Hyung-suk Chah (채형석) began con­struc­tion of the first depart­ment store on March 1991 in Guro Dis­trict, Seoul.[2] The store opened on Sep­tem­ber 10, 1993 as the Aekyung Depart­ment Store. The store had five base­ment floors and sev­en above­ground floors, with a total cost of 120 bil­lion won (120 mil­lion US dol­lars). The suc­cess of the Guro store was alleged­ly used as the basis for open­ing oth­er branch­es. The Won­ju branch was opened on April 6, 2012, with 5 base­ment sto­ries and 7 above ground sto­ries, though the com­pa­ny web­site claims it was opened on March 6.