On March 13 at around 1 p.m. at the Homeplus store in Goyang City, Gyeonggi Province. Despite being a Sunday afternoon, the store was generally quiet. Shopping carts that did not meet customers were lined up long in the entrance's cart storage, and the aisles between the merchandise displays were empty, visible all the way to the other end.
Everywhere in the store, placards with the message "Let's cheer up! Homeplus" were hung against a red background. Most displayed products had conditional discount tags attached, available for specific company card users or Homeplus members. Of the 10 checkout counters located near the exit, only three had staff assigned to them. Even those were quiet, and it was common to see interruptions in the checkout processes.
At roughly the same time, Emart Traders KINTEX, about 1 km away, was bustling with customers. There were many people pulling shopping carts down the aisles, making it difficult to move forward. The checkout counters near the store exit were crowded, with lines even at the self-checkout counters where customers scan their own barcodes.
After filing for corporate rehabilitation at the Seoul Bankruptcy Court on the 4th of last month, Homeplus seems to be drifting gradually away from consumer interest despite a series of discount events.
Homeplus held its 28th anniversary discount event "Homeplun is back (Feb. 28 - Mar. 12)" from February 28, just before and after starting the corporate rehabilitation process, and immediately after that, it launched the "Encore! Homeplun is back (Mar. 13-16)" event.
Moreover, the company has been running the "Homeplun Appreciation Event for Customers" from the 27th of last month to the 2nd of this month, and is currently conducting the "Let's cheer up! Homeplus" discount event from the 10th to the 16th of this month. This appears to be aimed at quickly boosting sales to secure sufficient cash flow and to prevent delays in supplier settlement and credit contraction.
This management approach has yielded some results. The company announced that last month's sales were similar to the level of the same period last year, and customer numbers at Homeplus offline large supermarkets nationwide increased by about 5% from the same period last year over the past six months (last October to this March).
However, some in the industry express concern that Homeplus's management method, which relies on discount events, may not be sustainable. As the proportion of private brand (PB) products increases to fill supply gaps, consumer choices are narrowing, and continued discounts are bound to deteriorate revenue.
There is still the possibility of additional departures from suppliers. Seoul Dairy, citing delays in settling existing supply payments and uncertainty regarding future payments, ceased deliveries to all Homeplus and Homeplus Express stores starting on the 20th of last month. Major food and beverage companies, including OTOKI, Nongshim, Dongsuh, Samyang Foods, LOTTE Wellfood, and LOTTE Chilsung Beverage, also temporarily halted deliveries immediately after the corporate rehabilitation process began, before resuming.
Since the suspension of deliveries from Seoul Dairy, Homeplus's milk display shelves now feature products bearing the Homeplus PB "simplus" logo, occupying about half of the space. An industry official noted, "For PB products produced in collaboration with manufacturers, the store can flexibly manage orders and inventory compared to regular branded products, which also minimizes distribution margins, resulting in lower prices."
The total amount of debt listed on the creditor list submitted by Homeplus to the Seoul Bankruptcy Court on the 10th amounts to 2.696 trillion won. Even excluding already paid commercial rehabilitation debts and deposits that do not need to be returned, the company must repay at least 2.27 trillion won.
Kim Byung-joo, chairman of MBK Partners, Homeplus's largest shareholder, reportedly provided a loan guarantee of 60 billion won in response to increasing negative public sentiment following the corporate rehabilitation decision, and has also contributed some of his own funds for settling commercial debts. However, there are ongoing criticisms that the scale of his contributions is insufficient compared to the amount that needs to be repaid.
As the Homeplus crisis exceeds 40 days and drags on, there are analyses suggesting that domestic large mart competitors are gaining indirect benefits. Last month, Emart's stock price, which was around 76,000 won on the 4th, closed at 86,400 won on the 11th after rising approximately 13.7% (10,400 won).
Park Sang-jun, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, stated in a recent report that "In the short term, as U.S. tariff issues gain prominence, there is a growing possibility that uncertainty will expand across the domestic consumer market," while also noting that "Emart and LOTTE Mart can expect indirect benefits from the weakening operational power of Homeplus, which has entered corporate rehabilitation." He added, "This is due to Homeplus's weakened negotiating power with suppliers, resulting in difficulties in securing a normal supply of major product brands."
A Homeplus official stated, "There may be differences in the number of visiting customers depending on the store's location and time, but overall, we expect this month's sales not to decrease compared to last year. There are currently no unusual operational issues."