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On Oct. 9-15, the average daily sales of condoms across all Family Mart convenience stores was 1,930, a 19.9 percent increase over September’s daily average of 1,610. Compared to the year’s average until September of 1,508, that is an incredible 28 percent increase. Even when the sample period widened from Oct. 9-21, the average stood at a high 1,857. Amazingly, even now more condoms are sold than during the World Cup, which even at its zenith in June only brought daily averages only to 1,751. Things were no different at other convenience store chains like GS25. Oct. 9-15 daily sales revenues from condoms stood at W3.54 million, a 14.8 percent increase over September and a 12 percent increase over the year’s average through September. Expanding again the sample period to Oct. 9-21, there was an 8.2 percent increase in sales. On days of the World Cup matches against Togo, France and Switzerland, sales figures from condoms were at an average of W3.18 million, only slightly above the norm. Sales of butane gas and packs of instant noodles -- a sign that people are stockpiling -- also increased, but not to the same extent as condom sales. Year-on-year, sales of butane and ramen jumped 9.6 percent year-on-year and 7.2 percent during the same Oct. 9-15 period. Hotels and motels are enjoying the tide of customers flowing through their doors. “The top hotels in Gangnam are all booked up, and most of the rooms in motels are gone,” reservations website Hotel VIP says. “Even the increased demand surrounding the Chuseok holiday subsides after one week, so it’s exceptional for the number of hotel guests to continue this high.” In another interesting twist, it has been reported that the hardest place to get a room is the favorite haunt of stock-traders, Yeouido. The tiny island on the Han River has the highest concentration of securities firms most sensitive to the North’s nuke tests. Company chief Kwak says, “Specifically the business hotels in the Yeouido area that run at about W50,000-70,000(US$1=W958) per night are completely booked since last week through Oct. 27.” Experts offer various explanations. “There has been research showing that following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, U.S. citizens also engaged in more sexual encounters than normal,” says Seong Gyeong-won, head of the Korea Institute for Sex Education. “Prof. Pepper Schwartz, a University of Washington sociologist, insists that as the level of anxiety in a society rises, people are capable of experiencing more passionate desire.” In 1941, the U.S. military distributed pinup posters to soldiers at the frontlines of the Pacific War to help them dull the horrors of combat. “With all society’s attentions focused on the North Korean nuclear crisis, it’s possible that people’s desire to escape has also increased,” says Lee Yoon-ho of Dongguk University. “When you consider the fact that the majority of people buying condoms at the convenience stores are in their 20s and 30s, it’s entirely possible.” Yonsei University psychologist Prof. Whang Sang-min says the increase in condom sales isn’t conclusive proof of the state of affairs after the nuclear test, but admits it is interesting. “We have to see this as arising in an atmosphere of uncertainty where something that may affect our society in its entirety has still not become entirely clear.” |