Why Kia’s “Mobile Mart” Came to Sunchang: The Distance That Cash Payments Alone Cannot Bridge

Even if a basic income is deposited into your account every month, how does that money reach the table if you have no way to get to the store? On November 6, 2026, a mobile market named “Kia Move to You” opened its doors in Sunchang, Jeollabuk-do ¹. A joint initiative by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Kia, and the Green Umbrella Children’s Foundation, the project aims to help income support translate into actual consumption and daily life by directly supplying essential goods to rural villages where shopping is difficult.

Changes brought by basic income and remaining challenges

Since February 26, 2026, Sunchang County has been paying a basic income of KRW 150,000 per month to all county residents ¹. As this income translated into revenue for local stores, the number of merchants accepting the regional love vouchers increased from 1,132 to 1,409, and some stores saw their sales jump by more than tenfold compared to the same period the previous year ¹. Looking at the numbers alone, a virtuous cycle of consumption and production appears to have taken root.

However, with retail shops within villages disappearing due to an aging population and declining demographics, the issue of places where goods can be purchased becoming distant cannot be resolved by income alone ²¹. For elderly residents who do not own vehicles or have limited mobility, traveling to the downtown area is a significant burden ². Min Seon-sik, Head of the Food, Agriculture, and Animal Industry Office at Jeollabuk-do Metropolitan Government, emphasized the need for mobile living services, stating, “In rural areas, elderly residents often find it difficult to frequently travel to the downtown area even when they want to shop” ².

The principle of turning vehicles into stores

The operational model of Kia Move to You can be partly predicted through the example of “Sunchang Gokgan,” a mobile butcher shop currently operating in the same Sunchang area ²¹. The mobile butcher shop, which secured a dedicated vehicle equipped with refrigeration and freezing facilities using KRW 30 million from the National Pension Service’s social contribution fund, visits villages after receiving pre-orders, loading goods onto the vehicle for direct sales ². The vehicle itself becomes the store, eliminating physical distance.

As such, mobile retail goes beyond simply transporting goods; it also serves as a catalyst for creating the local economy and employment. The “Sunchang Gokgan” and “Punggujang Market,” established by residents, connect products from local pig farmers to residents’ tables, generating KRW 40 million in monthly sales and four jobs through mobile sales, pre-orders, and deliveries ¹. This is a case where residents’ inconveniences were transformed into regional opportunities.

From delivery to resident self-reliance

Kia Move to You is an attempt to expand the scope of mobile sales, previously limited to meat or specific agricultural products, to encompass all general essential goods ¹. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Kia, and the Green Umbrella Children’s Foundation have planned a step further than mere one-off deliveries, aiming to establish a supply system tailored to residents’ needs. Specifically, they intend to foster local social solidarity economy organizations to create a “self-reliance model” where service operations are transferred to direct management by residents ¹.

Kia Move to You launched on November 6, 2026, and is only at its initial stage ¹. However, as with the case where Sunchang Gokgan successfully settled mobile sales based on its existing experience in selling livestock products, the key to this experiment will be whether the villages can keep the markets running on their own after external support ceases. There is growing local interest in whether Kia’s mobile market can plant a “store” in the heart of the village that connects the circulation of consumption and production in the land where the seed of basic income has been sown.