Wage and collective bargaining agreement negotiations between labor and management at Seoul city buses were recently settled. It came two days after the union launched a full strike starting with the first buses at dawn on the 13th. The strike ended quickly, but in the meantime, riders flocked to the subway. As people moved, spending moved too, giving subway-station convenience stores an unexpected boom.
According to the industry on the 18th, during the bus strike period (the 13th–14th), average sales at subway-station stores of the three major convenience chains (GS25, CU, 7-Eleven) rose 9.4% from the same period a week earlier. At some stores, sales jumped 78.5%.
As the bus strike increased walking and waiting times at subway stations, demand grew for products that could immediately relieve sweat, cold, and fatigue and for easy-to-eat meals on the move. At one convenience chain's subway-station stores, average sales of deodorant surged 381.7%. Other categories with higher sales during the same period included: ▲ hand warmers (27%) ▲ beer (26%) ▲ lunchboxes (23.2%) ▲ oriental herbal drinks (14.2%) ▲ masks (13%), among others.
A strike is a worker's right, but the public suffers inconvenience. That is the backdrop for subway-station convenience stores seeing a "bitter boom." This is not the first bitter boom. During the large-scale candlelight rallies amid the impeachment turmoil in 2016 and 2024, stores near Gwanghwamun and Yeouido in Seoul and Asung Daiso Co. saw sales of LED candles, batteries, hand warmers, and hot beverages surge. Each time everyday life is shaken by social unrest or protests (rallies) or transportation problems, someone's inconvenience repeatedly turns into someone else's sales.
This Seoul city bus strike wrapped up in two days. The industry believes that if the strike had lasted longer, the "light and shadow" from spending shifts would have stood out more. A retail industry official said, "When people's movement patterns change, sales move with them, so existing commercial districts or transit-linked areas inevitably take a hit." Another official said, "This time the strike was short, so the impact was limited, but if it had dragged on, some business districts or self-employed owners could have faced economic burdens."
The industry says the boom from this strike re-highlighted a "bitter structure" that repeats whenever similar events occur. A retail industry official said, "When transportation is blocked, it's not only users who are inconvenienced. The fortunes of small business owners diverge," adding, "For some, sales may rise, but for others, customers decrease or disappear, so it's hard to call it simply a 'boom.'"
Lee Eun-hee, a professor in the Department of Consumer Science at Inha University, said, "When routes change because of transportation issues or protests and rallies, overall consumption does not increase; only the spaces where consumption happens change," adding, "This is especially sensitive for convenience stores and small marts, where accessibility determines sales."