Emart introduces 'The Limited' low-priced groceries

Emart launches ″The Limited″ items from Friday to attract customers with low prices. [EMART]

Emart will introduce low-priced products each quarter to stabilize grocery prices.

“The Limited” sales promotion includes ready-cooked meals, trays of eggs, wine, instant ramyeon, gim (laver) and samgyeopsal (pork belly). They will be sold at a price as low as half of the original price, Emart announced on Tuesday.

For the first quarter, Emart will sell 48 products, 15 fresh foods, 27 processed foods and six daily supplies, from Friday to March 31. For the second quarter, the list will be released in April.

The retailer began preparing for this project from last year by making bulk purchases, improving the distribution process, signing early contracts and finding new suppliers.

By signing an exclusive contract with the only supplier in Korea that raises white egg-laying hens to purchase 60 percent of its entire white egg production, Emart was able to lower the price for the tray of 30 eggs to 5,480 won, down 17 percent from the original price.

Emart also made a bulk purchase of rice three times the usual amount from its suppliers to lower the price of ready-cooked rice by 25 percent. A bundle of 10 ready-cooked rice packages will be sold at 9,980 won.

Instant “Snack Ramen” will come in packages of 10 instead of five under the “The Limited” logo. This increase streamlined the logistics process to bring down the price by 35 percent to 4,380 won.

Foreign wines usually take three to four months to be imported into Korea. However, Emart signed a contract with the U.S. supplier in August 2022 for the storage of “Persona Non Grata” in advance for next month’s promotion.

The early contract allowed Emart to purchase the red wine at an exchange rate 10 percent lower than September and October’s rate. The red wine will be sold at 19,800 won per bottle from Friday, about 33 percent lower than the overseas price of $24, or 29,520 won.

Samgyeopsal made with Dutch pork will be in stores at 9,980 won per kilogram. Emart has been sourcing its pork mainly from Spain, but a found new source of pork from the Netherlands. Dutch pork scored high marks in quality tests and was cheaper than Spanish pork.

Spanish pork became pricier when last year’s African swine fever change supply patterns. One kilogram of Spanish pork is sold at 11,980 won.

Emart brought down the production costs further by locating a pork processor in Korea with decent facilities but a low operation rate.

“Items under ‘The Limited’ are the integration of Emart’s 30-year-long product development capacity,” said Emart director of merchandise innovation Choi Jin-il. “'The Limited’ will continue launching low-price products each quarter to lower the groceries cost.”

BY SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]