Koreans spent record W3.66tr at convenience stores last month, with men making up 7 in 10 buyers

Combined credit and debit card spending at South Korea's four major convenience store chains — GS25, CU, Seven-Eleven and E-mart24 — reached a record 3.66 trillion won ($2.72 billion) in August, data firm Wise App·Retail said Tuesday.

The previous record was 3.55 trillion won, set in August 2024, meaning the latest figure broke that mark after two years. Compared with August 2023, spending rose about 11 percent.

GS25 recorded the highest estimated card spending among the four chains last month. Indexing GS25 at 100, CU came in at 96.1, while Seven-Eleven and E-mart24 scored 47.1 and 22.0, respectively. Spending was particularly concentrated at the top two brands, GS25 and CU.

The number of unique payers totaled about 39.02 million. The average spend per person was 93,834 won, with an average of 15.2 transactions; the average transaction value was 6,165 won. By gender, men accounted for 71.1 percent of payments and women 28.9 percent.

The figures exclude bank transfers, cash transactions, gift card payments and purchases made through partner platforms, and do not reflect the actual sales of individual companies, Wise App·Retail said.