Traditional Market

Permanent and periodic markets that formed organically over a long period and have served as centers of local commerce and everyday life culture, as well as clustered hubs of small business owners

Traditional Market

Overview

A traditional market (Korean: 전통시장) refers to a permanent or periodic market that formed organically over a long period of time and has served as the center of local residents' daily commerce and community life. Even after the spread of large-scale retailers and online shopping malls, it functions as the front line of the local economy and a repository of living culture, and it is a representative target of small business policy by the central and local governments. Around 1,400 traditional markets and shopping districts are distributed across the country, and the number of merchants working in them is estimated in the hundreds of thousands.

Key Details

Definition and Scope

The Special Act on the Promotion of Traditional Markets and Shopping Districts defines a traditional market as a place opened before March 2005 where a certain number of stores or more are densely concentrated, and distinguishes registered markets from recognized markets according to store count and area requirements. Separately, an alley-type shopping district system is operated for areas where 30 or more stores are adjacent within a certain zone, and traditional markets, shopping districts, and alley-type shopping districts are all included as targets of support.

Historical Background

Periodic markets (Korean: 장시) of the premodern era were held on a five-day cycle and, mediated by peddlers (보부상) and wholesale brokers (객주), formed the core of regional distribution. During industrialization and urbanization in the 1960s and 1970s, they converted into permanent markets, and as department stores and large marts grew rapidly from the 1980s and large discount stores and online shopping from the 2000s, their commercial spheres contracted sharply. The 1997 foreign exchange crisis and the spread of card payments in the 2000s acted as a double burden on small merchants, accelerating business closures and aging. In response, the government introduced multilayered support policies including market facility modernization, management innovation, and shared brand projects.

Types and Classification

Mode of operation: Permanent markets open daily and periodic markets such as five-day markets
Institutional classification: Registered market, recognized market, alley-type shopping district
Specialization types: Culture and tourism market, youth mall market, global premium market, alley market
Time-specific: Night market, weekend market, pre-dawn wholesale market

Economic Functions

Traditional markets have strengths in low prices, small-quantity purchases of fresh food, and combination with service businesses such as ready-to-eat cooking, repairs, and barbering. Above all, they form the self-sustaining foundation of the local economy because a high proportion of sales revenue recirculates within the region. Since many small business owners are concentrated there, they also have a large capacity for absorbing employment and lowering barriers to entry for starting a business. Recently, they have been reevaluated as tourism resources and are becoming hubs for building regional brands and drawing visitors.

Cultural Value

Market foods such as guksu (noodles), sundae (blood sausage), bindaetteok (mung bean pancakes), and dakgangjeong (sweet crispy chicken) have become representative culinary assets of their regions, and the culture of haggling and "deom" (getting something thrown in), market language, and the tradition of mutual aid within merchant communities carry meaning as living culture. They are used as venues for local festivals, market performances, and photography and video shoots, establishing themselves as symbols of urban identity.

Support Policies and Institutions

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency support market facility improvements, management consulting, joint marketing, online expansion, fire and safety insurance, and maintenance of parking lots and arcades. Since its introduction in 2009, the Onnuri Gift Certificate has grown into a representative means of supporting traditional market sales, and methods of combining it with local currency to increase ease of use have spread.

Recent Trends

The biggest change in 2024–2025 is the digital transformation of payments and distribution. As Onnuri Gift Certificates were reorganized around mobile use, issuance of paper gift certificates shrank and refund and top-up methods shifted to app-based systems, raising the digital divide among elderly merchants as a policy challenge. With the expansion of projects linked to delivery apps, live commerce, and online grocery shopping, non-face-to-face sales channels have become a new channel for markets, and complex cultural space-type market models involving young merchants and local creators are increasing. As foreign tourists' visits to markets increased, multilingual guidance, easy payment, hygiene and sanitation certification, and the creation of K-market content have been pursued. On the other hand, population decline and the aging of merchants are leading to continuing closures and the disappearance of markets, and demands are growing for responses to safety accidents such as fires and for the improvement of aging facilities. Attempts to reorganize markets as regional hubs by combining responses to local extinction with tourism revitalization are under way in each local government.