other unfair business practices undermine the very foundation of [the legitimating ideology of] capitalism and the [ideology that there is a] market economy. [Is there? I argue for the institutionally desired stable clientelism of politicized raw material regimes as the basis of the political economy instead of open markets...]
More worrisome is that a large number of local corporations have little sense of compunction about playing a dirty game only to maximize their profits at the sacrifice of their competitors or consumers. Critics point out that unfair practices are so widespread that almost all companies are directly or indirectly engaged in price cartels, bid riggings and other forms of anti-competition activity.
On Thursday, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) decided to impose a combined fine of 668.9 billion won ($580 million) on six major liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) suppliers for fixing prices for their products. Those subject to the penalty are E1 Corp., SK Gas, SK Energy, GS Caltex, Hyundai Oilbank and S-Oil Corp., most of which are affiliated with the nation's family-controlled conglomerates, or chaebol.
In July, the FTC slapped a 260-billion-won fine on Qualcomm of the U.S. for abusing its dominant position in the Korean market for code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile phone chips. On Nov. 3, the commission ordered four beverage suppliers ― Lotte Chilsung, Coca-Cola Korea, Haitai and Dongah Otsuka ― to pay a combined total of 940 million won for blocking discount stores from lowering the retail prices of their products below fixed levels. On Nov. 18, it also imposed a 226.3 billion won fine on 11 manufacturers of soju, the nation's popular liquor, including Jinro, Doosan, Daesun and Kumbokju.
Announcing the latest punitive action, the FTC said the LPG suppliers have been fixing their product prices for six years from 2003. It also accused them of increasing the prices in unfair ways, thereby leading to a hike in heating and transportation costs for consumers. In other words, the suppliers have pocketed undue and illegitimate profits [there's that concept of passive 'legitimation' maintaining the clientelistic economy] by selling LPG at much higher prices than what they ought to have been.
We believe the FTC has taken the right action against the companies, although it is belated. The FTC said it has found out that the suppliers raised LPG prices almost simultaneously and by the same margins in many cases. Some industry sources estimated that the firms have pocketed roughly several trillion won through the price collusion over the last six years. If so, it seems that the fine is only a slap on the wrist, considering the astronomical amount of ill-gotten gains. [If combined fine was only 668.9 billion won ($580 million), and profits were trillions of won (billions of dollars), then it pays to be criminal, and the incentive is to do it once more.]
Now, we have to ask a question: How could the LGP suppliers have rigged prices for such a long period? What has the regulator done to discover and crack down on such an unfair and illegal practice? We have no choice but to jump to the conclusion that the FTC has been negligent in ensuring fair competition [in being an institution along the raw material substrate path maintaining this politicized material regime]. We urge the regulator to reflect on its past inaction and negligence. And it should put action before words to become a true guardian of the rules of competition.
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http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2009/12/137_56625.html
Friday, December 4, 2009
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