Making Butter Rice Cakes and Learning Bitcoin Investment... Culture Centers Captivate Millennials and Gen Z

Large Retailers Target Young Shoppers with Specialized Programs

Shanghai Butter Rice Cake, Real Estate, and Stock Investment Know-How Featured

Expansion of One-Day Classes Eases Daily Burden

Driving Store Visits and Boosting Purchases

Large supermarkets and department stores are differentiating their culture center programs to attract more customers in their 20s and 30s. Taking into account the busy schedules of study and work, they are expanding one-day special lectures and moving finance, cooking, and hobby classes—which are of particular interest to this generation—up the schedule. The aim is to broaden the age range of buyers and encourage visits to offline stores, ultimately prompting customers to open their wallets.

Customers are attending a one-day baking class at the cultural center of Hyundai Department Store Trade Center branch. Provided by Hyundai Department Store

According to the industry on April 4, Homeplus is operating 150 special classes on making Shanghai butter rice cakes—a dessert that has recently gained popularity among younger consumers—at over 70 Homeplus Culture Centers nationwide through April 19. Enrollment began on March 23, and classes are filling up quickly. Butter rice cake is a Korean reinterpretation of the traditional Shanghai snack 'Huangyou Niangao.' In the special class, participants learn how to make the dessert using glutinous rice flour, tapioca, milk, and butter, and also take part in tastings. The class fee is around 10,000 won, and most sessions are scheduled on weekends to reduce the burden for participants.

A Homeplus representative stated, "We are continuously planning trendy classes to increase the proportion of young customers visiting our stores." In fact, during the last winter term, members in their 20s and 30s accounted for 51% of all Homeplus Culture Center members. For the one-day 'Dubai Chewy Cookie (Duchonkku) Making' special lecture held at more than 50 stores in February, over 2,700 members registered as soon as sign-ups opened, resulting in early closure of registration.

The Shinsegae Academy, operated by Shinsegae Department Store, placed finance lectures at the forefront of its curriculum for the spring semester this year. Notably, in February, Heegu Song—author of "The Story of Mr. Kim, an Executive at a Major Company Living in His Own Home in Seoul" and a well-known real estate YouTuber—was invited as a speaker to propose solutions for both declining and recovering real estate markets.

Additionally, last month, the academy offered a one-day "Money Show" special class, where economic experts presented know-how on stocks, Bitcoin, and asset portfolio management. Some stores also offered finance lectures tailored for young professionals and newlyweds. The response to Shinsegae Academy’s finance courses has been positive, with the number of such courses nearly doubling from the previous year and enrollment rising by approximately four times.

Lotte Department Store recently held an event titled “Star Chef’s Seasonal Cooking Class Subscription Event,” featuring six popular chefs from the cooking survival show "Black and White Chef 2" as instructors. By focusing on hobby-related content that appeals to younger customers, nearly half of the Lotte Department Store Culture Center’s students are now in their 20s and 30s.

Furthermore, Hyundai Department Store is reflecting the tastes of trend-sensitive Millennials & Gen Z by piloting monthly culture centers at its Trade Center and Mokdong branches. Unlike the traditional system of dividing classes into four seasonal semesters—spring, summer, fall, and winter—they have increased the number of one-day and one-month classes. Last year, Hyundai Department Store held about 12,000 one-day classes across all branches, more than tripling the figure from 2020. Millennials & Gen Z accounted for 80% of all attendees.

The greatest advantage of culture centers operated by major retail channels is their cost-effectiveness (value for money). According to a survey by market research firm Embrain Trend Monitor of 1,000 men and women nationwide aged 19 to 69, 67.6% of respondents said they could take good classes at reasonable prices. The most common monthly tuition fee for culture center classes was between 30,000 and 50,000 won at 42.4%, followed by 50,000 to 80,000 won at 27.1%, 80,000 to 100,000 won at 20.2%, and less than 30,000 won at 19.5%. Cooking and baking classes accounted for 29.4% of enrollments, followed by infant and toddler programs at 21.8%, instrument/singing/music classes at 20.2%, and exercise/fitness at 18.3%, indicating high demand for hobby-related programs.

Meanwhile, 79.2% of all respondents said that culture center classes at department stores and large supermarkets could be a key strength for those stores. Additionally, 77.8% believed that the popularity of culture center classes would lead to a significant increase in indirect sales. An Embrain spokesperson noted, "Culture centers play a key role in encouraging store visits," adding, "The experience of taking classes at these culture centers is establishing them as platforms that promote the use of in-store facilities and drive consumption."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.