Major sales begin this weekend at big retailers

Major department stores in Korea plan to run their ritual year-end bargain sales one week longer than previous years to encourage consumers to open their wallets, industry sources said yesterday. The year-end bargain sales start on Friday.

According to industry sources, department stores including Lotte, Hyundai and Shinsegae normally ran their year-end bargain sales for 10 days in 2000s.

But the retailers decided to run the event for one more week to boost sales of outerwear and coats that have been low due to unusually warm weather that lasted for weeks this month.

This month’s average weather was relatively warmer compared to the same period in previous years, and experts said this has hurt retailers’ sales of outerwear, which consumers buy the most to stay warm in the cold winter season.

Seoul’s average temperature remained 16.7 degrees Celsius (62 degrees Fahrenheit) in November this year, 6.6 degrees higher than an average 10.1 degrees Celsius recorded the year before.

By Kim Mi-ju [mijukim@joongang.co.kr]