Chuseok Gifts Split Between Bargain and Ultra-Luxury

With Chuseok, Korea's fall harvest holiday, approaching, gift-set lineups across the food and retail industries are splitting into two camps. Amid ongoing pressure from high prices and interest rates, budget-conscious, practical sets are multiplying right alongside limited-edition items priced sky-high.

CJ CheilJedang expanded this year's holiday gift lineup to its largest-ever number of items, building a new premium line around one of its tuna brands and outlining plans to grow its seafood offerings further. Daesang's Chungjungwon brand likewise paired everyday staples — seasonings, cooking oil — with a high-end line of olive oil sets sorted by varietal. Dongwon F&B put together more than 100 sets, with a noticeably bigger share going to high-protein tuna products.

Convenience store chains are leaning hardest into novelty. Humanoid walking robots and emotion-sensing social robots showed up on shelves with price tags in the tens of thousands of dollars and the thousands of dollars, respectively, alongside cheaper options like a Go-playing robot or a robot-shaped keyring that can hold conversations. In the liquor aisle, a wine set built around a specific vintage came in just under $7,000, next to bottles of long-aged whisky.

Character IP merchandise and desserts built on hotel bakery recipes are aimed squarely at younger shoppers. Others went the opposite direction, leaning into fresh food: hanwoo (Korean beef) and gulbi (dried, salted corvina) — Chuseok staples — made it onto convenience store shelves, including smaller hanwoo portions sized for shoppers spending the holiday alone.

Department stores, meanwhile, widened pre-order volumes and discounts. Some sharply increased their hanwoo-focused meat set inventory, while others expanded pre-order categories to include liquor, desserts and health foods — with some pre-order discounts reaching as much as half off.