The rapid growth of e-commerce giant Coupang has been clipped recently upon the recent outbreak of COVID-19 infections at its logistics centers in addition to sudden deaths of its workers in the past months. On Wednesday, a civic group filed a complaint against Coupang’s founder and CEO Kim Bom-suk, claiming that his firm failed to inform customers properly about the COVID-19 cases of its employees. The civic group, named “People’s livelihood solution committee (directly tr

SPC Group said Wednesday it will open a Shake Shack store in Daegu in July, its first in the city. According to the company, the new Daegu store will be located in Dongseongno Spark, a shopping mall with a theme park. It is the second outlet to be launched outside Seoul metropolitan area, after the store in Busan, which opened in July 2019. The lot is currently covered with a colorful hoarding art depicting the city’s skyline, for which the company cooperated with Xeva a graffiti arti

Pernod Ricard Korea said Wednesday it has renewed the bottle design of Ballantine’s to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its flagship scotch whisky, and presented a limited edition of a drink ritual kit. According to the liquor maker, the new packaging design has added modern tint to strengthen Ballantine’s 30-year iconic luxuriousness. The new bottle boasts a sleek exterior, and the golden label design stresses its best quality. All of Ballantine’s 17-year, 21-year and 30-y

Homeplus said Wednesday it has partnered with Badajari, a seafood company, to launch a raw fish delivery service on its mobile shopping app. The app, dubbed Homplus Fish market, is a service linked to Noryangjin Fish Market, aimed to expand the distribution network for the traditional market, the company said. The new service offers a same-day delivery of raw fish menus prepared from the Noryangjin Fish Market. An order made before 2 p.m. would be delivered to the customer by 6 to 8 p.m. on

SEJONG -- Online shopping jumped 12.5 percent from a year earlier in April, data showed Wednesday, as the coronavirus pandemic prompted consumers to buy more goods via e-commerce platforms. The value of online transactions came to 12.26 trillion won ($9.98 billion) in the month, up 1.3 trillion won from the same month last year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The increase followed a 11.8 percent on-year gain in March. The sharp increase in March was largely attributed to the p

LG Household & Health Care said Tuesday it has gained a business license to sell GlaxoSmithKline’s skin care brand Physiogel in Asia and North America, for 190 billion won ($155 million). Physiogel is a derma cosmetics brand that was launched in Germany, and is sold in a number of countries in Asia, Europe and South America. The company said it plans to strengthen its presence in the global markets with its acquirement of Physiogel, which comes after the company’s takeover o

Lotte Shopping said Tuesday it has introduced a new remote working system for its 3,200 employees working at its headquarters, whereby they can work at home once a week. The retail arm of Lotte Group is the second affiliate to introduce the remote working system, after Lotte Holdings, which initiated the system from May 25. Lotte Department Store, Lotte Supermarket and the e-commerce branch introduced the system from Monday, while Lotte Mart is due to start beginning this month. Lohbs, its h

Amorepacific Group, a leading cosmetics firm here, said Tuesday it has set a new action principle “ABC Spirit” for employees in South Korea and around the world to share. Holding a proclamation ceremony at the Seoul headquarter in Seoul on Monday, the company’s Chairman Suh Kyung-bae announced the “five action plans” connected with the ABC spirit, to its employees in both South Korea and overseas branches. “I will do my best to get through this period of

Following the global popularity of chapaguri -- instant noodle dish that came into the limelight due to Oscar-winning movie “Parasite” -- Nongshim said Monday it is participating in auctions to purchase kelps, a key ingredient, to meet surging demand. Chapaguri is a mixture of Nongshim’s Chapaghetti black bean instant noodle and Neoguri, a soup-based instant noodle. The menu was translated as “ram-don” in English subtitles in the movie. According to No

Amorepacific, a leading cosmetics manufacturer here, launched Enough Project on Monday, a vegan-friendly lifestyle brand highlighting practicality. Under the new brand, Amorepacific presented seven new products including cleansing oil, essential lotion products and sun screen. The products are all vegan-friendly, with no animal testing and no animal-derived ingredients, the company said. According to the company, its main moisturizing cream has beta-hyaluronic acid, which is 1.5 times more a

Samyang Foods said Monday it will open limited sales of the export-version of Buldak Spicy Chicken noodles on its online mall for Korean consumers for the first time. The products include the original Spicy Buldak Chicken noodle, Carbonara Spicy Buldak Chicken noodle, 3X Haek Buldak Spicy Chicken noodle -- known as 3X Fire Noodle among non-Korean speakers -- and Corn Spicy Buldak Chicken noodle. All four products do not include meat-derived ingredients, the company said. While the original a

Coupang under fire for inaction, authorities struggle to contain further spread

E-commerce platform giant Coupang said Tuesday it has closed its Bucheon logistics center in Gyeonggi Province and conducted disinfection of the facility after at least 10 COVID-19 cases are confirmed to be linked with its employees there. According to the company, it will take additional fumigation measures at the center and also check on around 3,700 employees, which includes workers at the center and also those who visited the center from May 12 to Monday. “We sterilize the products

Starbucks Korea said Tuesday that it has expanded the number of Reserve stores selling Teavana drinks to 52 from 13 amid the growing popularity of tea. According to the coffee chain, sales of tea drinks have grown about 20 percent annually since it launched Teavana here in 2016. Its flagship Honey Ruby Grapefruit Black Tea, rolled out in 2016, is now its third-most-frequently ordered drink, after Americano and caffe latte, among customers in their 20s, Starbucks Korea said. Sales of green te

   South Korean duty-free stores saw their sales drop sharply below the 1 trillion-won ($804 million) mark in April, feeling the pinch of the fallout from the new coronavirus, industry data showed Tuesday. Combined sales of local duty-free shops shrank 9.2 percent on-month to 986.7 billion won last month, according to the data from the Korea Duty Free Shops Association. The number halved from January, the data showed. The number of visitors to duty-free outlets came to around 354,00