The headquarters of Homeplus is seen closed in Seoul, July 3. Yonhap
The government's regulations on discount chain stores are facing growing criticism, with calls for the rules to be abolished or eased to help the offline retail sector survive intensifying competition from the fast-growing e-commerce industry.
Introduced in 2012 to protect traditional markets and small businesses, the regulations generally require large discount stores to close on the second and fourth Sunday of each month and prohibit them from operating or making deliveries between midnight and 8 a.m.
The initiative to ease or abolish the rules has gained momentum in the National Assembly and among market researchers, who argue the regulations are outdated and no longer reflect a retail market increasingly dominated by e-commerce.
The biggest criticism is that the regulations were crafted at a time when e-commerce had yet to emerge as a major retail force. Instead, discount chain stores dominated the market. Emart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus, the country's three largest discount store chains, generated a combined 37.2 trillion won ($24.4 billion) in sales in 2012 while operating a record 501 stores, surpassing department stores, traditional markets and convenience stores in sales, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. Their combined sales peaked at 39.5 trillion won in 2014.
