Prologue: Minjun’s Day – The 24-Hour Rhythm of Convenience Stores
At 8 a.m., Minjun barely opens his eyes to the alarm, and his day begins as a battle, as usual. He tossed and turned thinking about unfinished work from the night before and overslept. Putting on his shirt and grabbing his bag, he heads not to a café but to the familiar green sign of CU convenience store. “Beep.” With the sound of a smartphone’s quick payment, he holds a triangle kimbap and a pouch coffee. The convenience store is the place that solves the urbanite’s morning without the luxury of waiting in a crowded café or leisurely preparing breakfast.
At lunchtime, the team decides to pool money to celebrate a colleague’s promotion. Needing cash, Minjun heads to the GS25 on the first floor of his office building instead of a bank. With a bank-affiliated ATM, he withdraws cash without fees and reflects briefly. Just a few years ago, he had to squeeze lunch breaks around bank hours, but now a 24-hour convenience store easily handles it. Convenience stores have become small neighborhood financial hubs beyond mere shops.
At 7 p.m., an Instagram feed he saw on the subway on the way home lingers in his mind: a limited-edition craft beer collaboration between a famous brand and 7-Eleven. Entranced, he enters the nearby 7-Eleven. Among the refrigerators full of beer, he finds the ‘that beer’ he wanted and smiles with satisfaction. Since he’s there, he decides to get dinner too. Large supermarkets feel burdensome, and delivery food feels tiresome. His choice is a single-serving steak meal kit and a small salad. The place that manages the refrigerators of single-person households and offers the latest trends is, again, the convenience store.
At 11 p.m., a hunger he can no longer resist hits during the climax of a Netflix series where the protagonist eats ice cream. Too tired to get up from the sofa, he opens a delivery app. Ordering newly released private brand ice cream and some snacks from a nearby Emart24, the delivery bell rings at his door in less than 20 minutes. On the frontline of the on-demand economy, the solution that satisfies our most immediate desires is also the convenience store.
Minjun pauses to think. All these moments—satisfying morning hunger, handling urgent lunch errands, offering small evening pleasures, and filling late-night cravings—are intricately connected around the space called the ‘convenience store.’ His day, or perhaps all of ours, flows to the rhythm of these brightly lit small shops.
When did it start? When did these small stores penetrate so deeply into our daily lives to become life companions and absolute rulers of the alleys? We now begin the grand and intimate chronicle of that story.
Chapter 1: Dawn of Convenience – A Strange and New Beginning
The story must fairly begin with memories of failure, not success. In 1982, a store named ‘Lotte Seven’ opened in Sindang-dong, Seoul. This is recorded as the origin of Korean convenience stores. But the result was disastrous. At that time, a space that stayed open 24 hours and sold goods at fixed prices was just seen as an ‘expensive hole-in-the-wall store’ by consumers. The concept of ‘convenience’ itself was unfamiliar, and this experiment, ahead of its time, quietly closed after two years. The market was not ready yet.
Seven years passed. During that time, South Korea underwent its greatest whirlwind of change in history: the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Culture and capital from around the world flooded the peninsula, and Koreans began to physically experience the ‘global standard.’ It was during this turbulent period that a businessman decided to test the potential of convenience stores he had experienced while studying in the U.S. once again in Korea. On May 6, 1989, the true first page of Korean convenience store history was finally opened.
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Symbolically, the stage was the shopping area of the Seoul Olympic Village apartments. The first store under the sign ‘7-Eleven’ was a cultural shock. Unlike dusty shelves and haphazardly displayed goods or neighborhood stores where prices changed by bargaining with the owner, everything was different. Under brightly lit lights, neatly arranged products, cashiers scanning barcodes for accurate payment, and above all, the fact that it was open at midnight and dawn signaled the dawn of a new era.
But the tide of the times was unstoppable. 7-Eleven’s success quickly attracted competitors. In 1990, the domestic brand ‘LG25’ (now GS25), armed with purely Korean technology and capital, opened its first store in front of Kyung Hee University, issuing a challenge. Soon after, Japanese brands like FamilyMart and Ministop landed one after another, marking the beginning of Korea’s convenience store Warring States period.
The failure in 1982 and success in 1989, the seven-year gap, proved that Korean society was ready to shift from traditional to modern consumer culture. The dawn of convenience was thus unfamiliar and awkward but clearly and vigorously rising.
Chapter 2: Conqueror of the Alley – How ‘Supermarkets’ Yielded to ‘Convenience Stores’
Once, the heart of our alleys was always the ‘local supermarket.’ Children bought snacks on credit there, and mothers bought dinner ingredients while chatting with the shopkeeper. The supermarket was more than a store; it was the community’s heart where neighborly affection and trust circulated. But through the 1990s into the 2000s, this warm neighborhood owner gradually disappeared. The new conqueror taking its place was the convenience store.
The convenience store’s weapons were powerful and systematic.
- The first weapon was the magic of ‘24 hours.’ The neighborhood supermarket’s ‘closing at 6 p.m.’ no longer fit the urban lifestyle of frequent overtime. The convenience store, brightly lit anytime, was a lighthouse guarding the city’s night and the only option for busy modern people.
- The second weapon was the power of ‘systems.’ Unlike supermarkets run haphazardly by individuals, convenience stores were backed by huge capital and advanced logistics systems. Headquarters analyzed real-time data to manage inventory and supplied fresh products daily through nationwide logistics.
- Finally, convenience stores rode the wave of the explosive increase in single-person households. People no longer needed a bag of onions or a sack of rice. Instead, they wanted small-packaged vegetables, instant rice, and easy lunch boxes for dinner. Convenience stores precisely targeted this point.
Government policies unintentionally favored convenience stores. Regulations to curb indiscriminate expansion of large supermarkets created a perfect opportunity for small stores like convenience stores to dominate neighborhood gaps.
Ultimately, the defeat of local supermarkets is not just an old thing being pushed out by the new. It symbolizes a shift in Korea’s trust paradigm. While supermarkets operated on personal relationships—‘Do you know who I am, boss?’—convenience stores rely on cold trust in systems: ‘Wherever you go, the fixed price and desired goods are there.’ Convenience stores sold not only products but also a more familiar and comfortable ‘way of relationships’ for modern urbanites.
Chapter 3: The Convenience Store Republic – Oligopoly and New Citizens
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Having claimed the throne of the alleys, convenience stores have now established a vast ‘republic.’ As of the end of 2023, about 55,000 convenience stores densely cover South Korea. This republic is governed by an oligopoly of four powerful forces: CU, GS25, 7-Eleven, and Emart24.
New ‘citizens’ live in this convenience store republic. Their lifestyles determine the present and future of convenience stores.
- The first citizens, the ‘Convenience Shoppers’ Mostly single-person households, they use convenience stores like their home refrigerators. To serve them, convenience stores compete to strengthen fresh food sections like meat, fruits, and vegetables.
- The second citizens, the ‘MZ Generation’ For them, convenience stores are not just places to buy goods but ‘hot spots’ to consume and experience culture. They visit for unique collaborations and exotic experiences, willingly posting ‘proof shots’ on social media, acting as viral marketers.
- The third citizens, the ‘Active Seniors’ The most surprising yet powerful emerging group. Middle-aged people in their 50s and 60s choose convenience stores as alternatives to vanished neighborhood supermarkets. Prioritizing accessibility and convenience over price and preferring small-quantity purchases, their consumption patterns perfectly match convenience stores’ characteristics.
Interestingly, the four major convenience stores are now diversifying strategies to target different ‘citizens.’ Competition has evolved beyond land-grabbing ‘market share wars’ into ‘brand identity wars’ representing specific lifestyles.
Chapter 4: Alchemy of 2 Pyeong – Creating Value in a Saturated Market
South Korean convenience stores have physically reached saturation. In this small land where finding new alleys is difficult, convenience stores now use spaces of only 2 to 3 pyeong (about 7 to 10 square meters) like alchemists’ labs to create new value. Their survival strategy can be summarized as ‘product innovation’ and ‘space redefinition.’
The first alchemy is the gospel of private brand (PB) products. Early PB products were seen as cheap imitations, but now they are the identity and strongest weapon of convenience stores. CU’s ‘Duktem series’ opens consumers’ wallets with ‘cost-effectiveness’ and induces ‘purpose-driven purchases’ where customers visit specifically for these products.
The second alchemy is reinventing the space itself as a ‘Life Platform.’ At the heart of this revolution is financial services. Partnering with banks to reduce ATM fees, convenience stores have become centers of national financial activity. Moreover, ‘financial-specialized convenience stores’ with bank branches inside have appeared. In an era of shrinking bank branches, convenience stores effectively serve as ‘neighborhood banks.’
That’s not all. Parcel acceptance and pickup, laundry services, and electric vehicle charging—all minor inconveniences of modern urban life—are absorbed into the convenience store space.
The core of all these strategies is ‘trip-stacking,’ layering visit purposes. Customers don’t just come to buy a drink but visit to ‘send a parcel, withdraw cash, and buy dinner all at once.’ Convenience stores have evolved from mere shops selling goods into service platforms selling ‘convenience’ that saves urbanites’ time.
Chapter 5: The Next Chapter – Toward Convenience Stores in 2030
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Facing the huge wall of growth limits, the convenience store industry has begun a bold journey toward the next chapter. What will convenience stores look like in 2030? The future is drawn along two axes: ‘expansion outward’ and ‘innovation inward.’
- Expansion outward: The global rise of ‘K-Convenience Stores’ Slowing domestic market growth has turned the giants’ gaze overseas. Led by CU and GS25, K-convenience stores are expanding territories to Mongolia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and beyond. This is the process of exporting the uniquely Korean ‘K-convenience store format’ as a successful cultural product.
- Innovation inward: Technology redefining space At the forefront of this innovation are unmanned and automated stores. With rising labor costs, convenience stores are expanding hybrid and fully unmanned stores using AI and advanced IT technologies.
Furthermore, convenience stores have entered the technology race to conquer the ‘last mile’ to customers. 7-Eleven and Emart24 actively conduct drone delivery pilot projects, while CU operates autonomous delivery robots, preparing for the future delivery era.
Future convenience stores will no longer be just physical spaces customers ‘visit.’ Through app orders and drone/robot instant deliveries, they will become services that ‘come to’ customers wherever they are.
Epilogue: Minjun’s Late-Night Snack and the Alley’s Lighthouse
Past midnight, unable to resist hunger, Minjun stands again under the light of the convenience store near his home. In his hand is a steaming cup of instant noodles. Sitting at a plastic table, slurping the noodles, he suddenly thinks of the vast world contained in this small space.
This single cup of noodles in his hand is the result of a logistics network connecting the nation like a spider web and the efforts of IT experts analyzing data invisibly. The shelves he casually passes are battlefields where CU and GS25’s fierce brand strategies collide, and the ATM in the corner compresses decades of changes in Korea’s financial environment.
The convenience store is no longer just a shop. It is a mirror reflecting our era’s desires that value speed, efficiency, and individual tastes above all. It guards the city’s night with lights that never go out and silently stands by the busiest and loneliest.
South Korean convenience stores have thus become the lighthouse of the alley, always standing firm amid a constantly changing world.