E-commerce platform Curly, known for its strength in early-morning fresh food delivery, has recently been embroiled in a controversy over package quality during record-breaking heatwaves. Consumers have lodged numerous complaints that coolant inside packaging boxes melted, causing frozen products such as meat and ready-to-eat meals to be delivered with diminished freshness.
According to relevant industry sources on the 11th, posts raising concerns about the quality of fresh food delivered by Curly and its handling processes have been continuously appearing on online communities.
Some posts include photos showing that dry ice and ice packs stored in delivery boxes had completely melted, leaving the boxes soaked or externally damaged. Other posts pointed out, "Frozen products delivered early in the morning were completely thawed," and "The box was entirely wet, with water pooling on the floor."
Curly is known to account for more than 80% of its total delivery orders being fresh food items such as meat, vegetables, and ready-to-eat meals. In particular, frozen foods can suffer significant quality differences depending on delivery handling times, leading to criticism that recent heatwaves exposed inadequate coolant management.
These suspicions were further amplified by a post from a user believed to be a Curly employee, which appeared on an anonymous community for office workers.
The poster claimed, "The company is trying to cut cooling costs by not using enough packaging materials such as coolant," and added, "When product spoilage incidents occur, they issue refunds, and when public opinion worsens, they respond by adding more dry ice." The post has since been deleted.
The company maintains that these claims are false. A Curly representative stated, "The claim recently posted on an office worker community that 'coolant usage is being reduced to cut costs' is entirely untrue," and explained, "To prevent thawing and heat damage of fresh food during extreme heatwaves, we have increased the amount of dry ice and ice packs used compared to before."
In particular, for frozen products, the company has significantly strengthened packaging standards by additionally using aluminum foil air caps that offer excellent cooling effects.
However, regarding recent cases where consumers have repeatedly expressed inconvenience during heatwaves, the company acknowledged awareness of the issue and stated it is closely monitoring whether problems occurred in the delivery system for those specific regions and will take corrective measures.
Industry observers suggest that Curly's unique surge in such issues may be linked to a sharp increase in fresh food volume following its collaboration with Naver, making it impossible to rule out this factor. The argument is that Curly's logistics facilities exceeded their capacity thresholds, leading to poor delivery quality management. Since last year, Curly has partnered with Naver to operate "Curly N Mart" on the Naver Plus Store, selling fresh food and other items. Recently, transaction volumes at Curly N Mart are reported to have increased approximately ninefold compared to September of last year, shortly after its launch.
Industry watchers are focusing on the potential impact of this incident on the future e-commerce market. During heatwaves, delivery quality and competitiveness could provide opportunities for major fresh food e-commerce platforms such as SSG.com, Lotte Mart Zeta, and Oasis to gain market share. An industry representative said, "In the future, beyond delivery speed, the ability to maintain product freshness as much as possible during heatwaves will become a key indicator of a company's competitiveness."
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