Animal marketing

A mother and her children look at a school of tropical fish on display at Shinsegae Department Store in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. (Photo : Shinsegae Department Store)

Department stores open small zoos to attract customers

Inside its glass tank a big turtle creeps toward a child tapping the glass as the animal sits down and closes its eyes. In the next cage an iguana is clinging to a dried piece of wood flicking its eerily long tongue in and out.

Nearby a mini aquarium is surrounded by several ladies who shout “wow” while their eyes are glued to a school of colorful tropical fish.

This is not a scene at an indoor zoo or aquarium but at the Shinsegae Department Store in Uijeongbu on the outskirts of Seoul. The store recently turned its giant auditorium on the eighth floor into a mini zoo where 200 species of animals and fish are on display. It’s open to Shinsegae membership card holders for free and to non-members at a reasonable price.

“The mini zoo has attracted more visitors to our department store,” said Shinsegae marketing executive Lee Jae-jin. “With the mercury hovering over 30 degree Celsius, more parents are visiting the indoor zoo with their children. As the number of visitors increases, so do the store’s sales.”

Several other department store chains in Seoul and its surrounding areas have also added mini zoo or aquariums in a desperate effort to catch the attention of customers and boost sales during this prolonged recession.

Korea’s department stores are grappling with declining profits and the situation shows little sign of improving in the near future.

They have come up with fresh ideas to tide themselves over, one of which was extending the period of the summer sales to nearly 40 days (from late June to mid-July), a record period and nearly double the length of previous years, but this hasn’t had much impact on profits.

Major chains Lotte and Shinsegae saw their monthly revenue rise merely 1.2 percent and 1.6 percent respectively at that time.

Last year department stores saw their monthly sales rise more than 10 percent due to their summer sales. Market watchers say that the disappointing figures show that even the middle class and high-income earners are wary to spend.

Overall revenue at Korean department stores and discount chains fell in June from a year earlier, according to Ministry of Knowledge Economy data. Combined sales of the three major department store chains ㅡ Lotte, Hyundai and Shinsegae ㅡ have been falling 2 percent annually. <The Korea Times/Park Si-soo>

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