K-beauty shops go off-script from warehouses to pharmacies

In Korean beauty retail, Olive Young stands tallest, with 1,367 stores and counting, though that footprint buys no immunity from shifts in the industry. Over the past few years, a new generation of beauty shops has stepped in to compete for K-beauty's growing customer base, launched mostly by retail giants like Shinsegae, Lotte and even Musinsa, with each running curated multi-brand stores with its own spin. Yet rising alongside them is another kind of retailer that tilts away from the familiar