On a recent sizzling afternoon, several shops in Myeong-dong, downtown Seoul, kept their doors open, beckoning passers-by with cool air.

The government has banned the practice with a threat of penalties, but it apparently fails to pay off. Many merchants would rather pay fines than lose sales.

“Our sales drop over 50 percent when the doors are shut,” said Kim Ji-eun, a saleswoman at a boutique in the shopping district. “We’d choose to pay millions of won than see less profit.”

Customers do not seem to mind, either.

“When it is too hot outside and I feel cool air coming out from a store, I sometimes go into the shop to cool down and just look around,” Choi Yoon-seon, 23, said. 

The regulation is part of a sweeping energy-saving campaign led by the government as the nation strives to fend off the worst-ever electricity shortage.

The government began a crackdown on businesses leaving their doors open while running the air conditioning on July 1. First-time violators receive a warning and repeat offenders could face fines ranging from 500,000 won ($438) to 3 million won.

Yet district offices are also struggling with a lack of manpower to execute the new regulation.

“Only one person is in charge of handling the regulation for the whole of this area,” an official from the Jongno District Office in central Seoul told The Korea Herald, asking not to be named.

“He has many other environment-related tasks at hand, but does not have time to do them since he always has to be out on the street to regulate those shops,” the official said.

Dotted by tourist attractions, cram schools and office buildings, Jongno is one of the busiest areas among the capital’s 25 districts.

The same holds true for the Gangnam district in southern Seoul.

“The official in charge does not have time to look around other than the shops near Gangnam Station, where the media’s eyes are concentrated on,” an official in one of the nation’s most affluent areas said.

The official said during the grace period between June 18 and July 2, inspectors had rarely visited department stores, inside which customers constantly complain of being “too cold” even when the mercury flirts with 30 degrees outside.

“Galleria Department Store in Gangnam has been visited only once for promotional purposes,” he added.

Officials also complain that the amount of fines is not enough to force businesses to comply.

The nation is suffering through a double whammy of the hottest early summer since 1906 and what is expected to be the worst-ever power shortage, caused by the suspension of four nuclear reactors in the last three months.

The government has already issued several power warnings this summer and is struggling to keep the country’s power reserve above a safe level of 4 million kilowatts.

The government has ordered public offices to cut power consumption by 15 percent in July and August.

Large buildings have to keep temperatures above 26 degrees Celsius and government offices, above 28 degrees.

Businesses are also encouraged to adjust operation times and are given incentives to use electricity during low-demand periods.

“If they continue to ask us to shut the doors and keep temperatures above 26 degrees the whole summer, we may have to shut our doors for the whole year,” said Park Jong-hak, the owner of a shoe store in Myeong-dong.

“We understand that the country is faced with a serious power shortage, but leaving doors open or closed really decides the profit of that day.“

By Suk Gee-hyun (monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)