Korea's traditional markets have shed 41,086 stalls since 2021

Divide the stalls by the markets and the loss shows up as thinning inside the markets that stayed open. Last year's 198,914 stores sat inside 1,392 markets ^[15][14], about 143 stalls each ^[1]. In 2024 the country had 1,403 markets holding 220,000 to 230,000 stores ^[14][15], or 157 to 164 each ^[2]. So the average market emptied by 14 to 21 stalls in a single year ^[3]. Closures took out 11 markets, 0.8% of the 2024 count ^[14][7], while the stall total fell between 9.6% and 13.5% ^[6].

Onnuri rebate events cover only some categories of agricultural, livestock and fisheries goods ^[16]. Shin Jae-ho, vice president of the Guri Traditional Market merchants' association, said his market has about 350 stores and only about 10% received benefits this time ^[17]. That is roughly 35 stalls inside the programme and 315 outside it ^[5]. "At the eligible stores the effect was unmistakable, with customers lining up for an hour," Shin said ^[18]. "But events like this did not translate into revitalizing the entire market." ^[19]

The accounts leave open whether the missing money went somewhere else. A fruit and vegetable vendor in their 30s at Cheongnyangni said fruit gift sets had not sold as well as expected this year ^[8]. Of traffic, the vendor said, "The number of people coming to the market has dropped a lot, not just during peak seasons like Chuseok but on ordinary days too" ^[9]. Lee Chung-hwan, head of the National Merchants Association, said the holiday windfall had disappeared as consumers continued to feel the economy weakening ^[20]. He also said "Traditional markets are clearly less competitive than large discount chains and online platforms" ^[21]. Both can be true. The article does not report sales figures for either market ^[8].

Yoon Ae-ran, who sells traditional confections at Cheongnyangni, put the change in basket size. "There are countless cases where someone who was going to buy three ends up buying just two," she said ^[10]. That detail cuts against a pure substitution story, because a shopper who has moved to a discount chain does not buy two of three at the stall she left. Kim Young-ja, 84, sitting in the shade inside the Guri market, said "These days people don't buy much, whether things are expensive or cheap" ^[4].

I weight the two causes unevenly. The stall count was already falling before this holiday ^[15], so most of the 41,086 ^[4] is a four-year story about where Koreans shop. The hour-long queues at Guri's eligible stalls ^[18] say demand appears when a price incentive points at it. A channel split would settle it. If national holiday spending held up while market footfall fell, the decline is share loss to the chains and platforms Lee named ^[21]. If both fell, the merchants are describing the consumer, and a rebate limited by product category ^[16] was aimed at the wrong half. Lee is asking for something other than a bigger rebate. "We need firm policy that can imprint on people a reason to go to a traditional market anyway," he said ^[22].