• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.517-536
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• 2010

While periodic marketing systems have lasted for more than hundreds of years in Korea, the weekly (periodic) markets have emerged since the latter half of the 1990s in the densely populated urban areas. In Jinju, weekly markets are opened on eight densely populated area: Ehyeon Wellga Apt.(Monday market), Gumsan Apt.(Tuesday market), Juyak Hanbo Apt.(Wednesday market), Chojeon Apt.(Thursday market), Manggyeong Hanbo Apt.(Thursday market), Pyeonggeo Dulmalhanbo Apt.(Friday market), Gajoa Jugonggreenville Apt.(Saturday market), and Gaho Apt.(Saturday). The merchants of Jinju's weekly markets can be classified into three groups as follows: the migrating specialized(full-time) merchants, who sell fruits, fish, and other daily necessities: the farmer part-time women merchants in the sixties or in the seventies, who sell the agricultural products that they themselves have grown around the rural areas; and the vendor merchants, who sell mostly dduk-bok-ki, eo-mug(odeng), and other fast food. The origin and persistence of periodic markets are explained in terms of the concepts of central place theory, the economic/comparative advantage of periodic markets, and the traditional organization of time and inertia.