SEOUL, Sept. 20 (Yonhap) -- Sales at South Korea's major discount chains and department stores rose from a year earlier in August on growing demand for food and daily household products ahead of a major holiday, a government report showed Tuesday.
By lunar calendar, Sept. 12 was Chuseok, the Korean equivalent of American Thanksgiving Day. The day is one of the largest holidays in Korea, for which millions of people travel to their hometowns for family rituals.
In August, combined sales of the country's three major discount chains rose 2.0 percent last month from a year earlier, with those of three leading department store chains expanding 8.3 percent, according to the report by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
"Sales at discount outlets rose slightly mainly on strong demand for foods and other daily household goods ahead of the Chuseok holiday which came earlier than in 2010," the report said.
Food sales at discount outlets rose 3.8 percent on-year in August, while sales of daily household goods that include shampoo, soap, toothpaste and kitchenware increased 4.8 percent, it said.
Sales of foodstuffs at department stores jumped 15.6 percent.
Luxury good sales also drove up the overall increase by posting a 14 percent gain, according to the report.
The monthly report does not provide monetary sums of sales of the three surveyed discount chains -- Lotte Mart, E-Mart and Homeplus. The three department store chains are Lotte, Shinsegae and Hyundai.
