"They're telling me to clear out my store by Aug. 31, but I haven't heard a word from Homeplus headquarters."
As Homeplus reopened 67 of its stores on Thursday after teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, not everyone had reason to celebrate. Tenants who have been told to leave — or are bracing for eviction — say they are caught between unresolved lease disputes and a near-total breakdown in communication with the company.
A franchise cafe operator identified only as A, who ran a business inside the Homeplus Yeonsu branch, is facing eviction by the end of this month. The Yeonsu location is one of 37 Homeplus stores whose permanent closure was confirmed in July. As operations there wound down, tenants lost their main channel for negotiating with headquarters. A received an eviction notice for the end of August after the building owner announced plans to renovate the floor where the store is located.
"I invested hundreds of millions of won to open inside Homeplus, and it shut down after just two and a half years," A told a reporter by phone. "Tenants at other Homeplus stores that closed earlier received compensation for lost sales and facility investment costs, but now headquarters won't even return my calls." A added, choking up: "If I clear out by the end of August I can at least get my deposit back, but what about all the losses I've suffered? I'm about to be left out on the street."
Tenants at the 67 stores that have resumed operations are no less anxious. Among them, those whose lease contracts expire in August are still locked in disputes with headquarters over compensation for lost sales. The central sticking point is the obligation to restore their premises to their original condition before vacating.
Under the lease terms, outgoing tenants are required to restore the interior of their units to their original state so that incoming tenants can move in. But after sales collapsed during the month-long suspension that began July 13, and with the final deadline for Homeplus's court receivership proceedings set for Sept. 4, tenants have pushed back hard against the company's insistence on full restoration. The cost of restoring a unit is said to range from several million won to as much as hundreds of millions of won, depending on the size of the space.
B, who operated a food and beverage outlet at the Homeplus Busan Asiad branch — one of the 67 stores — said contact with headquarters went dark after the decision to close that location was made in late July. "I asked headquarters about the exit procedure, but all I got was: 'We will provide guidance on closure-related procedures, including restoration, after Sept. 4,'" B said. "I have no idea whether I even need to restore the premises, how far the restoration has to go, or how much it will cost."
The Homeplus Tenant Owners' Association issued a statement on Thursday saying that "behind the fanfare of the reopening, the tenants who kept these stores running are enduring a devastating reality — their sales have cratered because of headquarters' mismanagement, and many cannot even cover a day's wages." The association said tenants whose contracts expire in August "have been driven into a corner where they have no choice but to give up on renewing and walk away."
The association also warned that if the court fails to approve the restructuring plan on Sept. 4 and Homeplus proceeds toward bankruptcy, tenants who have already paid to restore their premises "will be left without even their deposits back, on top of the unnecessary financial loss of the restoration costs themselves." It criticized the company for "squeezing the last drop from small business owners by forcing restoration work while already knowing the risks involved."
Sales figures confirm the difficult conditions facing tenants at the reopened stores. According to industry sources and the company's union, sales by small-business tenants across the 67 stores on Thursday — the first day of reopening — came to 1.702 billion won ($1.2 million), down 12.9% from the same period a year earlier. Homeplus's combined online and offline sales rose 1.2% to 10.628 billion won.
Tenant owners are calling on the Korea Fair Trade Commission and other government bodies to step in as mediators. The Fair Trade Commission had previously intervened to help resolve disputes between Homeplus and its tenants ahead of the closure of the 37 stores.
soho0902@heraldcorp.com
