'Gwangju Complex Shopping Mall' Resurfaces in Presidential Election Landscape... Retail Industry Remains Tight-Lipped

Experts: "Complex Shopping Mall Projects Should Not Be Politically Exploited"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, has pledged to attract a complex shopping mall to Gwangju, bringing back to the surface the 2015 plan by Shinsegae Group to develop a complex shopping mall in Seo-gu, Gwangju. At that time, Shinsegae planned a facility combining a complex shopping mall and a luxury hotel with a total floor area of 213,500㎡, but the project was canceled due to opposition from nearby small business owners and political circles. The distribution industry is refraining from commenting to avoid being caught up in political disputes between ruling and opposition parties.

A distribution industry official said on the 23rd, "There may be some expectations for the project to proceed, but since it is related to political circles, the industry will find it difficult to take a clear stance."

Gwangju is a city where the opening of a complex shopping mall can be expected to yield results. This is because there are currently no large warehouse-type discount stores like Costco or IKEA, as well as no complex shopping malls. At the end of last month, Lotte Mart converted its existing Sangmu branch into a warehouse-type discount store called 'Max,' which recorded sales more than three times higher than the same period last year within just over a month, and attracted four times as many customers compared to when it operated as a large supermarket.

However, given that the offline operation strategies of the distribution industry have changed significantly compared to seven years ago, re-pursuing trillion-won scale investments is not an easy decision, and opposition from surrounding self-employed and small business owners remains a hurdle. Back in 2015, merchants near the hotel construction site opposed the agreement and held protests in front of the city hall demanding the project be stopped. The Shinsegae Complex Shopping Mall Opposition Committee was also formed and conducted a 16-day hunger strike in front of the city hall.

Experts point out that this issue should not be exploited recklessly by political circles.

Seo Yong-gu, a professor in the Department of Business Administration at Sookmyung Women's University, said, "Complex shopping malls have advantages such as job creation, but they also have a dual effect, including the decline of nearby commercial districts, making it a consistently complex issue," adding, "In such circumstances, the market should be entrusted with this matter, and political circles should not use complex shopping malls as a bargaining chip with voters."

Lee Eun-hee, a professor in the Department of Consumer Studies at Inha University, also said, "The fact that there has been no complex shopping mall in Gwangju means, from the consumer's perspective, that residents have missed out on various benefits enjoyed by people in other cities," but criticized, "However, using this issue politically based on ideology is unacceptable."

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