Shinsegae rolls out innovation for pricey handbags

Shinsegae Department Store has shopping carts with a special holder for luxury purses.

In the grocery business, the basements of top-tier department stores are considered the best places to shop. They are designed to appeal to the affluent, who tend to buy expensive items on the higher floors and then visit the supermarket for food and other related items.

The department store noted that many customers with purses were carrying them on their arms instead of placing them in their shopping carts.

Shinsegae said that customers were carrying them so as not to scratch their handbags and that it has been searching the globe to find a product that would allow for the safe and easy carrying of these often expensive items.

It is not unusual for handbags to cost more than $10,000.

The breakthrough eventually came not from grocery stores but upscale restaurants that use fabric to hold bags for each table. Shinsegae used a specially-designed fabric to cover the child seats of the carts. This material was made to be waterproof and easily attachable and removable.

The company will wash and disinfect them on a daily basis.

The shopping cart for luxury purses is one of the three new options Shinsegae will introduce today, rolling them out first at its main branch in central Seoul, the Gangnam branch in southern Seoul and the Yeongdeungpo branch, western Seoul.

Apart from the traditional 100-liter cart that comes with a child seat, the department store will offer smaller 30-liter carts as well. They have a section beneath to put on plastic baskets,.

The new option was added due to an increase of single households that come to the department store’s grocery section to buy products in small batches. In the past, Shinsegae only offered one cart, so for small purchases, customers had to push the large 100-liter carts or carry around plastic baskets.

“We are widening cart options to resolve inconveniences that customers may have felt in the past. We will continue offering additional support by listening to the smallest complaints and opinions from our customers,” said Kim Jeong-sik, Shinsegae Department Store’s vice president.

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]