Wholesale customers no longer come as they once did at Namdaemun Market, yet merchants still raise their shutters in the pre-dawn dark. Borrowing the market scene captured by the Chosun Ilbo column 'Ham Young-joon's Mind PT,' we look at the days and mental health of small merchants amid weak domestic demand.
Before daybreak, lights are already on in the alleys of Namdaemun Market. From accessories, bowls and children's clothes to eyeglasses and the restaurants of the braised-hairtail lane, merchants carry goods and set up stalls through the narrow passages to open their day. The morning market portrayed by the Chosun Ilbo's 'Ham Young-joon's Mind PT' shows a rhythm of life that does not stop even when domestic demand has frozen.
광고 문의 · 300×250But the reality beyond the scene is hard. With high prices and shrinking consumption dragging on, complaints of fewer customers are common in both wholesale and retail. Merchants who start even earlier to protect a sliver of margin and skip lunch to hold their stalls are a portrait of those who feel the cold spell in demand first and closest.
Long-time merchants say they have weathered the ups and downs of the economy many times. What makes this slump feel heavier is the uncertainty of when recovery will come. More than falling sales, it is the vagueness of 'not knowing when things will get better' that weighs on the mind.
That is exactly where 'Ham Young-joon's Mind PT' lands. The hardship of small merchants cannot be reduced to numbers alone. When anxiety and fatigue pile up, sleep suffers, small things grate, and it can spread into self-blame. The column warmly reminds us that the strength to get through a market day comes not only from sales sheets but from a word offered by a fellow merchant nearby or a regular customer.
Namdaemun Market has deep ties to the Chinese community as well. Many ethnic-Chinese merchants have traded and run wholesale and retail businesses nearby, and Chinese-speaking visitors make up no small share of the foreign tourists who come. Since the market warms only when domestic demand and tourism revive together, its recovery is a wish shared by Korean and Chinese merchants alike.
Experts say the mental health of small merchants should not be treated as a matter of individual willpower alone. Anyone can grow weary before excessive competition and uncertainty, and seeking counseling and support when needed is not weakness but a way of protecting oneself. So that the market's pre-dawn lights do not go out, care for people must travel alongside revenue support.
