"Starbucks Says Sales Declined" Turns Out to Be True... Payments Drop by 8.47 Billion Won in Just One Week

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[Financial News]  Starbucks Korea's sales and new app installations fell sharply amid controversy over the so-called "Tank Day" related to the Gwangju Uprising.
According to Kyunghyang Shinmun on the 27th, Mobile Index, operated by AI tech company IGAWorks Inc., said Starbucks' weekly payment amount for the period from the 18th to the 24th was 23.69 billion won. That was down 8.47 billion won, or 26.3 percent, from 32.16 billion won in the previous week, from the 11th to the 17th.
Shinsegae Group also said the previous day, after Chairman Chung Yong-jin's public apology, that there had been "a very significant drop in sales."
New installations of the Starbucks app also declined. During the same period, new installs of the app totaled 36,994, down 11,447, or 23.6 percent, from 48,441 the previous week. The app also fell from second to fifth place in new installations among food and beverage brand apps.
What stands out, however, is that the number of app users increased. Weekly users of the Starbucks app rose by 182,072, or 4.7 percent, from 3,903,668 to 4,085,740.
Analysts say the temporary increase may have been driven by existing users logging in to check Starbucks' official notices or their prepaid balance.
Earlier, Starbucks Korea came under fire for allegedly trivializing the Gwangju Uprising through promotions using phrases such as "Tank Day" and "Bang on the desk." Consumers then began demanding full refunds of prepaid balances.
Starbucks Korea announced the previous day that it would offer full refunds of prepaid balances for a limited two-week period from June 1 to June 14, regardless of the ratio of use after the final top-up.
y27k@fnnews.com Seo Yoon-kyung Reporter