Spending Time with Pets Instead of Visiting Hometown Due to COVID-19
Sales Increase for Pet Hanbok and Snacks
[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Saeng-hye] Office worker Kim Dooyeon (35) plans to spend this Chuseok at her rented home with her two pet dogs instead of visiting her hometown in the provinces. She felt that traveling long distances using public transportation was risky due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Kim prepared a simple holiday meal with home meal replacement (HMR) products and also ordered a set of hanbok and a set of songpyeon snacks for her pets.
This Chuseok, due to the impact of the COVID-19 spread, overseas travel and hometown visits are expected to decrease significantly, leading to an increase in people spending time with their pets. Accordingly, demand for pet-exclusive Chuseok food and snack packages, as well as pet hanbok, is rising. Online pet malls operated by food companies are offering special Chuseok meal packages and actively running discount events.
On the 27th, Dumun, a human-grade natural food brand for dogs operated by Goobne, is currently selling the 'Daengdaeng Full Moon Package' on its online mall. This special offer provides a 50% discount, reducing the price of 21 packs of Dumun nutritional special meals from 68,400 KRW to 33,900 KRW. A Dumun representative said, "We prepared this special event so consumers can purchase Dumun products at an affordable price for Chuseok," adding, "This set has shown a 260% increase in sales compared to other special packages and is gaining popularity."
Dongwon F&B held the 2020 Chuseok Full Table event from the 21st to the 25th on the online pet specialty mall 'Chuchu.com.' The event offered a half-price discount on bulk purchases of NutriPlan cans, a collaboration between Dongwon and the webtoon Ppojjatoon. Additionally, 70 popular snacks including NutriPlan, Cesar, and Chao Churu were discounted by up to 87%. A Dongwon F&B representative said, "Thanks to various Chuseok commemorative events besides this package, Chuchu.com's cumulative sales from the 1st to the 20th of this month increased by 30% compared to the previous month."
Harim Pet Food, a subsidiary of Harim, also launched a 20% discount event on gift sets called 'Have a Full Chuseok with Your Pets' from the 14th to the 27th. The 'Dog Table' set, which includes food and snacks such as The Real Gold Dew, grain-free oven-baked beef, jerky chicken breast, puff original, slim chicken breast, and a food bowl, is discounted from 30,000 KRW to 24,000 KRW. The 'Cat Table,' which includes The Real Grain-Free Cat Crunch, slim chicken breast, creamy three types, and a food bowl, is discounted from 50,000 KRW to 40,000 KRW.
A Harim Pet Food representative explained, "Recently, the pet humanization trend, where pets are treated like people, has become widespread, and consumption for pets is steadily increasing," adding, "Following this trend, we first created gift sets for pets during last year's holidays, and sales have increased every holiday since." Notably, this year they also diversified sales channels for holiday gift sets to convenience stores such as CU.
SSG.com, the integrated online mall of Shinsegae Group, announced that pet product sales increased by 43% during the recent week before Chuseok (September 11?17) compared to two weeks before last year's Chuseok (August 23?29).
During the same period, Gmarket's pet product sales also rose by 22%. Among these, sales of cat clothing including hanbok surged by 200%, and dog clothing sales increased by 20%.
Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government through the polling agency Realmeter on September 19?20 targeting 1,000 Seoul citizens about their Chuseok holiday plans revealed that 67.9% of Seoul citizens do not plan to visit family or relatives who do not live with them during the holiday, and 77% said they would stay only in Seoul throughout the holiday. Regarding reasons for not visiting, 79.2% answered "because of COVID-19."
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