Black Friday strategy worked: Sales soar with ultra-low-priced fresh food

[Anchor]

The large-scale discount event, Korea Sale Festa, will begin tomorrow (Nov. 9).

More than 2,600 companies, including large supermarkets and electronics manufacturers, are participating, marking it the largest scale ever.

Attention is on whether consumers, whose wallets have been tightly shut due to high prices, will start spending.

Lee Rang reports.

[Report]

At a large supermarket that has reopened after a makeover, long lines formed even before the opening hours.

People gathered to buy items like abalone, which are being sold at discounts of up to 50% off the regular price.

To attract customers with fresh food, this large supermarket has directly imported jumbo lobsters from Russia.

As a result, sales of seafood and meat products have surged significantly compared to a year ago.

[Noh Seung-soo/Homeplus PR Team Leader: "We have made efforts to ease the burden of high grocery prices, and we have worked hard to supply good products at low prices by going directly to the production sites."]

This large supermarket, which started the event a day earlier than its competitors, has promoted 'half-price beef' as its flagship product.

They are selling U.S. chuck eye rolls, some Korean beef items, and marinated meats at 50% off, leading to a threefold increase in meat sales compared to the same period last year.

[Jung Yong-taek/Lotte Mart Seoul Station Deputy Manager: "We are doing a lot of 50% discounts and buy one get one events, so customers who came for those are also buying many other products."]

A supermarket that started its fresh food discount event early achieved a daily sales record of 100 billion won for the first time ever.

In this era of high prices, the supermarket's strategy of promoting 'cheap and fresh food' is leading to increased sales.

[Lee Eun-sook/Seoul resident: "Everything's so expensive nowadays, so I often have to consider prices for what I eat. It feels good when prices drop. It's nice to see that there are sales like this."]

Starting tomorrow, the Korea Sale Festa, known as the national shopping festival, will kick off.

With over 2,600 companies participating in this event, which is the largest ever, discounts will be expanded across automobiles, electronics, food, clothing, and cultural leisure sectors, which is expected to help stimulate consumption.

KBS News, Lee Rang.