CU Opens K-Haengseong 1st Store... Expanding Brand Character Universe

The First Flagship Store at Olympic Plaza Branch

CU announced on the 3rd that it has opened its first flagship store, ‘K-Planet Store No.1,’ at Olympic Square in Songpa-gu, Seoul, and is expanding the universe of its own brand character ‘CU Friends.’

CU introduced Heyro Friends in 2016 and rebranded them as CU Friends last year, utilizing them as material for various online and offline content. This flagship store is based on a fictional story where Kero, who flew from K-Planet beyond the universe, discovers the coveted purple CU on Earth and opens CU’s first store on K-Planet.

Unlike regular stores, the store’s center features a circular checkout counter and instant cooking area, symbolizing Kero’s control tower. Around this, three sides of the store are arranged as display spaces to expand product storage while enhancing traffic flow efficiency, offering a new shopping experience. Large LED screens and hologram media are installed throughout the store, delivering various content including CU Friends videos, steady-selling products, the CU Tube channel, this month’s events, and ICU’s missing person search.

Exterior view of the CU flagship store. [Photo by BGF Retail]

CU Friends figures are introduced for the first time. These products can be purchased through the membership application Pocket CU, which is linked by scanning the QR code placed in the store. The range of CU Friends merchandise will be gradually expanded in the future.

Various customer participation events are being held. All customers visiting CU Olympic Square store will receive a welcome gift. By turning the lottery machine placed in the store, customers can win various prizes including the commemorative CU Friends grip tok. Participation is possible by following CU’s Instagram and commenting on related content. Additionally, customers can decorate the LED large screen of K-Planet Store No.1 themselves. By uploading photos with messages to a separate link on CU’s Instagram, the best photos will be selected and uploaded to the LED screen.

A BGF Retail official said, “We opened this first flagship store to present CU’s unique brand story, differentiated products, and a new shopping space tailored to a new lifestyle,” adding, “We will continuously monitor customer responses and strengthen brand distinctiveness through flagship stores with various concepts.”

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