Lotte Department Store "Receipt Raiders"

It never fails.  Tell me if this has ever happened to you, because it's happened to me pretty much EVERY TIME I walk out of the Lotte Department store with a shopping bag in hand.

Today I indulged myself in a brand new NIKON DSLR.  A modest, mid-range camera that I dropped 650,000won on.  As I'm walking out of the department store at the subway-level entrance, the thought popped into my head "I'm carrying this huge bag with all of these goodies that were thrown in with the camera...a "receipt raider" is bound to spot me!"

My definition of a "receipt raider": An ajumma who sees that you've purchased something from the Lotte Department store and is determined to pester you to give up your retail receipt.

Seriously...what...the hell.  The first time it happened to me, I was double-teamed by two ajumma's who saw the receipt in my hand and followed me all the way out to the subway gates.  Usually when I purchase something from Lotte, it's expensive.  A receipt is a key component in returning an item, should one need to do so.  Not only am I partial to keeping my receipt for expensive items, but I have no clue as to why these old grannies want it!  My first run-in ended up turning ugly, as one of the women ACTUALLY SHOVED ME when she realized I wasn't going to give it up.  She pushed me twice, as if to say "Get the hell out of my territory!" I turned back to her and gave her a snarky, Fonzie-esque sort of "Aye!  Aye!  Take it easy!"

Since then, it's pretty much guaranteed that I run into one of these women if I'm carrying a shopping bag.  Today I was accosted for the receipt for my NIKON camera.  Of course I'm not giving it up, but she practically begged me for a good 30 seconds before moving on to the woman who was walking next to me.

Again, I ask...what...the...hell?  I turned to my fellow "receipt raider" victim and asked "Why?" in Korean, she just shook her head...then I offered an observation "Crazy?" she shook her head in agreement and said "Crazy."

So...has this ever happened to you?  If not, why is this happening to me?  Who are these women?  What do they want?  And why the hell is my Lotte Department Store receipt so valuable to them!?!?

Re: Lotte Department Store "Receipt Raiders"

The reason they are doing that is because the department store offers free gifts for a certain amount that you spend. Obviously the more you spend the better the gift.

Re: Lotte Department Store "Receipt Raiders"

They get points or even cash coupons back in return. I recently bought a teadmill from the mall and we got like 30 buck voucher to be used whenever we want. So it is a free 30 bucks. You can get gifts, passes to movies, saunas and so on. You dont have to give up your receipt to get gifts either. So in the future, you should go to customer service spots and get your self a free gift or certificate to be used later. Or at least i think this is why they do this. My wife does all this so I know pretty much anytime you buy something from Lotte, Shinseage and even places like Homeplus, you can get something back when you show your receipt (or if you have like a homeplus card you just collect points that can be used like cash whevever you want). Either this or they just think you are hot and like talking to you or I am just plain wong about both. Anyway, happy shopping to you.

Re: Lotte Department Store "Receipt Raiders"

A little off topic. To the original poster. How do you find Lottes prices compared to say a small independent shop or online shops like gmarket. I always presumed they would be more expensive.  But never really looked into it.

Re: Lotte Department Store "Receipt Raiders"

In general, department stores like Lotte and Shinsegae are absolutely more expensive than smaller independent shops.  The Omega Seamaster I bought was roughly 400,000won cheaper at an independent dealer.  Also take into account that some dealers you can buy goods second hand.

As for this Nikon, I just wanted a mid-range starting camera, and they had this one on "sale", apparently.  The Nikon D3000, and I also happened to have a 100,000won Lotte Gift Certificate.  Still, I went to the independent camera dealer that's off to the left of the department store (next to Dunkin) first, just to compare prices.  He speaks a little English, and he quoted prices that were pretty much the same.  So in this case, I went with Lotte because I had the gift certificate as well.

Also consider that at Lotte they threw in a whole bunch of extras.  I got a Nikon camera case (it's a very nice one, too), a tripod, and a 4GB SD card.  Needless to say, I walked out happy.

Sometimes it will depend on the item, but yes, Lotte and Shinsegae are more expensive, in general.

I guess I should take my receipt to get a free gift or something, huh?

Re: Lotte Department Store "Receipt Raiders"

My wife just got a free pass to Spaland at Shinsegae worth 12,000w by showing her receipt that she had spent more than 10,000w.

The department stores are really expensive but often they sell different model that are not offered at other stores or online.  For large ticket items you should ask for discounts or other freebies.  The salesperson has some flexibility in what they can offer. 

Re: Lotte Department Store "Receipt Raiders"

This reminds me of the women that camp out when a new store opens just to get a free plastic bowl or three rolls of toilet paper. No wonder why krispy's stopped giving away free donuts. Anyone who waits more than a minute in line to get anything free apparently doesn't have anything better to do and should just lie down and return to the earth. .

Re: Lotte Department Store "Receipt Raiders"

Yeyeye, that is how we never become someone else but assistants to our students. Lotte recently promotes their Receipt Marketing on and off lines; when you go to lotte.com which is affiliated with lotte dep store, they provide events to cash back a full mount of money shown on your receipt. They will randomly select 1000 of them to give away their money back. Receipt is cash here, so is a plastic shopping bag in their shop. US retailing stores imitate somewhat similar events for doing good to the environment. If we are not aware of Korean management technique, we gonna be a donor. That was simple.

Re: Lotte Department Store "Receipt Raiders"

I'm sorry, helenreee, but I can't really make out some of what you're trying to tell me.  I did get some very good info from your post, such as the Lotte promotion that allows you to register your receipt online and you could be eligible for a full refund for the amount shown on your receipt...but the very first line and the very last lines are a bit unclear.  Do you think you could try rewording your statement?

For example:

"Yeyeye, that is how we never become someone else but assistants to our students."

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this.

"Receipt is cash here, so is a plastic shopping bag in their shop. US retailing stores imitate somewhat similar events for doing good to the environment. If we are not aware of Korean management technique, we gonna be a donor. That was simple."

This part was also a bit unclear.

Re: Lotte Department Store "Receipt Raiders"

No problem solidchamp. I sometimes think syntactic ambiguity provides more than one property of sentences when it concerns a personal terminology. The beginning of my post was addressing to a personal definition of "a teacher" as a foreigner here in Korea, whereas the last part of it definitely about my own question:

Why do Koreans have to purchase trash bags to throw away their own garbage out from their property? Why do their stores sell their plastic shopping bags (most of them sell KRW 50 each) when they give away their paper bags for free? We have to buy the former to trash the later by purchasing both of them. And that s politically incorrect for those who live here and pay tax to those who pay to the housing management parties for offering a sanitary service to them. You know the state of california started selling their trash bags.

I am not going to exemplify too much of difference about Korean phenomena in economy. One is that sales tax of a Korean product never got calculated after we purchase it. 10 % of the original price is going to be marked when you buy it. Because they deduct the tax out from the Net price. When receipts are in their store's hands, you must be intelligent enough to see what the store owner can do to recalculate their annual sales tax to their gov. Our receipts are cash to Lotte.  I am gonna stop here, dudes.  I do not want everybody understands my answer, cause it is more complex than anyone can imagine!