협동조합화를 통한 재래시장 활성화 방안

Abstract

Revitalizing traditional markets is recognized to be important for increasing employment, building local communities, developing local economies and cultures. However, traditional markets in Korea have lost their competitive advantage compared to discount stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores in terms of location, environment, brand image, quality, and promotion. This lack of competitiveness has caused many social and economic problems including unemployment, bankruptcy of small stores, and regional economy contraction, etc. Due to the importance of traditional markets for rebuilding of the regional economy, Korean government has invest considerable budgets in the projects for restructuring hardware (buildings and stores) and modernizing traditional markets. But the effect is known to be limited. In this study, I analyze problems that traditional markets are facing. I then propose alternative strategies drawn from the concept of co-operative applied to the problems. The transformation of traditional markets into co-operatives will help traditional markets reshape themselves into more competitive entities and overcome various risks and weaknesses by 1) increasing collaboration and building trust among merchants, 2) facilitating joint purchase and marketing among merchants, and 3) bringing economy of scale to them to utilize knowledge services such as management consulting design, and business planning. However, it is important to preemptively avoid risks involving the transformation of traditional markets to co-operatives and to plan alternatives.