Discount stores across Korea can be forced to shut their doors twice a month, according to the Korea Times. It is part of the ongoing effort “to boost smaller mom-and-pop stores and traditional markets, which have lost customers to the retail giants.”
Stores not in compliance will be fined 30 million won.
“Jeonju was the first to adopt the rule Tuesday — the city’s discount outlets and SSMs will close every second and fourth Sundays. Other local authorities such as Wonju, Gangneung, Jinju, Iksan, Busan, Mokpo and Gwangju are also complying.”
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Cho Ji-hoon, chairman of the Jeonju City Council, stages a protest near an E-Mart outlet in the city, North Jeolla Province, to call for regular closed days at discount stores, in this file photo from last year. The city recently revised an ordinance to have such stores close twice a month. Seoul City is to follow the move. / Korea Times
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Seoul will also be 1) blocking consumers and 2) businesses from engaging in voluntary exchange at times both sides find agreeable. It isn’t doing this by convincing anyone or waiting for attitudes to change–it is FORCING them to close, at the threat of substantial fines and probably jail if they open up anyway or refuse to pay the fine in full.
Of course, it is possible that the mom-and-pop stores will do better as a result of this so there can be nice newspaper articles documenting it, that shoppers at the big discount stores will stock up on other days rather than waiting until Sunday, that some stores will remain open and pay the fine anyway thereby adding to the money the government can spend on more welfare, or that there will be other good results for the government to cite to justify its latest interference in the market.
But it is another example of me waking up in the morning, checking the news, and learning that some busybodies have plans about how to block people and businesses from engaging in willing exchanges.
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Peter Drucker: “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” South Korean politicians are proving that Drucker was correct, efficiently engaging in a campaign against the rights of consumers.
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This is something so absurd that if I were to hear this from someone without evidence (like a newspaper article), I’d suspect them of being a pathological liar. Then again, it’s no more absurd, at least in principle, than making Sunday shopping illegal, like it is in some small Canadian towns even to this day. Anyway, thank you for bringing this to my attention: the next time someone accuses me of being an “extremist” for my economic views (which is, to me, another way of saying “consistent”), I’ll use this as an example of why it’s important to fight for liberty to the “extreme”.
Bryan–ain’t that that truth! I don’t have a problem with people boycotting those huge stores or not shopping at them. But there is a big problem when such people use government power to threaten the stores with fines and even force them to close.
Different parts of America still have blue laws.
I will do these updates for a while, I am sure we can expect more foolishness from political leaders desperate for votes this year.