2024-02-11 11:30:01
Inside an old stationery store in Seoul. Photo = Reporter Ahn Hye-won A stationery store near an elementary school in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, recently sold products at cost prices ahead of its closure. Dust had accumulated on faded origami sets, various game devices, and toys such as puzzles and blocks. Even products that were sold 20 to 30 years ago remained in stock, and the selling price ranged from a few hundred won to 2,000 to 3,000 won.
Fortunately, most of the customers who visited the stationery store were adults in their 30s and 40s, not elementary school students. Most of them said they came here from distant places on purpose because they wanted to relive old memories. There was also someone who came from Ulsan to buy old gaming equipment that was sold around 1995.
An official at this stationery store said, “There were days when daily sales were less than 20,000 won. As you can see, most of our customers these days are adults who collect old toys.” He said, “Children these days rarely buy the supplies they need for school and kindergarten, so they don’t bother looking for stationery stores.”
Stationery stores in front of elementary, middle, and high schools are disappearing. Last December, a large stationery store near a subway station in Daegu closed. Stationery stores that have been in business for decades across the country are closing or reorganizing their stores. A stationery store near an elementary school in Incheon. Photo = Reporter Hyewon Ahn Like this, local stationery stores where children used to bring pocket money to buy food or school supplies have now disappeared into memories and become difficult to find nearby.
According to Statistics Korea on the 11th, the number of stationery retail stores nationwide decreased from 10,620 in 2017 to 9,468 in 2019. About 500 companies disappear every year. From 2019 onwards, they have been excluded from Statistics Korea, so the exact situation is unknown, but it is estimated that there are currently around 8,000 stationery retail stores (excluding unmanned stores, estimated by the Korea Stationery Distribution Industry Cooperative) remaining.
The main reason for the disappearance of ‘stationery stores in front of schools’ is the low birth rate. This is because the number of young children is decreasing. Analyzing the results of the Ministry of Education’s ‘estimate of the number of elementary, middle, and high school students’, it is predicted that the number of elementary, middle, and high school students this year will drop to 4.833 million in 2026. Five years later, in 2029, the number is predicted to be 4.275 million, a 16.7% decrease from this year.
In addition, the decline of stationery stores has accelerated since 2011 when the ‘Study Preparation Support System’ was implemented to reduce the financial burden on students. The explanation is that the number of students visiting stationery stores in person has decreased as schools purchase learning supplies, such as comprehensive books, in bulk from companies that bid on them through the ‘School Marketplace’ and distribute them to students.
As online stationery shopping malls and large household goods stores selling school supplies at low prices are springing up, stationery stores in front of schools have lost their place. As of 2022, Daiso operates 1,442 stores nationwide. Many children flock here because they can freely purchase a variety of products, including stationery and snacks, at a low price of regarding 1,000 to 2,000 won.
There is also an analysis in the industry that when one Daiso store opens, 6 to 8 stationery retailers will close. In addition, large online stationery shopping malls such as Artbox and Hottracksma continue to emerge. A store selling snacks near an elementary school in the Gyeonggi area. Photo = Reporter Ahn Hye-won Existing stationery stores have reduced the burden by operating every other day or increased sales of cheap snacks and ice cream instead of stationery and toys, but they are also having to compete with unmanned food stores that are sprouting up in front of schools recently.
In fact, around 1 p.m. on the 3rd, there was not a single student in a stationery store in front of an elementary school in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon, but there were regarding 10 students in an unmanned ice cream shop in a building right nearby. Students who buy 1,000 won snacks are flocking to unmanned franchise food stores that are newly built, inexpensive, and have a wide variety of products.
An owner who has run a stationery store in Incheon for over 40 years said, “A long time ago, there were stationery stores lined up along the road next to the elementary school in this area, but they are all a thing of the past.” “As things started to decrease, they closed one by one regarding 10 years ago, and our store became the only stationery store in the neighborhood,” he said.
The owner of another stationery store in Jinhae, Gyeongsangnam-do said, “There was a time when we were making 4 to 5 million won in sales a month by selling gym uniforms during the new semester.” He added, “Business is almost non-existent now, but we are holding on because it is something we continue to do. “But I’m getting older, so I think it’s difficult for me to run a business anymore,” he confessed.
Reporter Ahn Hye-won of Hankyung.com [email protected]
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