From an American pharmacy to a Korean H&B store

The notes define a drugstore as a retailer that sells, in one place, medicines, cosmetics, health supplements, household goods, and beauty products. The form, they write, began with American pharmacies in the early twentieth century that also sold daily goods — they name Walgreens, CVS Caremark, and Rite Aid — and, in Korea, took on a stronger share of beauty and health and came to be called health-and-beauty, or H&B, stores. The Korean names they list are CJ Olive Young, GS Watsons, and W Store.

LOHB’s, they write, is the trademark of the H&B division of Lotte Shopping, and Lotte Shopping’s drugstore. The banner was founded in 2013, and from 2015 it began, in earnest, to open stores outside the capital area. Those years belong to the notes’ own account of the chain’s early move outward, not to a later official tally of shops.

A late entrant, and a goal they call a Lotte-style drugstore

The notes are frank about a weakness. Under the heading of policy direction they write “NO distinctiveness, TOO LATE!” — LOHB’s, in this telling, arrived after the market had already taken shape, as a late member of the drugstore field, and they set it the goal of becoming a “post–Olive Young,” Lotte-style drugstore, aiming for the place just after the industry leader. The tools they name for that aim are a sales strategy and a membership strategy set apart from rivals, and a stronger position on price.

In a short brand presentation of this kind, they are less interested in a full market census than in how a late runner might still make a color of its own. The diagnosis is the notes’ own, from that presentation, and it is left in that frame.

A white interior, a skin pharmacy, and brands sold only here

The first difference they propose is the look of the shop. The white interior of a LOHB’s store is meant to bring a pharmacy to mind, and to build a clean, white image. They call this a new symbol for the drugstore: a skin pharmacy, something that, across health, daily life, and beauty, is there to heal. The second difference is in the goods themselves. They unpack the name as LOVE HEALTH & BEAUTY STORE, and they want the mix of items to stand apart, with brands that are unique to LOHB’s placed in the shop, so that the chain can be remembered as a leading specialist in health, beauty, and daily life.

Those two moves — the white room, and the brands that would be sold only there — are the notes’ proposed answers to the late start, not a later official report on how the chain fared. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. The notes’ short brand presentation on LOHB’s, Lotte Shopping’s H&B banner, including the 2013 founding and the 2015 move beyond the capital area

Last updated: 14 November 2026