Park Yong-jin, vice chairman of the Regulatory Rationalization Committee, calls for review
Park Yong-jin, vice chairman of the Regulatory Rationalization Committee, said the mandatory closure regime for hypermarkets has failed to keep pace with a rapidly changing retail landscape, calling for a broad review of the system. He also raised concerns that existing regulations have done more to fuel the growth of platform companies than to protect traditional markets.
In a social media post Wednesday, Park said the policy should be judged by its results, not its intentions. "The time has come to revisit regulations built on market conditions from more than a decade ago and bring them in line with today's consumer reality," he wrote.
He cited a growing chorus of criticism that hypermarket regulations have in effect benefited Coupang Inc while producing the opposite of the intended effect on traditional markets and neighborhood businesses.
Park said that despite the good intentions behind the mandatory closure regime when it was introduced, it has not adequately reflected changes in the market or in how consumers behave. He particularly noted that for dual-income households, weekends are in effect the only time available for grocery shopping — and when hypermarkets are closed, spending shifts online rather than to traditional markets.
He also said it was unfair that hypermarkets face weekend operating restrictions while early-morning delivery platforms operate without equivalent regulation. Early-morning delivery services run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, while hypermarkets must close twice a month — a tilted playing field, he said. The regulations have, in that sense, done more to grow online platforms and early-morning delivery companies than to revive traditional markets.
"I will examine this carefully and responsibly, based on voices from the field and on data," Park said. "Regulations that are out of touch with reality will be revised, and necessary support will be strengthened."
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