'Gun-goguma' Surpasses 'Hoppang'... CU Convenience Store Becomes the Go-To Winter Snack Spot

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Roasted sweet potatoes have surpassed the popularity of steamed buns, the representative winter snack at convenience stores.

CU announced on the 22nd that an analysis of sales of major winter products over the past three months showed that sales of roasted sweet potatoes exceeded those of steamed buns for the first time in mid-January.

As of November last year, when winter officially began, sales of roasted sweet potatoes were only 65% of steamed bun sales. However, with explosive recent sales, roasted sweet potatoes currently lead steamed buns by 5.7% in sales, and per-store sales are an astonishing 7.3 times higher.

CU operates about 2,000 stores selling roasted sweet potatoes, while steamed buns are sold at about 13,000 stores. It is very unusual that a single-item product like roasted sweet potatoes has surpassed steamed buns, which are sold at six times more stores and come in more than ten varieties.

The growth rate in sales is even more overwhelming. In January this year, roasted sweet potato sales increased by 222.9% compared to the previous year, while steamed buns saw a single-digit growth of 5.1%.

The rising popularity of roasted sweet potatoes at convenience stores is due to the advantage of being able to purchase them individually at an affordable price 24 hours a day. Moreover, street vendors selling roasted sweet potatoes have gradually disappeared as rising raw material costs have eroded their price competitiveness, leading convenience stores to replace them.

In this trend, the number of convenience stores roasting sweet potatoes has been increasing every year. Convenience stores began selling roasted sweet potatoes in earnest in 2017. CU started with about 300 stores at the introduction stage, expanded to about 1,500 stores in 2018?five times more?and further increased to about 2,000 stores in 2019.

Kim Mingyu, Fresh Food Team Leader at BGF Retail, said, “As opportunities to enjoy roasted sweet potatoes in winter have gradually decreased, convenience stores have established themselves as an alternative purchase channel. With the rapid increase in roasted sweet potato sales, the number of stores wishing to operate them is growing daily, and we expect the number of stores selling them to increase to 4,000 by the end of this year.”