I ran away as soon as I opened the market… Open-running event congestion with crowds

“It’s too late. As soon as I opened the shop in the morning, I ran out.”

Throughout the morning of the 6th, the entrance to the parking lot of the E-Mart store in Yongsan-gu, Seoul was lined with cars for about 600 meters. The surrounding traffic was paralyzed with cars waiting to enter. E-Mart in Seongsu-dong and Haengdang-dong had a similar situation. It was a weekday morning when fewer people visit the market, but the E-Mart in the metro area was crowded with such people. Most of them asked questions like “Where do you buy whiskey?” and “Do you have any whiskey left?”

That’s because the whiskey event organized by E-Mart attracted explosive attention, especially among the MZ generation (Millennials + Z). At the entrance to each shop, there were many people waiting in long lines from the early morning before opening. Most of the items sold out early in the morning so there were signs announcing they were out of stock but there were plenty of people who came to buy whiskey in the afternoon as well.

An employee of Yongsan-gu E-Mart said, “As soon as the store opened in the morning, everything sold out within 20 minutes. There are too many customers looking for whiskey all day.” An employee of an E-Mart store in another area also said, “We were giving out numbered tickets even before opening. At that time, only customers who were waiting they could buy it,” he said. “The whole supply of 60 12-year-old Balvenies and 120 14-year-old Balvenies went down early in the morning.”

From today, E-Mart organizes the “2022 Popular 7 Whiskey Event” where you can buy Balvenie and Hibiki. △Balveni 12 Years Double Wood (700ml, KRW 99,800) △Balvenie 14 Years Caribbean Cask (700ml, KRW 178,000) △Monkey Shoulder (700ml, KRW 51,800) △Hibiki Harmony (700ml) ㎖, 138,000 won) △Yamazaki 12 Years (700ml, 298,000 won) △Macallan 12 Years Double Cask (700ml, 99,800 won) △Suntory Gakubin (700ml, 39,800 won) etc. The purchase quantity per person is limited to a maximum of 2 bottles.

Although the market packed the largest amount ever, most of the stores sold out within 20 minutes of the sales starting. E-Mart secured around 10,000 bottles of whiskey by conducting pre-planning with partner companies from Chuseok last year. In particular, around 6,000 bottles of ‘Balvenie 12-year-old Double Wood’, which has frequent ‘open runs’, were transported by air.

As the whiskey craze has gotten stronger in recent years, queuing in front of a store to get a famous whiskey like Balvenie has become a common occurrence. Last year, when news broke that Costco, a warehouse-type discounter, would be selling 12-year Balveni doublewood gift sets, queues formed at stores across the country even before they opened, and all supplies are been sold out in five minutes. When E-Mart also sold “Balveni 14 Years Caribbean Cask” via Smart Order Application (App) last year, the quantity was sold out in two hours.

The reason why E-Mart planned this event is that high-end alcoholic beverages like whiskey are emerging as the main competitiveness of hypermarkets. According to E-Mart’s analysis of liquor sales, whiskey sales last year grew more than 30% year over year. Whiskey’s popularity is growing as the “home spirits” craze explodes after Corona 19. In particular, some famous whiskeys, such as Balvenie, are said to sell as soon as they hit the shelf. Prices continue to rise as supply cannot keep up with demand.

This event will last two days until the 7th. On the latter day, more crowds are expected to gather as it is a weekend and they plan to release products with high rarity such as Hibiki and Yamazaki. In particular, Yamazaki 12 Years should be fiercely competitive for purchase as each store has fewer than 10 bottles.

Mr. Kim (29), who visited E-Mart in Yongsan-gu the day before to buy whiskey, said, “I expected there would be a lot of people because the hard-to-find liquor was on sale, but I don’t mind I expected it to run out so fast”. I want to buy popular items like Macallan,” she said. Another customer, Mr. Lee (35), said, “I plan to go to the store early tomorrow morning to buy 12-year-old Yamazaki years”.

Hankyung.com reporter Ahn Hye-won/Lee Hyeon-ju [email protected]