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Ask Seoulites in their twenties and thirties where they shop, and much of the time you\u2019ll get an answer along the lines of, \u201cI buy everything online.\u201d The density of every kind of store here in the capital seems exceeded only by the popularity of avoiding stores entirely by buying things online. You can\u2019t argue with the convenience: food ordered on the internet arrives within the hour \u2014 or within a fraction of the hour \u2014 and same-day delivery delivery can be arranged for most everything else. This trend has begun put a fair few legacy retailers in tight spots, and the industry as a whole has found itself in search of a fresh way to appeal to the cohort that in America would be called (and in Korea is increasingly called) the Millennials. Enter a chain that has announced itself loudly, in every sense of the word, as Korea\u2019s \u201cNew Shopping\u00a0Paradigm<\/a>\u201c: Pierrot Shopping.<\/p>\n
Since opening its first location last summer in the mall at Coex, Gangnam\u2019s big convention center, Pierrot Shopping has also begun pumping out its brand-making farrago of color and sound from a couple other locations around Seoul as well, with more already under construction. If you happen to get near one of them, its surrounding advertising blitz \u2014 including but not limited to flapping wind-sock figures and animations looping on wall-covering video screens \u2014 won\u2019t let you remain ignorant of that fact. \u201cIt sells luxury brands but it\u2019s not a department store,\u201d announces one billboard-sized notice at Coex. \u201cIt sells adult products but it\u2019s not an adult shop. It sells makeup, colored contact lenses, perfume, body and hair products, diet foods, and health products but, regrettably, it\u2019s not a drugstore. It sells products for dogs, but people are more welcome.\u201d What, then, is Pierrot Shopping? Only the place\u2019s physical reality can offer an answer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n