99-won sanitary pads that brought even the 'Coupang scandal' to its knees: orders surge 50-fold, sold out

Immediately after President Lee Jae-myung pointed out that sanitary pads are more expensive in Korea than overseas, Coupang launched ultra-low-priced private-label (PB) sanitary pads at "99 won per pad," and they sold out in just two days.
According to the retail industry on the 2nd, Coupang’s PB brand CPLB’s "Lunami" soft sanitary pads — four packs of 18 medium pads (7,120 won) and four packs of 16 large pads (6,690 won) — were all sold out just two days after sales began on the 1st.
At the end of last month, Coupang became the first domestic retailer to cut the per-pad price of Lunami sanitary pads by up to 29% and announced it would freeze prices at that level. As a result, the price of medium pads dropped from around 120–130 won per pad to 99 won, and large pads fell from the 140–150 won range to 105 won.
According to the report "Monitoring of Disposable Sanitary Pad Prices and Advertising" released by the Korean Women’s Environmental Network on May 8, 2023, to mark World Menstrual Hygiene Day, sanitary pads in Korea are sold at prices about 39% higher than in other countries.
For the medium and large sizes, which see the highest demand among female consumers, the per-pad prices are 357.03 won and 324.08 won, respectively. This means consumers pay around 6,000–7,000 won when buying a 20-pack.
Coupang is reportedly absorbing the entire loss arising from the price cuts.
Because it is selling its PB sanitary pads below cost, Coupang also limited purchases to one item per customer per day to prevent stockpiling by certain distributors or individuals.
Even so, orders for Lunami sanitary pads surged to as much as 50 times the usual level, and even the inventory prepared to cover roughly 50 days of sales was depleted in no time. Coupang plans to restock the medium and large pads as soon as possible.
y27k@fnnews.com Seo Yoon-kyung Reporter