The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 1979–2025
The last 'Grand' department store closed — a 1990s rival of Hyundai exits
Opened 1996, Grand Ilsan was the last store of a chain that once rivaled Hyundai. VenueG ended 29 years on 28 February 2025 and quits department stores.
VenueG (formerly Grand Department Store) · 2025-02-28
What happened
The Grand chain, founded in 1979 with a Gangnam flagship opened in 1986, once stood with Hyundai and Sampoong among Korea's leading department stores. From the 2000s it declined, and from 2011 it sold most of its stores to Lotte Shopping and E-Land. When Sinchon Grand Mart closed in October 2018, only one Grand store was left: the Ilsan branch, opened on 31 October 1996 during the new town's development — ten floors above ground, six below.
Online shopping growth and changed shopping patterns kept draining the store. Management, whose company had been renamed VenueG and whose portfolio had moved to country clubs and fitness centres, decided to leave the department store business altogether. Shareholders approved the closure on 15 January 2025, with the building's conversion to a wedding hall or hotel under review.
Grand Department Store Ilsan ended operations on 28 February 2025 after twenty-nine years, and a final clearance sale ran into the spring with discounts of up to 90 percent. The closure completed a forty-six-year retail name's exit from department stores — the last banner on the facade read 'final end of operations'.
Why it happened
- A mid-sized department store outside Seoul's luxury polarisation could not hold sales against online shopping and the big-flagship squeeze.
- The staged retreat — selling stores to Lotte and E-Land over a decade — left one aging store with no chain scale to invest in it.
- Management's money and attention had already moved to golf and fitness; the format had no champion inside the company.
The lesson
A retreat in stages still needs an ending. Grand sold its chain to rivals until one store remained; with management already running golf courses, the last store got a conversion plan, not a future.
Aftermath
VenueG reviews converting the Ilsan building to a wedding hall or hotel while its portfolio centres on country clubs and fitness. The Ilsan commercial district absorbs the loss of its long-standing anchor as Korea's department-store polarization continues — Grand Ilsan and Hyundai D-Cube City both fell in 2025.
Sources
- Apparel News — "Grand Department Store Ilsan branch to close next February", 3 December 2024 (chain founded 1979, Gangnam flagship 1986, rivaled Hyundai and Sampoong; stores sold to Lotte and E-Land from 2011; Sinchon Grand Mart closed 2018 leaving Ilsan as last Grand store; VenueG renamed 2019, operates country clubs and fitness; shareholders approve 15 January 2025; wedding-hall/hotel conversion reviewed)
- Digital Times — "Ahead of closure… Grand Department Store Ilsan holds farewell discount event", 31 January 2025 (opened 31 October 1996, closes 28 February 2025; 10 floors above, 6 below; online shopping growth and changed shopping patterns)
- Biz Chosun — "Regional department stores collapsing under polarization… Grand Department Store Ilsan to close next February", 15 December 2024 (closure amid department-store market polarization)
- Kookmin Ilbo — "[Photo] Grand Department Store closure 90% sale", 13 May 2025 (failed to overcome management deterioration and sluggish performance; up to 90% discounts until closing day; 'final end of operations' banners)
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