As evening settled over Seoul’s western Seogyo-dong neighborhood and closing time approached, customers streamed out of a bakery café carrying bags stuffed with bread. The bakery sells its unsold bread and pastries at half price at the end of each day to customers who reserve them in advance. Owner Lee Yoo-jin, 35, has offered the end-of-day discount for two years and says demand has recently surged. “We offer eight bags for reservation each day, and lately they’ve always been fully booked,” Lee said. “Sometimes we receive more reservations than the number of bags we have prepared, so we have to cancel some of them.” Consumers go extra mile for deals The bakery is not alone in seeing a flurry of customers as closing time approaches. The late rush is slowly becoming a trend in Korea as consumers seek to take advantage of end-of-day discounts to buy food at lower prices. It contrasts with the “open-run” rush seen in Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic, when shoppers lined up outside luxury boutiques before opening to secure coveted items. Discount hunting was previously seen