One Example of How Much Koreans Love Luxury

[buccal.livejournal.com]

By Jaeyeon Woo

Like their peers in Japan and China, Korean women love luxury items. Here’s one way to gauge just how much: there’s a secondhand market for Chanel and other brand-name paper shopping bags.

Such transactions are easily found on second-hand online shopping sites, where brand-name paper bags are traded for as much as $30.

A glance at bags for sale today shows one seller with four different kinds of paper bags from Burberry to Louis Vuitton at price tags around 25,000 won ($23). Another seller has a Burberry paper bag on sale at a more modest price of 5,000 won.

We managed to contact with the latter, who would only give her last name, Jang.

“In the past, I just threw away these paper bags. But I will keep them if this gets sold,” Mrs. Jang said, adding that it is her first attempt to sell such an item online.

Asked about what’s so special about these paper bags, she replied: “On top of the glossy logo, the paper is thicker and more solid compared to regular paper bags.”

Hwang Sang-min, a psychology professor at Yonsei University, said the phenomenon is similar to a willingness to buy counterfeit branded goods.

“But what is striking is that people actually spend money on mere paper bags,” he said.

The trend might yet be fleeting.

“Just like key rings or cell phone accessories from luxury brand names used to be popular, now the trend has moved to paper bags,” said Sung Young-shin, a professor of consumer psychology of Korea University.

She also explained why luxury is so popular in Korea regardless of income.

“In Korea’s collective culture, consumption is not just personal behavior. It is not so much about my need as it is about whether other people in my peer group have it. So if your next door neighbor has it, you should have it too,” she said.

Source: Wall Street Journal Korea Realtime

Comments

[angel-9-lives.livejournal.com]

"It is not so much about my need as it is about whether other people in my peer group have it. So if your next door neighbor has it, you should have it too,” she said."

keeping up with the Jones' Jung's...

[caitlinonkey.livejournal.com]

MTE lol

[luvey.livejournal.com]

ugh the logos over everything make me cringe.

[kimiko1387.livejournal.com]

Now I know how I'm getting the money to go to New York. my mother has tons of these bags.

[consequences.livejournal.com]

A+. GO FOR IT.

[earthequality.livejournal.com]

I've noticed this trend in Kpop merchandise as well, especially popular groups like TVXQ and fanmade as well. It kind of boggles my mind, but I've seen this at work too. A celebrity brought lunch in a gucci bag and left it and one of my coworkers still carts it around.

[feel-my-mind.livejournal.com]

I always find it odd that the people who generally buy luxury goods are the ones that can't really afford. Like, an example is, either a Camry or Corolla is the most popular car among millionaires, but most people that own really expensive cars are people that need for the image (and they are leased)

[xoxgoodbye.livejournal.com]

Lol

[oldwillow-brook.livejournal.com]

I was contemplating selling the bag my sisters Louboutin shoes came in.

I could make some serious change.

[engraved-16.livejournal.com]

LOL i thought this was the reason why they were buying them...

[wooso.livejournal.com]

Are they saying ppl are obsessed with paper bags now?
If i knew i would sell my brand paper bags rofl

[831panda831.livejournal.com]

LMFAO , wow interesting

[tree-star123.livejournal.com]

...

[jetaime-pyon.livejournal.com]

i walk around happily with my nature republic and maypole bags instead... jyj on one and shinee on the other.. :"D

[obeytheempress.livejournal.com]

i personally hate stuff with the brand new stamped across it. it makes me feel tacky and like a walking advertisement.

[chaincombo.livejournal.com]

LOL Thats what my mum says, she says the company should pay us for advertising them.

[hannahsmeep.livejournal.com]

I always get secondhand embarrassment when i see people carrying branded paperbags obviously filled with other stuff. Only reason i would ever buy a branded bag, is to punk my friend on her birthday :/

[enoa03.livejournal.com]

My Mom did this to me on my birthday! She used an Hermes paperbag to punk me and inside is a dozen colorful undies she bought from somewhere =/

[enoa03.livejournal.com]

It's a good move you recycle and earn money as well ;P. I mainly keep paper bags from stores I shop in because I use them as Lunch / Laundry / Gym bags LOL. Maybe I should start thinking about selling them. On a serious note, I guess people who can't afford to actually shop in high-end stores would like to at least pretend and keep up appearances that they are as "high class" as the rich folks =/. What's funny is that most rich people I know dresses up sensibly without huge brand names emblazoned in their clothes. I guess you would see this type of behaviour among new moneyed folks who feels like they need to prove something to their neighbors and society.

[lazmy.livejournal.com]

I hate when people buy things because they think having a brand name will improve their status socially :|

On that same note, I do have one of those Coach bags with the C's all over it. I really like it lol and I feel like I have to mention it so I don't feel like a huge hypocrite for saying this.

[cher-ex3.livejournal.com]

I don't necessarily think it's bad to own monogrammed bags. If they are actually appealing to you, and you don't buy it JUST so that you can show the bag around, I think that's fine.

I hate that everyone who owns these kind of bags seem to be generalized into "rich, snobby bitches" or "try-hard social climbers".

[pumpkinskin.livejournal.com]

Victoria's Secret branded paper bags were kinda popular in my high school.

[la-geni.livejournal.com]

People carried their P.E. clothes in those at my school.

[vanny92.livejournal.com]

I don't think I will ever be able to grasp the concept of "since others have it, I must have it too." It's just too weird to me.

My tour guide in Korea said that the current generation of teenage girls in Korea are pretty materialistic. If one girl has a Chanel bag, everyone in her circle of friends will get one.

This, along with the need to be beautiful thus plastic surgery... Isn't it all a bit too superficial, Korea?

[hyukti.livejournal.com]

oh wow. i don't know whether to laugh or cringe at this.

[suzieeq-luv.livejournal.com]

monogrammed bags make me feel like a walking advertisment tho...

[yuki-yang.livejournal.com]

I think there is a very strong sense of "showing off" in Asia.
Wanting people to "think" you're rich, wanting them to be jealous of you, wanting to FEEL rich even for just a 5 mins walk.

It's all "making myself FEEL special and superior" behaviors.

So sometime, it's not even materialism...it's just the desperation of appearing to be better than everyone else.

[ending-theme.livejournal.com]

It is. I see it everyday. Girls use them to carry stuff that doesn't fit in their purses. idgi

[inudela.livejournal.com]

...i always chuck those paper bags away.

[jcdhwg.livejournal.com]

lmao. This made me think of something. I work at a shoe/accessory boutique.. And two weeks ago this Chinese woman came in and asked my boss if she could buy all her Bottega Veneta bags (which are like 3000$ each, and we have around 30 of them). My boss was like 'Ugghhh noo? Why do you need all of them?' and she was like 'I'm gonna take them with me to China..'. It would've been great of us ofc, but then our accessory shop would've been empty.. And the winter season just started.. lmao >

[stopjustlisten.livejournal.com]

omg lol. they don't allow customers to buy everything in the store?

[ababobaby.livejournal.com]

Oh well, I only get branded stuff from my relatives in abroad.