FYI, Lotte pretty much runs the block in Korea. It's a huge Korean and Japanese conglomerate. The umbrella of operations includes everything imaginable: amusement parks, finance, candy, shopping, food, hotels, etc. A quick google search and you can get this or research on your own. Point being, H&M has balls for passing up on the partnership. It could be bad business or not. I'm not familiar enough with Lotte to say anything, but most companies chose to partner with Lotte.
As you can see there was quite a long line. Waits were reported as long as 2 to 3 hours. The overall space looks quite chic as opposed to other H&M stores I've seen. I'm still trying to figure out the price point. Hopefully, H&M will still be cheap and inexpensive for Korean shoppers. Since it is an international company, I'm hopeful. Yet, I'm told that shopping in Korea is really inexpensive due to wholesale retailers which would be competition in itself.. Honestly, from what Korean friends have told me, and what I've seen on online Korean retailers- H&M might not have much to offer. Although, American Apparel has been pretty successful.
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