CJ Olive Young opens first U.S. store in Pasadena, attracting lines '400 meters long'
Published: 01 Jun. 2026, 14:25
Updated: 01 Jun. 2026, 16:29
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- KIM MIN-YOUNG
- [email protected]
![People line up outside Olive Young's Pasadena flagship store on May 29. [OLIVE YOUNG]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/06/01/ddf2afc5-e136-4474-ba3e-a87fcbb9097e.jpg)
People line up outside Olive Young's Pasadena flagship store on May 29. [OLIVE YOUNG]
CJ Olive Young's first U.S. brick-and-mortar store drew a large crowd on its opening day on Friday, with "the line stretching as far as 400 meters (0.25 miles) long," according to the company.
The Pasadena flagship is the first of five Olive Young stores scheduled to open in Los Angeles by year-end. The company will launch a second store in Westfield Century City within this month.
The Pasadena store opened at 58 West Colorado Boulevard in Old Pasadena, in the former Foot Locker space next to the Apple store.
The store continued to draw crowds on Saturday and Sunday with lines lasting throughout the day, according to Olive Young in a press release on Monday. The company said it "admitted about 200 customers at a time, and the queues to enter and to check out ran until closing, a sign of strong local demand."
The areas that drew the most customers were the Skin Scan zone, a skin-diagnosis service, and The Beauty Lab, which offers basic skincare lessons, including K-beauty routines based on skin-analysis results. By category, basic skincare items such as skin care, sun care, sheet masks and cleansers accounted for the largest share, at more than 60 percent of total sales, according to the company.
![Customers shop from cosmetics in Olive Young's Pasadena flagship store on May 29. [OLIVE YOUNG]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/06/01/25615a21-ac8d-421f-ae68-522eade3e608.jpg)
Customers shop from cosmetics in Olive Young's Pasadena flagship store on May 29. [OLIVE YOUNG]
"The curated assortment features leading K-beauty brands such as Anua, Biodance, fwee, Mediheal, Mise-en-scène, rom&nd, Torriden and Unove alongside inner beauty brands including Foodology and InnerB," the company said in a statement, according to local news outlet ABC.
Starting with this entry into the western United States, Olive Young plans to expand its local presence in stages into other major regions, including the East and the South-Central.
The Korean health and beauty retailer established its U.S. arm, CJ Olive Young USA, last year and set up its first U.S. logistics center in Bloomington in March, preparing the operational backbone for its North American expansion.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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