In an age where fresh produce can be delivered to your doorstep by morning with just a few taps on a smartphone, many big box stores in our neighborhoods close their doors twice a month, adhering to regulations established in 2012 aimed at revitalizing local businesses and traditional markets.
Misdiagnosing a problem often leads to ineffective solutions. At that time, the government and political circles identified big box stores as a major cause of the decline of small businesses and traditional markets, imposing legal restrictions on their operating hours and mandatory closures. Now, 14 years later, has the local economy truly revived? The results have fallen short of expectations.
Recent empirical studies raise questions about whether the regulations on big box stores have genuinely benefited local businesses. These stores have not only been competitors to nearby small businesses but have also served as 'anchor stores' that attract foot traffic. According to a 2024 report from the Bank of Korea, sales in commercial areas within a 2-kilometer radius of closed big box stores in Seoul decreased by an average of 5.3%. In contrast, cities like Daegu and Cheongju, which shifted mandatory closure days from weekends to weekdays, saw an increase in sales for restaurants and convenience stores near big box stores. This indicates that visitors to big box stores often spend additional money at nearby retail and dining establishments.
A more significant issue is the fundamental shift in the retail environment. In 2012, big box stores may have been seen as the strongest competitors to local businesses. However, today, e-commerce platforms like Coupang are transforming consumer habits with 24-hour ordering and early morning delivery. In an era where more than half of retail sales occur online, maintaining restrictions on offline big box stores lacks persuasive justification from a regulatory equity standpoint. Moreover, the inconvenience of not being able to shop on weekends falls squarely on consumers, especially as dual-income households and single-person households become more common.
Retail regulations abroad are also evolving. Japan has abolished its Large-Scale Retail Store Law, which was aimed at protecting small retailers, and is transitioning to a new regulatory framework focused on living environments and site adjustments. France has similarly relaxed entry regulations for large stores and eased restrictions on Sunday and nighttime operations through the Macron Law. Many countries are moving towards loosening or redesigning regulations on large retailers to adapt to changing consumer environments.
Of course, discussions about regulating big box store operations must not overlook workers' rights to rest and health. However, protecting workers is more rationally achieved through labor law measures such as managing working hours, implementing shift systems, and ensuring holiday guarantees, rather than through a blanket approach that closes entire stores. The justifications for protecting traditional markets and workers must be redesigned to align with the transformed retail landscape.
It is encouraging that discussions in political circles have begun regarding the relaxation of regulations, such as allowing online deliveries on mandatory closure days. However, partial measures that only permit online deliveries are insufficient. It is time to fundamentally reassess whether the restrictions on operating hours and mandatory closures are still valid today.
We must move beyond the outdated dichotomy of 'big box stores versus traditional markets.' While big box stores have been positioned as the antithesis of traditional markets, the real threat to local economies has been the rapid encroachment of large online ecosystems. Today's competitive landscape is not merely a battle between big box stores and traditional markets; it is a competition between online platforms and the entire offline retail sector.
In the e-commerce era, protecting offline retail does not mean mechanically maintaining regulations. We need to expand autonomy based on local conditions and collaboratively explore specific coexistence models, such as joint marketing, linked events, and the promotion of local specialties between big box stores and traditional markets. We should not judge today's retail environment by the outdated standards of 14 years ago. To genuinely revitalize local economies, the long-standing regulations on mandatory closures for big box stores must be thoroughly reexamined.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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