Viral Namdaemun Scarf Vendor Launches Successful Online Store
A Namdaemun Market vendor in Seoul who went viral for discouraging customers from buying his products launched an online store on November 12.
The vendor operates a stall at South Korea’s oldest and largest traditional market, where he sells bundles of six scarves for 10,000 won, The Straits Times reported.
Shoppers continued ignoring his advice as traffic surged to his new web platform on Naver Smart Store. The e-commerce listing logged 157,497 visits by 9:41 a.m. local time on November 12, with 85,782 visits arriving that morning alone. All scarf sets sold out.
Seoul’s Namdaemun scarf seller, famous for ‘don’t buy’ pitch, launches online store https://t.co/9UEtypCnik
Online customers pay 10,000 won for a bundle of six scarves, plus 3,000 won for shipping. Unlike transactions at his physical stall, online buyers cannot choose their own designs because the vendor selects all six pieces himself. The listing carries a blunt warning against overspending.
The vendor launched the digital shop after receiving numerous requests from fans as crowds at his physical stall became unmanageable. He achieved online fame in late October after short clips of his deadpan, sassy banter spread across social media, accumulating between one million and five million views per video.
In these recordings, the vendor casually addresses his mostly middle-aged women customers as mum or sis while jokingly attempting to talk them out of purchases. He tells shoppers the accessories are not worth their time and effort and that they probably will not wear them.
“There’s a reason they’re so cheap,” he tells a shopper in one video. In another, he remarks, “If you get home and don’t like it, use it as bedding for your dog.”
The viral attention turned the ordinary scarf shop into a bustling tourist attraction that drew large crowds and forced early closures. The physical shop’s Instagram account amassed more than 32,000 followers just over a week after its October 25 launch.
Police had to disperse crowds outside his market stall on November 10, and the shop shut early at 11:30 a.m. the following day. To stop pre-opening queues from blocking market walkways and disrupting neighboring businesses, the vendor announced on social media that he would vary his operating hours instead of opening at his usual time of 10 a.m.