Civic groups and small and medium-sized merchants are calling for the revision of a controversial law so that Nonghyup Hanaro Mart and Hanaro Club close two days per month along with other retail giants such as E-Mart.

People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, one of the leading civic groups, is petitioning for the revision of the law and is contacting members of the opposition parties for support, according to reports.

More than 70 percent of the nation’s discount retailers such as E-Mart and Homeplus shut down on the second Sunday of June as part of the nation’s new policy to help small, individually-owned stores. Nonghyup Hanaro Mart and Hanaro Club, however, stayed open according to the regulation that large-size grocery stores where the sales of agricultural and livestock products take up more than 51 percent of the sales do not have to take days off.

“The law is not only unfair but the aim to help small and medium-sized stores faded because Nonghyup Hanaro Mart stayed open,” said Choi In-suk, a manager at PSPD.

PSPD has yet to decide whether to push for the removal of the section regarding agricultural products or a revision of the law as a whole.

Korea’s Supermarket Association also shared PSPD’s view that the law should be revised. It argued it should first be verified if agricultural and livestock products actually take up more than 51 percent of the stands at Hanaro Mart, according to reports.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldcorp.com)