Starbucks Korea cleaned up the area around Gyeongdong Market in Seoul's Dongdaemun District together with merchants there ahead of the Chuseok holiday.
The coffee chain said on the 23rd that it held a plogging event at the market on the 17th. About 30 people took part, including Starbucks employees and officials from the Gyeongdong Market Merchants Association and KD Market Co.
Participants collected trash along the road in front of the market and around individual shops while tidying up other parts of the market. Gyeongdong Market is home to Gyeongdong 1960, the fifth of Starbucks Korea's community stores. The company opened the outlet in 2022 after remodeling the former Gyeongdong Theater inside the market, preserving the structure and traces of the 1960s building while converting it into a store.
The Gyeongdong 1960 store sets aside 300 won from every item it sells to build a shared-growth fund for the market. Over the past four years, Starbucks has used the fund to support improvement projects including modernizing the market's restrooms, leveling roads, joint disinfection work and repainting the parking lot.
The company plans to use the fund again this year to help maintain and repair market facilities and carry out disinfection work. Starbucks is also pursuing improvements to local infrastructure, job creation and public-interest programs under a four-way shared-growth agreement signed with the Gyeongdong Market Merchants Association, KD Market Co. and the Korea Commission for Corporate Partnership.
"Preparing for the holiday by tending to Gyeongdong Market alongside the merchants, at a time when so many people visit, makes this an especially meaningful activity," Starbucks Korea CEO Shin Dong-woo said. "We will continue to carry out a range of shared-growth activities that can help traditional markets and local communities."
