Wine & More Macallan 25/30 limited sale
In front of the store, from two days before, ‘open run, homeless run’
On the 13th, a rare scene unfolded in front of a small liquor store in an apartment complex in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. There was a waiting line for ‘open run’ (waiting before the store opened and then running), and there were people who waited for two days before leaving the store to succeed in the open run. On this day, I was in order to buy a bottle of the high-end whiskey ‘Macallan Sherry Oak 30 Years’ sold at this store.
An employee of the store said, “Customers who had been queuing for two days before sales of Macallan 30 Year Old started buying it as soon as the store opened on the 13th.”
A similar situation occurred at a store in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, and a store in Suseong-gu, Daegu, which sold the same product. Customers who stayed in front of the store for more than one night ‘got’ the Macallan 30 Year Old.
Among them, there were people who prepared for a long-term battle with camping tools such as tents and blankets. The reason why these people were willing to go through such hardships is that high-quality whiskey, which has recently increased in popularity, is sold in limited quantities, only one bottle at a few domestic liquor stores.
Shinsegae L&B’s liquor distribution store, Wine & More, sells popular whiskeys Macallan Sherry Oak 25 and 30 Years on the 13th and 14th at local stores. In particular, the 30-year-old was sold in only three locations in Hwaseong, Bucheon, and Daegu, Gyeonggi-do, so competition for purchase was fierce. Despite the high prices of 25-year-old and 30-year-old products of 3.59 million won and 6.89 million won, respectively, most of them were sold out as soon as they opened.
Recently, whenever a popular limited edition whiskey like this is sold, a line has appeared from several hours in advance, but it is unusual to have a line like this one or two days before the release.
An office worker in his 30s, who had an open run to purchase Macallan 25 Year Old at Wine & More Seosomun in Seoul, said, “I paid my annual leave to the company and stood in line from 7:00 am, four hours before the store opened. In the morning, several people had to wait. I stopped by the front of the store,” he hinted. Another customer who succeeded in the opening run at Wine & More Gwanghwamun branch also said, “The price of whiskey is gradually rising, so I want to buy ‘now is the cheapest’. chose,” he said.
As the ‘home alcohol’ craze has blown since Corona 19 (new coronavirus infection), some popular whiskeys such as Macallan are in short supply to the extent that there is a saying that “they sell out as soon as they are put on the shelf.” The open run lined up in front of the store to get famous whiskey has become a normal occurrence. As news spread that a whiskey event where customers might purchase Balvenie, Hibiki, and Yamazaki was recently held at E-Mart, hundreds of people waited in line at stores across the country even before the opening.
Prices continue to rise as supply cannot keep up with demand. The resale (resale) market price soars rapidly, so once you buy a product, you can resell it at up to two to three times higher price. The 30-year-old Macallan Sherry Oak sold at the Wine & More store on this day is priced at over 10 million won in the resale market. If it succeeds in the open run, it is equivalent to earning more than 3 million won in resale transactions.
An official from Wine & More said, “Because of the whiskey craze, we put a lot of effort into the waiting system because we only stock one bottle of rare products per store.” We took measures in advance, such as distributing waiting tickets an hour before the doors opened.”
Ahn Hye-won / Lee Hyeon-ju, Hankyung.com reporter [email protected]
