Homeplus reopened 67 stores on August 13 — exactly one month after closing them

On July 13, 2026, 67 Homeplus stores closed at once. The reason was cash.

On August 13, all 67 reopened. Exactly one month.

1. The month in dates

The last row is the one that explains the others. The reopening landed three weeks before the deadline. That sequence is not accidental, for reasons set out below.

2. The eight stores where online is still down

All 67 are trading in person, but only 59 have resumed online delivery. The eight that have not:

This distinction has a practical basis. Korean hypermarket online orders are typically picked from a nearby store by staff rather than shipped from a central warehouse. So a store can be open to walk-in customers without being able to fulfil online orders — shelves must be restocked and picking staff must be back.

For anyone near those eight locations, checking whether the app still lists the area as serviceable is faster than assuming.

3. Why reopen now — the September 4 deadline

There is a date embedded in this decision: September 4, 2026, the court's final deadline for creditors to approve the rehabilitation plan.

Korean court-supervised rehabilitation runs roughly like this:

1. The court opens rehabilitation proceedings
2. The company files a rehabilitation plan — how much debt is repaid, and how
3. Creditors vote. Below the statutory approval threshold, the plan fails
4. If the court confirms it, the company restructures; if not, liquidation follows

Step 3 is the pressure point. What creditors weigh is whether the business is worth more as a going concern than in liquidation. Demonstrating, before the vote, that stores are trading and generating revenue is therefore decisive.

The roughly 200bn won of debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing behind the restocking belongs to the same logic. DIP funding is new money raised by a company already in proceedings, typically ranking ahead of existing claims. It paid for filling the shelves.

Seen this way, August 13 was less the result of normalisation than a procedure intended to demonstrate it.

4. The promotions, and what they signal

The unusual depth of these discounts follows from section 3. This is a company that needs revenue on the books before September 4.

Stock and participating lines differ by store. Some locations reportedly ran out of shopping carts on the first day.

5. What shoppers should check

Whether the local store is one of the 59 — the eight listed above may not deliver yet.

Gift certificates and loyalty points — how balances accrued before the closure are treated could not be confirmed from company notices. This article does not answer that.

The rehabilitation is not finished. What was settled on August 13 was trading, not court approval. The September 4 vote can still change the picture.

6. The open question

Homeplus has said it is converting multi-floor stores toward single-floor layouts and raising the share of food, daily essentials and private-label goods — keeping store count while narrowing what each store carries.

Whether that is a structural answer for large-format retail or a contraction forced by a cash shortage is not something this article decides. It is a question for after September 4.

One thing can be stated plainly. The only thing that changed between July 13 and August 13 is that the shelves are full. The balance sheet is where it was, and creditors rule on it in September.