‘Whiskey Open Run’ from E-Mart in the morning
Sales of Balveni and Hibiki, etc.
6-7 days limited sale… “More crowds will come”
“It is too late. As soon as I opened the store in the morning, I ran out.”
Throughout the morning of the 6th, the entrance to the parking lot of the E-Mart store in Yongsan-gu, Seoul was lined with cars for regarding 600m. The surrounding traffic was paralyzed with cars waiting to enter. E-Mart in Seongsu-dong and Haengdang-dong had a similar situation. It was a weekday morning, when fewer people visit the mart, but E-Mart in the metropolitan area was crowded with people like this. Most of them asked questions such as “Where do you buy whiskey?” and “Do you have any whiskey left?”
This is because the whiskey event held by E-Mart attracted explosive attention, especially among the MZ (Millennials + Z) generation. At the entrance of each store, there were many people waiting in long lines from early morning before opening. Most of the items sold out early in the morning, so there were signposts announcing that they were sold out, but there were many people who visited to buy whiskey even in the followingnoon.
An employee at E-Mart in Yongsan-gu said, “As soon as the store opened in the morning, everything was sold out within 20 minutes. There are too many customers looking for whiskey all day.” An employee at an E-Mart store in another area also said, “We handed out numbered tickets even before opening. At this time, only customers who were waiting were able to purchase it,” he said. “The entire supply of 60 Balvenie 12-year-olds and 120 Balvenie 14-year-olds fell early in the morning.”
From this day, E-Mart is holding the ‘2022 Popular 7 Whiskey Event’ where you can purchase Balvenie and Hibiki. △Balveni 12-year-old Double Wood (700ml, KRW 99,800) △Balvenie 14-year-old Caribbean Cask (700ml, KRW 178,000) △Monkey Shoulder (700ml, KRW 51,800) △Hibiki Harmony (700ml) ㎖, 138,000 won) △Yamazaki 12 years (700ml, 298,000 won) △Macallan 12 years old double cask (700ml, 99,800 won) △Suntory Gakubin (700ml, 39,800 won) etc. can be bought. The purchase quantity per person is limited to a maximum of 2 bottles.
Although the mart prepared the largest-ever quantity, most of the stores sold out within 20 minutes of starting sales. E-Mart has secured regarding 10,000 bottles of whiskey by conducting preliminary planning with partner companies since Chuseok last year. In particular, regarding 6,000 bottles of ‘Balvenie 12-year-old Double Wood’, which has frequent ‘open runs’, were airlifted.
As the whiskey craze has grown stronger in recent years, lined up in front of a store to get a famous whiskey like Balvenie has become a common occurrence. Last year, when news broke that Costco, a warehouse-type discount store, would sell Balveni 12-year-old doublewood gift sets, queues formed at stores across the country even before opening, and all supplies were sold out within five minutes. When E-Mart also sold ‘Balveni 14 Years Caribbean Cask’ through the application (app) Smart Order last year, the quantity was sold out within two hours.
The reason why E-Mart planned this event is that high-end alcoholic beverages such as whiskey are emerging as the core competitiveness of hypermarkets. According to E-Mart’s analysis of liquor sales, whiskey sales last year grew by more than 30% from the previous year. Whiskey’s popularity is growing as the ‘home alcohol’ craze blows following Corona 19. In particular, some popular whiskeys, such as Balvenie, are said to be sold as soon as they are put on the shelf. Prices continue to rise as supply cannot keep up with demand.
The event will run for two days until the 7th. On this last day, it is expected that more crowds will gather as it is a weekend and they plan to release products with high rarity such as Hibiki and Yamazaki. In particular, Yamazaki 12 Years is expected to be fiercely competitive to purchase as each store has fewer than 10 bottles.
Mr. Kim (29), who visited E-Mart in Yongsan-gu the day before to buy whiskey, said, “I expected that there would be a lot of people because the hard-to-find liquor was on sale, but I didn’t expect it to sell out so quickly.” I want to buy popular items such as Macallan,” he said. Another customer, Mr. Lee (35), said, “I plan to go to the store early tomorrow morning to buy 12-year-old Yamazaki.”
Ahn Hye-won/Lee Hyeon-ju, reporters at Hankyung.com anhw@hankyung.com
