Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- South Korea's retail conglomerate Shinsegae has leased an old commercial building in Downtown Los Angeles to launch its first premium restaurant and grocery store called "PK Market" next year in the United States.

Emart, the hypermarket wing of Shinsegae, said in a statement on Friday that it leased the ground and two upper floors of a 101-years-old building in the Jewelry District, a famous jewelry market section in Los Angeles, to open PK Market. "With the lease contract, we can now start preparing for a business in the U.S.," an Emart official was quoted as saying.

 
PK Market, introduced first in 2016, sells a wide range of top-quality food items at cheaper than other similar premium hypermarkets in the ambiance of old-fashioned American markets. Along with conventional aisles of foods and ingredients, PK Market also operates a selection of restaurants with unique menus.

"We plan to sell Asian foods which match the preferences of locals," Shinsegae vice chairman Chung Yong-jin, the group's de facto head, said at a job fair in Seoul in March this year.

Shinsegae used a compound word "grocerant" (grocery + restaurant) for PK Market, which made its debut in Starfield, a giant luxury shopping mall complex. The first Starfield complex was built in Seoul's southeastern satellite city of Hanam in September 2016, providing a combination of shopping, entertainment and leisure to satisfy customers.