"Identifying Products with Barcodes"... Boycott Movement Intensifies

SPC Group Chairman Heo Young-in and employees are offering a public apology on the 21st at the SPC headquarters in Seocho-gu, Seoul, regarding the recent employee death accident at the affiliate SPL. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] The boycott movement continues to spread relentlessly following the death of a worker at an SPC Group-affiliated bakery factory.

According to industry sources on the 30th, recently, there has been a movement online to share lists of SPC Group affiliates, including SPC Group products and stores such as Paris Baguette, Baskin-Robbins, Dunkin, Samlip, and Shani, on websites. The intention is to encourage consumption of local bakeries or other brand products instead of SPC Group affiliates' products.

A website called 'Gam:Bbangjip' has emerged, which identifies whether a product is from SPC by scanning its barcode, and an open-source software community on GitHub is sharing lists of SPC affiliates.

The number of users of the Happy Point application (app), which accumulates points after purchasing SPC products, has also decreased. According to Mobile Index by big data platform company IGAWorks, on the day of the accident, the 15th, the combined daily active users (DAU) of the Happy Point app on Google Play Store and Apple App Store was about 628,000, but the next day it dropped by 8% to 578,000.

Some voices have called for using up all Happy Point points to impact the group's sales. On social networking services (SNS), there is also a movement sharing methods of exchanging mobile gift certificates and other means, urging users to use their points down to the last 100 won before withdrawing.

As the boycott spreads, franchise owners are also suffering damages. Especially among the younger generation, the boycott continues, and stores near major universities such as Paris Baguette and Dunkin' Donuts have seen sales drop by about 30%.

SPC Group has decided to accept returns of certain types of bread after discussing with the Paris Baguette Franchise Owners Association to support franchise owners affected by the boycott. The SPC headquarters plans to allow returns of 13 types of products delivered in finished form, including Soboru bread, red bean bread, and sliced bread. An SPC official said, "The headquarters intends to repurchase products that were not sold within the expiration date."

Earlier, a worker in his 20s died in a crushing accident during bread sauce mixing work at the SPL bakery factory in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, affiliated with SPC Group. Following this, SPC Chairman Heo Young-in issued a public apology promising measures to prevent recurrence, but just two days after the announcement, on the 23rd, a finger amputation accident occurred at Shani's Seongnam factory, another SPC affiliate, intensifying consumer outrage.