As Solo Dining Among Office Workers Increases Due to COVID-19... CU's Lunchbox Sales Soar

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] As concerns about the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) among office workers grow, sales of convenience store ready-to-eat meals in office areas have surprisingly increased by more than 20% recently. This appears to be due to the rising demand for 'eating alone' during lunch hours.

CU analyzed the sales trends of major products at office-area stores from June 4 to 15 (excluding weekends and holidays), a period of about ten days following the surge in COVID-19 cases originating from Itaewon. The sales of ready-to-eat meals such as lunch boxes rose by 22.6% compared to the previous month.

This is a remarkable rebound compared to April, when some companies introduced remote or rotational work due to social distancing, and sales of ready-to-eat meals decreased by about 10-30% from usual.

Looking at the ready-to-eat meal categories, rice balls increased by 14.9%, hamburgers by 15.2%, instant noodles by 16.0%, lunch boxes by 16.9%, sandwiches by 20.5%, gimbap by 25.0%, and salads by 27.7%, showing high growth rates in that order.

As demand from office workers surged, the sales proportion of ready-to-eat meals during lunch hours (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) jumped from an average of 34% last year to 40% this month.

During the same period, sales of other food items also increased. Instant noodles, which are often purchased together with lunch boxes, rose by 12.4%, while processed meat products increased by 14.0%, instant rice by 15.5%, and soup and rice bowl dishes by 20.1% compared to the previous month.

Following the Itaewon incident, as multiple confirmed cases occurred in some companies and anxiety spread among office workers, demand shifted from restaurants where many people gather during lunch to convenience store solo dining menus.

The government emergency disaster relief funds distributed from this month, which can be easily used without daily limits at nearby convenience stores, have also been a significant advantage for office workers.

Cho Sung-wook, head of the Ready-to-Eat Food Team at BGF Retail, said, “COVID-19, which had somewhat calmed down, reignited this month due to infection cases originating from Itaewon, leading to strengthened social distancing among office workers again. We will contribute to customer convenience and store sales improvement by launching various ready-to-eat menus and related promotions for solo diners visiting CU.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.