Daegu's last home-grown department store — the family is selling it for ₩22.3B

Daegu Department Store began in 1944 as Daegu Sanghoe, opened its Dongseong-ro main store in 1969 and listed on KOSPI in 1988. For decades it was Daegu's own department store — and after Dong-A Department Store was sold to E-Land Retail in 2010, the region's last home-grown one still standing.

The national chains — Lotte, Hyundai, Shinsegae — opened in Daegu, and the local store began posting operating losses from 2016, ten consecutive loss years through 2025. On 1 July 2021 it suspended the Dongseong-ro main store itself; only the Daebaek Plaza branch kept trading. The exits failed too: a ₩212.5B main-store property deal with JHB Holdings collapsed in November 2022 when the buyer failed to pay, talks with Cha Bio Group broke down in 2023, and a 2024 public bid drew letters of intent but no contract.

On 15 July 2026 Chairman Koo Jeong-mo and six family members agreed to sell 2,795,743 shares — a 25.82 percent stake, at ₩8,000 a share, ₩22.37B in all — to Segyeong Invest and Aram Korea. The final payment closes on 25 August, with an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on 26 August. The new owners plan retail online and redevelopment of the main-store site; Daebaek Plaza stays as a cultural venue.