Shortly before the new year, the Korean government banned gatherings of more than four people due to an increase in COVID cases. For this reason, people could not visit their families during the new year holiday period. However, people came up with a different solution to greet their families with love and respect. The solution that they came up with was buying luxury presents for their families including fruit, gulbi (fish), Korean beef, and more. This year, people tended to buy more luxury gifts than other years, so department stores in Korea like Shinsegae, Hyundai, and others decided to increase the prices of their goods both for their benefit and for the farmers and ranchers. The increases in sales helped both farmers and department stores to earn a profit.

Even though it seemed like Covid-19 cases were improving, the numbers kept fluctuating. Therefore, farmers suffered from the lack of workers due to lockdowns and quarantines while consumer demands have increased. Due to the farmers and ranchers having a hard time producing the agricultural goods, people who wanted to buy those goods increased while the products and goods from the farmers decreased. The government decided to take action to help those farmers and raised the price of Korea's anti-corruption laws prohibiting agricultural gifts of more than $100, to $200 to support farmers. Not only did it help farmers to gain more profit, but it also motivated farmers to work harder.

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The current pandemic also increased the sales in department stores in Korea including Hyundai, Lotte, and Shinsegae. According to these department stores, sales have reached record levels and increased by 46 - 51% because many people bought luxury gifts for their families. Lotte department stores prepared luxury wines which were about $500~$4000 and sold 70% of what they had prepared, which was a record-breaker. Also, they prepared one hundred high-end meat sets (priced at $1,700 each) and they were sold out which was a huge success compared to the previous year. They were also able to sell 78% more of their $300 galbi sets than in the previous year. According to Hyundai, the top 10 most sold products were all product sets priced over $200 like Korean beef, vegetables, and fruits. Department stores were able to make lots of profits since these products were the best gift to give their families without visiting each other.

Even though the current pandemic caused many people to have a hard time, some people were able to benefit from the situation. To reduce the number of people who are getting infected by COVID, the government has restricted the number of people who can meet at the time. Meeting in groups of five or more people was prohibited and if they get caught then they have to pay a fine of $100. To avoid this, many people decided to meet in person and send gifts instead. Due to many people wanting these products and the products being so limited, the prices increased and more people purchased expensive gifts, leading to department stores reaching the highest sales.

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