Homeplus reopens 67 stores and edges past last year, with a smaller basket

Homeplus reopened 67 temporarily closed hypermarket stores in South Korea on the 13th and took 10.6 billion won, about $7.2 million, in sales that day, up 1.2% from a year earlier, according to figures released by the company's labor union on the 14th ^[1][2]. The interesting part is not the total but the direction: a chain that had gone dark and is now working against a rehabilitation-plan deadline came back at slightly above last year's level rather than discovering its customers had permanently moved online ^[2][11].

The split was 8.9 billion won at the hypermarket outlets and 1.7 billion won from mall operations, which accounts for the whole figure ^[3][1]. Across 67 stores that is an average of roughly 158 million won per store for the day ^[2]. Seven named outlets did materially better: Gangseo, World Cup and Yeongdeungpo in Seoul each cleared 200 million won, and Buksuwon in Gyeonggi Province, Seongseo in Daegu, Asiad in Busan and the Ulsan store each landed in the 200-million-won range, roughly 27% above the chain average ^[6][7][5].

Food carried the day. Processed foods contributed 3.4 billion won, seafood and meat 2.5 billion won and agricultural products 1.1 billion won, a named subtotal of 7.0 billion won, or about 66% of all sales ^[4][4].

Now the number that complicates the story. Customer visits across the 67 stores rose 15% from a year earlier while sales rose 1.2%, which implies average spend per visitor fell about 12% ^[2][5][3]. That is the arithmetic of a reopening promotion, not of restored demand. Homeplus ran a "Homeplus is BACK" event for My Homeplus members from the 13th through the 16th, four days, with all Korean beef discounted by up to 50% and grade-two Korean beef sirloin at around 4,900 won per 100 grams on day one ^[8][9][7]. Deep discounts on meat pull traffic and depress ticket size at the same time. "More customers came to our stores on the first reopening day than we had expected," a Homeplus official said ^[10].

Two caveats belong on the record. The sales and traffic figures come from the labor union rather than from audited company disclosure ^[2]. And a single day compared against a single day a year ago implies a prior-year base of roughly 10.47 billion won, which is a thin foundation for any claim about structural recovery ^[6].

The deadline gives the datapoint its weight. Approval of Homeplus's rehabilitation plan is due on the 4th of next month, by which point the company must demonstrate its viability or move to a sale, roughly three weeks after the union published these numbers ^[11][12][8]. Day-one takings above last year are the kind of evidence a management team brings to that meeting.

What to watch: sales for the 17th onward, once the four-day member promotion has ended and the beef discount is gone, which is where the 15% traffic gain either holds or reverses ^[5][7]. Watch whether spend per visitor recovers toward last year's level or stays down about 12% ^[3]. Watch whether Homeplus itself publishes figures that match the union's ^[2]. And watch the 4th, because a viability case built on one promotional weekend is a case that can be tested quickly ^[11][12].