Lotte bet on deep-discount old stock in the city — suburban outlets won

Lotte Shopping opened Lotte Factory Outlet Gasan in January 2016, its seventeenth outlet, in the outlet cluster around Gasan Digital Complex in western Seoul. The pitch was a 'factory-type outlet cheaper than outlets': brand inventory more than two years old, discounted 40 to 80 percent, reachable without a day trip out of town.

The format was squeezed from both sides. Large-scale outlets that opened on the outskirts of Seoul offered fresher stock and a full day-out experience, while online shopping ate into the deep-discount apparel market. Despite its urban location, Gasan's sales stagnated.

When the lease with landlord Eugene Asset Management reached expiry, Lotte chose not to renew, notifying tenants of the closure plan in late June 2025. Operations ended on 30 September after roughly ten years — the store folded into Lotte's program of closing inefficient stores to lift asset value and management efficiency.

At lease expiry, Lotte chose not to renew, closing the store after ten years, folding it into a program of pruning inefficient stores to lift asset value.

The store's only edge was price on old stock; once suburban outlets and online offered better discounts or fresher goods, the reason to visit disappeared.

Lotte leased rather than owned the building, so at lease expiry the decision was a pure renewal question — and a stagnant store had no case for renewal.

Corporate strategy had shifted to pruning inefficient stores; Gasan's numbers put it on the exit list rather than the renovation list.

Deep discount can't defend a format once newer stock sells elsewhere. Gasan's old-stock pitch died when suburban outlets and online took its shoppers; at lease expiry there was nothing to renew.

The Gasan outlet cluster lost one of its anchors while Lotte Shopping continues closing inefficient department and outlet stores across Korea. The retail industry's 2025 cleanup wave — Grand Department Store Ilsan, Hyundai D-Cube City, Newcore Incheon Nonhyeon among them — kept going.