Televisions recently went on sale at Rakwon Department Store, drawing a crowd of hundreds of Pyongyang residents, Daily NK has learned.
“Rakwon Department Store held a last-minute sale on Hc LED televisions at 10:30 AM last Thursday [Jan. 26]. Businesspeople interested in reselling the televisions had learned about the date and time of the sale in advance and hired people to stand in line on their behalf. As a result, a crowd gathered in front of the department store,” a source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Tuesday.
The source said that whenever this kind of limited-time sale is held, entrepreneurs hire straw buyers to stand in line all night and buy up as many products as possible before they sell out. Once the products are in hand, the entrepreneurs then pay the straw buyers a certain fee and sell the products on the market for a profit.
“After rumors spread that only the first hundred people in line would be able to buy a television, a line formed in front of Rakwon Department Store before it even opened. Some of the first hundred people in line were taking turns making sure that no one tried to cut in line,” the source said.
The department store said it had sold a hundred televisions altogether for a discount without limiting the number sold per individual.
The 15- and 19-inch televisions were on sale for the high price of USD 400 and USD 450, respectively, but they sold so quickly that stock ran out before the sale was scheduled to end.
After paying at a temporary counter on the first floor, customers were given a receipt and sent to the electronics store, where they had to wait in yet another line to receive their televisions, the source said.
The department store had promised to accept payment for the televisions in North Korean won, based on the market rate for the day, and accepted both North Korean won and foreign currency at first. But after a big crowd had formed, staff abruptly announced that they would only accept foreign currency and even jacked up the unit price by USD 40, he added.
The source provided the following context about the televisions that went on sale:
“The Taedonggang TV Factory had been mass producing televisions for export in a joint venture with China in the spring of 2020, but production stopped when COVID-19 put a halt to trade. Those televisions have now been sold via Rakwon Department Store with the hope of drawing in foreign currency from the North Korean public.”
The Taedonggang TV Factory reportedly set up an assembly line in collaboration with China in late 2019 and produced LED televisions called “Hc” for export with funding from a Chinese individual from Shenyang, in China’s Liaoning Province.
Televisions at the sizes of 15, 17, 19 and 21 inches were then sold at foreign currency stores in Pyongyang, but television production was interrupted because of the difficulty of sourcing certain parts after the border was closed and trade suspended following the outbreak of COVID-19.
Then, in late 2022, parts were hurriedly imported from China to assemble partially manufactured televisions that had been in storage for three years. That was the origin of the hundred televisions that were sold to capital residents at Rakwon Department Store leading up to the Foundation Day of the Korean People’s Army on February 8 and Kim Jong Il’s birthday (Day of the Shining Star) on February 16, the source said.
“The televisions were about a hundred dollars cheaper than when they were first sold in the spring of 2020. The price was lowered because the televisions had been sitting in storage for three years before final assembly, but customers weren’t allowed to plug them in at the store. Nobody has been complaining though, which suggests the televisions worked just fine once everybody took them home and tried them out,” he said.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
