Cheongnyangni Market in Seoul's Dongdaemun District on the 21st, three days before Chuseok. Shoppers streamed past stalls piled with meat, seasoned vegetables and produce for the holiday table. Merchants pitched their goods to customers eyeing the displays, telling them the quality was good, but most turned away after checking the price tags. Vendors said in unison that fewer people were visiting the market than a year earlier despite the approaching holiday, and that sales were weak.
Guri Traditional Market in Guri, Gyeonggi Province, showed little expectation of a holiday windfall the same day. One rice cake shop hung a large sign advertising Chuseok rice cakes, but few customers stopped at the counter to choose any.
In a shaded spot inside the market, Kim Young-ja, 84, Ahn Soon-deok, 85, and Yang Man-gil, 71, sat side by side, talking about how the atmosphere had changed from holidays past. "These days people don't buy much, whether things are expensive or cheap," Kim said, shaking her head. "There's no reason to shop for this and that just because it's a holiday, the way there used to be."
Traditional markets that had counted on a Chuseok boost are struggling under the weight of high prices. Ahead of Chuseok, the biggest selling season of the year, the government expanded issuance of Onnuri gift certificates and ran rebate and discount events to revive traditional markets and spur spending, but most merchants said they felt little of it. With more people also skipping the full holiday routine, markets are less lively than in past years.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups projected that the business survey index for traditional markets would improve sharply this month from August, but merchants said they did not see it. A fruit and vegetable vendor in their 30s at Cheongnyangni Market said fruit gift sets had not sold as well as expected this year. "The number of people coming to the market has dropped a lot, not just during peak seasons like Chuseok but on ordinary days too," the vendor said, adding that cheaper farm and fisheries prices would encourage people to buy more and visit traditional markets, but that prices had risen so much it was hard to expect even that.
Yoon Ae-ran, in her late 50s, who sells traditional confections at the same market, said customers were extremely careful about every purchase. "There are countless cases where someone who was going to buy three ends up buying just two," she said. "Even when a lot of people come, wallets don't open easily." Kang Chang-won, 60, who works at a fruit shop in Guri Traditional Market, said promotional banners for Onnuri certificates and other local currencies were hung up in large letters, but only the people who already use them do. "It doesn't seem to make sales jump or bring in many more customers," he said.
The government has supported traditional markets for years, yet their number keeps falling. Traditional markets numbered 1,403 in 2024 and 1,392 last year, a decline of 11. The drop in stores inside those markets is steeper. Store numbers reached 240,000 in 2021 and held at 220,000 to 230,000 over the following three years before falling sharply to 198,914 last year. Along with rising prices, one cited reason is that government support such as Onnuri rebate events covers only some categories of agricultural, livestock and fisheries goods.
Merchants point to a gap between sectors that receive the government's consumption-boosting measures and those that do not, and say broader steps are needed to revive traditional markets as a whole. Shin Jae-ho, vice president of the Guri Traditional Market merchants' association, said the market has about 350 stores and only about 10% received benefits this time. "At the eligible stores the effect was unmistakable, with customers lining up for an hour," Shin said. "But events like this did not translate into revitalizing the entire market."
Others say what is needed is not simply a spending boost but a clear reason for people to come to traditional markets. Lee Chung-hwan, head of the National Merchants Association, said the holiday windfall had disappeared from traditional markets as consumers continued to feel the economy weakening. "Traditional markets are clearly less competitive than large discount chains and online platforms," Lee said. "We need firm policy that can imprint on people a reason to go to a traditional market anyway."
