Shinsegae (, ) is a South Korean

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

, along with several other businesses, headquartered in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. The firm is an affiliate of Shinsegae Group, South Korea's leading retail

chaebol A chaebol (, ; ) is a large industrial South Korean conglomerate run and controlled by an individual or family. A chaebol often consists of multiple diversified affiliates, controlled by a person or group whose power over the group often exc ...

, and one of the big three department store firms in Korea, along with Lotte and

Hyundai Department Store Hyundai Department Store (Korean: 현대백화점 주식회사, Hanja: 現代百貨店株式會社), together with Lotte Department Store and Shinsegae, is one of the three major department store chains in South Korea. Its parent company is the H ...

. Its

flagship store A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

Centum City Centum City () is a major multi-project urban development part of Haeundae-gu, Busan, South Korea. It is also one of CBDs in Busan Metropolitan City. This site is at the westernmost area of Haeundae-gu in U-1-dong, Jae-song-dong. The site was orig ...

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

, was the world's largest department store at , surpassing

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

flagship

Herald Square Herald Square is a major commercial intersection in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, formed by the intersection of Broadway, Sixth Avenue (officially Avenue of the Americas), and 34th Street. Named for the now-defunct ''New ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 2009. Shinsegae was the first

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

company in South Korea. They issued their own

charge card A charge card is a type of credit card that enables the cardholder to make purchases which are paid for by the card issuer, to whom the cardholder becomes indebted. The cardholder is obligated to repay the debt to the card issuer in full by the ...

from 1967 to 2000. In 2000, Shinsegae sold their credit card division to KorAm Bank, which was later acquired by Citibank Korea. Shinsegae was originally part of the

Samsung Group The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

'', separated in the 1990s from the Samsung Group along with

CJ Group CJ Group () is a South Korean conglomerate holding company and one of the largest Chaebol headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous businesses in various industries of food and food service, pharmaceutics and biotechnology, enter ...

(Food/Chemicals/Entertainment), Saehan Group (Electronic Media/Apparel/Textiles), and the Hansol Group (Paper/Telecom). The chairman

Lee Myung-hee Lee Myung-hee (; born 5 September 1943) is a South Korean business magnate and the chairwoman of the Shinsegae Group. She is the youngest daughter of Lee Byung-chul, founder of the Samsung Group and the sister of the former late chairman Lee Kun ...

is the daughter of Samsung founder

Lee Byung-chull Lee Byung-chul (Korean: 이병철 12 February 1910 – 19 November 1987) was a South Korean businessman. He was the founder of the Samsung Group, which is South Korea's largest chaebol, and he is considered one of South Korea's most successf ...

and younger sister of the chairman of

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational corporation, multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of ...

Lee Kun-hee Lee Kun-hee (, ; 9 January 194225 October 2020) was a South Korean business magnate who served as the chairman of Samsung Group from 1987 to 2008 and from 2010 to 2020, and is credited with the transformation of Samsung to one of the world's la ...

. The group owns the brands Shinsegae and

E-Mart e-mart () is the largest retailer in South Korea. There were 160 stores across the country as of December 2016. It was founded on 12 November 1993 by Shinsegae as the first discount retailer in South Korea. E-Mart is the oldest and largest disc ...

, and is in direct competition with

Lotte Shopping Lotte Shopping Co., Ltd. (), a distribution unit of Lotte Group, is a multinational retailer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1979, Lotte Shopping operates various retail stores, including department stores, outlet stores, hyperma ...

and

Hyundai Department Store Group Hyundai Department Store Group () is a South Korean retail conglomerate that spun off from Hyundai Group in 1999. The company began as Keumgang Development Industries established in 1971. It opened its first store in Ulsan in 1977. The flagshi ...

. Currently it is the largest retailer in South Korea.

History

The main branch of Shinsegae is the oldest department store in Korea. It was opened in 1930 as the

Gyeongseong Seoul has been known in the past by successive names, including Wiryeseong () and Hanseong (Baekje era), Bukhansangun (Goguryo era), Hanyang (North and South states period), Namgyeong (, Goryeo era), Hanyangbu (Goryeo under Mongol rule), Hanseong ...

branch of

Mitsukoshi is an international department store chain with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. It is a subsidiary of Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, which also owns the Isetan department store chain. History It was founded in 1673 with the (shop name) , selli ...

, a Japanese department store franchise; Korea was occupied by the Japanese Empire at the time. The store was acquired in 1945 by the late founder of

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

group,

, and renamed Donghwa Department Store. After the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

(1950–1953) began, it was used for several years as a post exchange by the

American army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. In 1963, the store was given the name Shinsegae. The old building is currently used as a

luxury shopping In economics, a luxury good (or upmarket good) is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a greater proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast to n ...

venue. In 2021, Shinsegae bought the then-named SK Wyverns of the

KBO League The KBO League (), officially the Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League, is the highest level league of baseball in South Korea. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers ar ...

from SK and renamed then the

SSG Landers SSG Landers () are a South Korean professional baseball team. The team was originally established as the SK Wyverns but was renamed as the SSG Landers in 2021 after Shinsegae acquired the team from SK Group. They are a member of the KBO League. B ...

. They bought them for 135.2 billion won, (100 billion for the team itself, and 35.2 billion for the team's facilities and properties) equivalent to $112.8 million.

Stores

*Main Store (Main Building & New Building) (본점 본관, 신관) in Jung-gu,

*Gangnam Store (Main Building & New Building) (강남점 본관, 신관) in

Seocho-gu Seocho District () is one of the 25 '' gu'' (local government districts) which make up the city of Seoul, South Korea. Seocho is generally referred to as a part of Greater Gangnam Area, along with Gangnam District. As of 2022, Seocho District ra ...

, Seoul the express bus terminal, flagship store turn-over 1billion USD per year top sales store of Shinsegae *Yeongdeungpo Store (Building A, Building B & Luxury Hall) (영등포점 A관, B관, 명품관) in Times Square,

Yeongdeungpo-gu Yeongdeungpo District () is an administrative district in southwest Seoul, South Korea. Although the origin of the name is uncertain, the first two syllables are thought to be from "''yeongdeung''" (靈登) or "divine ascent", a shamanic rite. T ...

, Seoul *Gyeonggi Store (경기점) in

Suji-gu Suji-gu, or Suji, is one of the three city districts in Yongin City, South Korea which is approximately 29 km south of Seoul. Suji became a city district on October 31, 2005, about nine years after Yongin officially became a city. When Yongin ...

, Yong-in,

Gyeonggi-do Gyeonggi-do (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Its name, ''Gyeonggi'', means "京 (the capital) and 畿 (the surrounding area)". Thus, ''Gyeonggi-do'' can be translated as "Seoul and the surrounding areas of Seoul". Seoul, the na ...

(Changed its name from Jukjeon Store on October 26, 2009) *Shinsegae Centum City (신세계 센텀시티) in

, Hae-undae-gu,

(the world's largest

) *Masan Store (마산점) in

Masan Masan is an administrative region of Changwon, a city in the South Gyeongsang Province. It was formerly an independent city from 1949 until 30 June 2010, when it was absorbed to Changwon along with Jinhae. Masan was redistricted as two district ...

-Happo-gu,

Changwon Changwon () is the capital city of Gyeongsangnam-do, on the southeast coast of South Korea. With a population of 1.07 million , Changwon is South Korea's ninth-most populous city. A port city, Changwon is bordered by Masan Bay to the south ...

Gyeongsangnam-do South Gyeongsang Province ( ko, 경상남도, translit=Gyeongsangnam-do, ) is a province in the southeast of South Korea. The provincial capital is at Changwon. It is adjacent to the major metropolitan center and port of Busan. The UNESCO World H ...

*Gwangju Shinsegae (광주신세계, ) in Seo-gu,

Gwangju Gwangju () is South Korea's sixth-largest metropolis. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister. The city was also the capital of South Jeolla Province until the provincial office ...

*Arario Chungcheong Store (충청점) in

Dongnam-gu The Dongnam District ( ko, 동남구; Hanja: 東南區; ''Dongnam-gu'') is a non-autonomous district in the city of Cheonan in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in Ea ...

, Cheon-an,

Chungcheongnam-do South Chungcheong Province ( ko, 충청남도, ''Chungcheongnam-do''), also known as Chungnam, is a province of South Korea. South Chungcheong has a population of 2,059,871 (2014) and has a geographic area of 8,204 km2 (3,168 sq mi) located in ...

(Through a management alliance with Arario, owner of Yawoori Department Store, Shinsegae opened this branch in Cheon-an in the building once used as Galleria Cheon-an Store and Yawoori Department Store) *Uijeongbu Store (의정부점) in

Uijeongbu Uijeongbu () is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Overview Uijeongbu is located north of the Korean capital Seoul; it lies inside a Defile (geography), defile, with mountains on two sides, and com ...

*Hanam Store (하남점) in

Hanam Hanam () is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Formerly a part of Gwangju County, it was designated a city in 1989. The ancient Baekje capital of Hanam Wiryeseong may have been located there. Lying immediately east of Seoul, Hanam is al ...

(Located in Starfield Hanam shopping mall, a joint-venture between Shinsegae and

Taubman Centers Taubman Centers, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The company invests in shopping centers, and is a subsidiary of Simon Property Group since 2020. History The company was founded in 19 ...

, which opened on 9 September 2016. Besides Shinsegae, it also features Megabox cinema, Yeongpoong bookstore, Zara, H&M, Hansem, Electromart, emart traders (warehouse style), indoor water park and Eatopia food court as anchor tenant. Many luxury brand like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci and Genesis and BMW CARS as well as Ioniq EV are in the shopping mall.) *Gimhae Store (김해점) in

Gimhae Gimhae () is a city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. It is the seat of the large Gimhae Kim clan, one of the largest Kim clans in Korea. The Gimhae Kims claim descent from the ancient royal house of Geumgwan Gaya, which was based in Gim ...

*Daegu Shinsegae (대구신세계) in

Dongdaegu Station Dongdaegu Station, meaning "East Daegu Station", is a railway station in Daegu, South Korea. It is on the national high-speed KTX railway network, south of Seoul Station. History The station opened in 1962 and KTX trains on the Gyeongbu Li ...

Daegu Daegu (, , literally 'large hill', 대구광역시), formerly spelled Taegu and officially known as the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; it is ...

Shinsegae also has a small branch in

Incheon International Airport Incheon International Airport (IIA; ) (sometimes referred to as Seoul–Incheon International Airport) is the largest airport in South Korea. It is the primary airport serving the Seoul Capital Area and one of the largest and busiest airports ...

, and a supermarket in Dogok-dong,

Gangnam-gu Gangnam District ( ; , ) is one of the 25 local government districts which make up the city of Seoul, South Korea. Gangnam translates to "South of the (Han) River". Gangnam District is the third largest district in Seoul, with an area of . A ...

. Shinsegae launched the Shinsegae Style Market, a smaller shopping mall mainly aimed at young customers, in 2010. Despite its name, the mall is managed by Shinsegae's subsidiary

. *Seongnam Style Market in E-Mart Taepyeong branch,

Seongnam Seongnam () is the fourth largest city in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province after Suwon and the 10th largest city in the country. Its population is approximately one million. Seongnam is a satellite city of Seoul. It is largely a residential cit ...

*Daejeon Style Market in E-Mart Daejeon Terminal Complex branch, Dong-gu,

Daejeon Daejeon () is South Korea's fifth-largest metropolis, with a population of 1.5 million as of 2019. Located in the central-west region of South Korea alongside forested hills and the Geum River, the city is known both for its technology and ...

Planned

*A fashion mall for youngsters in the building of Mesa, a defunct shopping mall right beside Shinsegae's main store in Jung-gu,

* Shopping mall at

Samsung Town The Samsung Town (Korean: 삼성타운) is a major office park in Seocho-gu in Seoul, South Korea. It serves as the IT and electronics hub for the multinational corporation Samsung. The building has a floor area of 110,800 m² with 20,000 reside ...

, NW of Seoul new town is under construction

Defunct

*Daegu Store (대구점) in Jung-gu,

(opened in 1973 and closed in December 1976) *Shinsegae Store Banpo (신세계 스토어 반포) in

(opened in 1974 and closed several years later) *Gyeongju Bomun Store (경주보문점) in

Gyeongju Gyeongju ( ko, 경주, ), historically known as ''Seorabeol'' ( ko, 서라벌, ), is a coastal city in the far southeastern corner of North Gyeongsang Province in South Korea. It is the second largest city by area in the province after Andong, ...

Gyeongsangbuk-do North Gyeongsang Province ( ko, 경상북도, translit=Gyeongsangbuk-do, ) is a province in eastern South Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former Gyeongsang province, and remained a province of Korea until the ...

(opened in 1979 and closed several years later) *Dongbang Plaza Store (동방플라자) in Jung-gu,

(opened in 1982 and closed in 1996) *Cheonho Store (천호점) in

Gangdong-gu Gangdong District (Gangdong-gu) is one of the 25 '' gu'' which make up the city of Seoul, South Korea. Gangdong is literally "east of the (Han) River". It is located on the east side of the city. Jungbu (literally "Central Part") Express Motorw ...

(closed in 2000, converted into E-Mart Cheonho Store) *Mia Store (미아점) in

Seongbuk-gu Seongbuk District (Seongbuk-gu) is one of the 25 ''Administrative Divisions of South Korea, gu'' which make up the city of Seoul, South Korea. It is located in the mid-north part of the city. The current Mayor is Kim Young-bae (김영배), who has ...

(closed in 2007, converted into E-Mart Mia Store)

Discount store

(이마트) is a subsidiary of Shinsegae and a large

discount store A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient distribution to keep down cost ...

chain founded in

, having stores in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, Korea and Mongolia. Domestically, E-Mart is the biggest discount store chain followed by

Home Plus Homeplus () is a Korean discount store retail chain running about 140 branches with 25,000 employees throughout South Korea. Homeplus is the second largest retailer in South Korea, behind Shinsegae Group's e-mart chain. Homeplus operates its h ...

, and

Lotte Mart Lotte Mart is a South Korean hypermarket that sells a variety of groceries, clothing, toys, electronics, and other goods, with headquarters in South Korea. Lotte Mart is a division of the Lotte Co., Ltd. which sells food and shopping services ...

. In late May 2006, Shinsegae revealed plans to buy all 16 of the

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

stores in Korea. All of the country's Wal-Mart outlets were re-branded as E-Mart in October 2006. Wal-Mart exited the Korean market soon after. Shinsegae spun off its E-Mart department into a separate corporation () in 2012. The shopping mall was acquired by E-Mart in January 2014.

Online mall

SSG (usually read as "쓱") is an online shopping mall operated by Shinsegae in 2014. Through this shopping mall, products from Shinsegae affiliates (Shinsegae Department Store,

, Casamia, CHICOR, etc.) can be shopped online.

Subsidiaries

Central City In urban planning, a core city, principal city metropolitan core, or central city, is the largest or most important city or cities of a metropolitan area. A core city is surrounded by smaller satellite cities, towns, and suburbs. A central city i ...

** Gmarket Global (joint venture with

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

) ***

Auction Co. Auction Co. is an online auction company based in South Korea. It was acquired by eBay on January 8, 2001. 2008 Security Breach In April 2008, the company revealed that their customers' real name, username, resident registration number, address ...

*** G9 ***

G-Market Gmarket is an e-commerce website based in South Korea. The company was founded in 2000 as a subsidiary of Interpark, and was acquired by eBay in 2009. History and Incidents The predecessor of Gmarket was founded in 1999 by Young Bae Ku. At the ...

*Gwangju Shinsegae *

Seoul Express Bus Terminal The Seoul Express Bus Terminal is the key bus terminal located in Seocho-gu, Seoul. It is connected underground to both the Gangnam branch of the Shinsaegae department store and the banpo underground market, as well as containing its own share o ...

*Shinsegae I&C *Shinsegae Chelsea *Shinsegae Construction *Shinsegae Dongdaegu CTC (Shinsehae Daegu) *Shinsegae Food System *Shinsegae International * Starbucks Coffee Korea *

Johnny Rockets } The Johnny Rockets Group Inc. is an American restaurant franchise whose themed decor is based upon 1950s diner-style restaurants. Décor includes Coca-Cola advertising, featuring nearly life-size cardboard illustrations of women in World War II ...

*Josun Hotel & Resort *Emart24 *Casamia *Mindmark ** SILKWOOD ** Studio 329 * CHICOR

Controversies

Shinsegae banned commercial images of actress

Go Hyun-jung Go Hyun-jung (; born March 2, 1971) is a South Korean actress. She debuted in the entertainment industry as a Miss Korea runner-up in 1989 and went on to star in '' Sandglass ''(1995), one of the highest-rated and critically acclaimed dramas in ...

(고현정) from their department stores following her

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

from vice chairman and former CEO

Chung Yong-jin Chung Yong-jin (; born 19 September 1968) is a South Korean billionaire businessman, the vice chairman and former CEO of Shinsegae Group. Personal life and family He is the only son of Lee Myung-hee, chairwoman of Shinsegae Group and grandson o ...

.allKpop.co
Go Hyun-jung still blacklisted from Shinsegae
March 2010

References

External links

Shinsegae HomepageShinsegae E-Mart HomepageShinsegae : Official Seoul City Tourism
{{Television production companies of South Korea Retail companies established in 1955 Companies listed on the Korea Exchange Department stores of South Korea Former Samsung subsidiaries Shinsegae Group South Korean companies established in 1955 Companies based in Seoul Lee family (South Korea)