From dollar shop to tourist magnet: Daiso overtakes Lotte Mart, other retailers in sales

This article is by Kim Min-young and read by an artificial voice. Walk into the 12-story Daiso in Myeongdong on any afternoon and you will struggle to hear Korean. Tourists drag rolling suitcases up the stairs because the elevator line is too long. They fill baskets with 1,000 won ($0.68) snacks and 3,000 won cosmetics. Foreign card payments at Daiso rose 50 percent in 2024, 60 percent in 2025 and another 70 percent in the first three months of 2026. A store where almost nothing costs more than 5,000 won has become one of the hottest retail stories in Korea. The foreign tourist surge is one of the reasons Daiso is currently towering over its competitors. The dollar-shop chain that started out selling 1,000 won household goods in 1997 booked 4.54 trillion won in revenue last year, surpassing Lotte Mart's domestic sales for the first time and threatening the dominance of Korea's traditional mart giants. In operating profit, Daiso has already left them behind. The chain posted 442.4 billion won in operating profit in 2025, dwarfing Emart's supermarket division at 87.2 billion won and Lotte Mart, which swung to a 7 billion won operating loss for the year. Daiso's operating margin also exceeded 10 percent, significantly higher than the roughly 3 percent level seen at large discount store chains. When this Korea JoongAng Daily reporter visited the Myeongdong Station branch in Jung District, central Seoul, on Wednesday, all sorts of languages could be heard up and down the building. While Daiso stores tend to be quiet in general, a buzz like whisper can be heard from people shopping in groups, all in different languages. "There are no products that are exclusive only to stores with many foreign visitors," said a Daiso staff. "However, we adjust the product mix depending on customer demand and the characteristics of each commercial area." That tailoring is visible the moment you walk into the Myeongdong Station branch. Cosmetics and snacks dominate the lower floors and the most prominent shelf positions near the entrance, alongside Korean-themed souvenirs, character keyrings and travel accessories. A more typical office-area branch like the Gwanghwamun store, by contrast, leans toward stationery, household tools and lunchtime essentials aimed at workers in nearby offices. The popularity of the dollar store chain was apparent from the first floor, where foreigners were lining up just to get on the elevator. When this reporter tried to get on the elevator at different floors, the sheer amount of people created overly long waiting times, making it impossible to use. Snacks dominate the food aisles. Honey-flavored treats, traditional confections and chocolate-coated rice cakes move in volume, with shoppers often loading five or six identical packages into a single basket. The range of the snacks is impressive, with some local delicacies like Korean traditional sweets, hangwa, or seemingly obscure western foreign brands as well. Cosmetics tell a similar story. Sheet masks, lip tints, sunscreens and skincare ampoules priced between 1,000 and 5,000 won line entire walls of the lower floors. The purchase risk is essentially zero. "One of the things that we have seen is that there's a good quality cheap makeup," said Joelle, a Belgian woman who was shopping with her daughter, "We're also looking around here in the food area just to find snacks that we don't know that are different just to discover something else." The Myeongdong branch expanded from five floors to 12 in 2024, introduced on-site tax refund systems and hired multilingual staff. Cosmetics and snack categories were moved to prominent positions near entrances. Bulk-buy displays were added for tourists purchasing in volume. Tourists research products on TikTok and YouTube before arriving, come in with a list and then add impulse purchases on site. "Daiso was mentioned so much in the Korean YouTube content I watched," said Warunya Phongphat from Thailand. "I naturally got curi...