Seoul shoppers rush to Chanel ahead of expected price hike

Snaking down the street, a long line of shoppers rushed to one Chanel store in Seoul on Wednesday (May 13), all of them hoping to beat a price hike.

They gathered despite recent fears of a second wave of the global health crisis arriving in a country which has so far managed to keep it at bay.

But there's been rumors online of a price hike on Chanel goods coming this week, so more than a hundred shoppers arrived to wait as early as 5 am -- clad in face masks.

The spokesman for the Lotte Department Store Moon Ho-ik says this hunger for luxury goods comes down to the desire to shop after weeks stuck at home.

"Luxury goods posted an unusually high growth in sales compared to other products at the department store. There are two or three times more people who are waiting in line to buy luxury products compared to earlier this week."

There's even a name for this phenomenon in South Korea-- bobok sobi or revenge shopping -- and it's taken off since the government began easing social distancing measures earlier this month.

Moon also attributes the sudden spike in consumer demand to those who would usually buy luxury goods abroad where they are cheaper, but have been unable to do so over the past few months.

Many South Koreans gift luxury bags for weddings and several shoppers hoped to buy some for their loved ones on Wednesday even though their weddings had been delayed by several months.

A Chanel PR representative in Seoul said its French headquarters raised prices on Monday (May 11), and confirmed that prices will increase in all of its markets.