A customer shops for whole chickens at the poultry section of Lotte Mart's Jamsil Zettaplex store. [Lotte Mart]
A customer shops for whole chickens at the poultry section of Lotte Mart's Jamsil Zettaplex store. [Lotte Mart]

Major hypermarkets are offering deep discounts on stamina foods and popular summer products to mark Jungbok, the second of the three hottest days in the traditional Korean lunar calendar, which falls on Saturday.

E-mart will run a "Jungbok Daejeon" sale from Thursday through Tuesday, putting stamina-food products including whole chicken, eel and abalone on sale at up to 50 percent off. Domestically raised whole chickens — sold as "Han Mari Yeongye" and "Tojong Dakbaeksuk" — will be priced at 3,627 won ($2.60) and 9,748 won, respectively. Antibiotic-free two-pack young chickens will be available at a 40 percent discount for customers who accumulate Shinsegae points. Cleaned freshwater eel and live Wando abalone will also be offered at half price with Shinsegae point accumulation.

On Friday, the ready-to-eat seafood hot pot "Han Gadeuk Hong Ge Haemultang" — packed with red crab, scallops, clams and shrimp — will be sold at 30 percent off with Shinsegae point accumulation. Australian grain-fed chuck eye roll will be available at 1,990 won, a 50 percent discount, with Shinsegae point accumulation.

The Kitchen Deli corner will also carry ready-made stamina dishes. Mung bean samgyetang and two-eel rice bowls will each be priced at 9,980 won, while king seasoned grilled eel and eel gangjeong will sell for 17,980 won and 12,980 won, respectively.

Lotte Mart will also hold a stamina food discount event from Thursday through Tuesday. Tied to an agricultural and livestock discount support project, it will offer "Sangsaeng Tongdak Baeksuk-yong" whole chickens at 5,592 won and two varieties of young chicken at 3,792 won each. A single-serving eel rice bowl and a smoked duck pack will be priced at 5,990 won and 13,990 won, respectively. From Thursday through Saturday, all varieties of shelf-stable samgyetang will be sold at 15 percent off with a participating card payment. During the same period, "Yorihada Ganghwa Island Gyetang" and "Yorihada Domestic Whole Chicken Leg Samgyetang" will be offered at roughly 35 percent off for L.Point members.

Through the "Korea Fisheries Festival" run in partnership with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, key seafood items — including cleaned freshwater eel, live Wando abalone and domestic fresh shrimp — will be sold at 20 percent off. Live Wando abalone will carry an additional 50 percent discount with a participating card payment, and cleaned freshwater eel (japonica) will receive an additional 20 percent discount under the same condition.

Meanwhile, as prolonged high prices have increased the burden of dining out, demand for preparing stamina foods at home has been rising. At E-mart, sales of whole chickens for baeksuk from July 1 through Monday jumped 15.2 percent compared with the same period last year. Sales of Peacock ready-to-eat samgyetang jumped 17.4 percent, while Kitchen Deli eel product sales surged 55.9 percent.

"We have prepared stamina foods, seasonal fresh produce and essential summer lifestyle products at reasonable prices ahead of Jungbok," a hypermarket official said. "We will continue working to ease the burden on household grocery budgets through a variety of discount events."


korean@heraldcorp.com