"To a Sports Fandom Sanctuary"... GS25 Opens Specialized Convenience Store with FC Seoul

GS Retail's convenience store GS25 announced on the 16th that it will collaborate with GS Sports to launch a sports-specialized convenience store themed around the professional football team FC Seoul. This is to commemorate the 20th anniversary of GS Group's founding and to provide differentiated experiences to customers of both companies.

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GS25 will newly renovate the GS25 Yeonnam Hanyang branch near Hongdae Entrance Station in Mapo-gu, Seoul, as a specialized store and reopen it on the 17th. Considering accessibility, symbolism, and topicality comprehensively, the location was chosen for its high proportion of customers in their 10s to 30s and the most active foot traffic. The specialized store will operate as a permanent store, not a one-time pop-up.

The specialized store covers an area of 43 pyeong (144㎡) and features key elements of a football stadium inside and outside the store, along with FC Seoul's emblem, symbolic colors, and mascot.

The exterior of the store is designed with a football stadium concept. GS25 applied the stadium's unique diagonal structure, where the building's outer wall narrows from top to bottom, and enhanced the spatial depth by cross-utilizing FC Seoul's strong red color and glass walls in the exterior interior. At the entrance, a specially made large sculpture of FC Seoul's mascot 'Seed,' standing 150 cm tall, is installed. The outdoor terrace is covered with artificial turf to create an atmosphere as if standing on a football field.

Inside the store, the left side is the convenience store area, and the right side features a space reminiscent of FC Seoul players' locker rooms. The locker room space operates as an FC Seoul exclusive corner, selling over 80 types of goods including uniforms, apparel, and cheering items. A dedicated photo zone is installed, and football-shaped chairs are provided, creating various special spaces for FC Seoul fans.

The number of sports-specialized stores operated by GS25 has expanded to a total of five. Previously opened specialized stores for the Hanwha Eagles and LG Twins have grown into offline hubs for sports fans, generating branding and direct sales growth effects for GS25.

Lee Jeong-pyo, Head of Marketing Division at GS Retail, said, "We have grandly opened the FC Seoul specialized store, which embodies the design and operational know-how of sports-specialized convenience stores owned by GS25." He added, "We aim to further advance differentiated marketing strategies such as store planning, space production, and events that can meet the expectations of sports fandoms with high loyalty and voluntary spread power, and to make a great leap as a culture retail platform."

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