Korea Supermarket Cooperative Union [Korea Supermarket Cooperative Union website]
Korea Supermarket Cooperative Union [Korea Supermarket Cooperative Union website]

The Korea Supermarket Cooperative Union said Wednesday that the government must first secure the livelihoods of neighborhood store owners before allowing hypermarkets to offer dawn delivery, expressing concern over moves to ease regulations on large retailers.

In a statement released that day, the union criticized the government's push to revise the Distribution Industry Development Act as "a policy that ignores the reality of small and midsize supermarkets and neighborhood businesses." The government has been reviewing deregulation in response to criticism that the original intent of hypermarket regulations — introduced in 2012 to protect traditional markets — has faded. One specific measure under discussion would partially ease restrictions on hypermarket operating hours to allow dawn delivery services.

"Creating a system that benefits only hypermarkets on the grounds of competition among large retail conglomerates can never be a fundamental solution," the union said, adding that the government "has mentioned establishing a coexistence fund to protect neighborhood businesses, yet has not put together any concrete discussions or an implementation plan."

The union described the current regulations as "the minimum safeguard for protecting neighborhood commercial districts and the local retail ecosystem." It warned that if hypermarkets — armed with capital and logistics infrastructure — expand into dawn delivery using their existing stores, small neighborhood supermarkets "will inevitably suffer serious damage in both price competition and delivery competition."

The union urged the government to immediately halt its unilateral deregulation policy and first establish substantive protection and support measures through sufficient consultation with the small and midsize retail sector. It also called for the development of a shared fulfillment system, wider rollout of a mobile ordering platform, expanded support for modernizing logistics infrastructure and the revitalization of local currency programs.

The union closed by saying it "strongly opposes unilateral deregulation that threatens the right to survival of small and midsize supermarkets and neighborhood businesses," adding that it "will respond resolutely to any deregulation attempt unless effective protection measures are put in place that allow small merchants to continue their livelihoods with peace of mind."


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