South Korea's 'yogurt ladies' ride motorized fridges to bring your dairy fix

Seoul, South Korea -- South Korea's so-called yogurt ladies are all the rage these days, having recently gotten an upgrade in the form of a motorized fridge.

Donning apricot jackets and pink helmets, the fleet of delivery ladies used to have to drag along heavy carts all day. But no more, thanks to CoCo.

Short for Cold & Cool, CoCo is a movable refrigerator created by food company Korea Yakult in 2014. It can run 8 kilometers per hour (about 5 mph) with its 220-liter fridge, which can hold up to 3,300 yogurt bottles. The number of CoCos has soared from 4,000 in 2014 to over 8,000 as of March this year.

“When there was no CoCo, we struggled pushing and pulling around the heavy fridge on a cart,” said Shim Heeyoung a Seoul-based yogurt lady who has worked for 11 years. “Thanks to CoCo, now we can deliver more in less time.”

Since CoCo has dramatically reduced the time spent on delivery, yogurt ladies have begun delivering a bigger variety of products, including coffee, fruit and even ready-to-cook meal kits.

“The meal kits are really convenient that I don’t have to spend time washing and chopping groceries,” said customer Byun Jeong Rim. “And I’m very content about the quick and sound delivery by the yogurt ladies.”

Craving dairy? Customers can easily find their nearest yogurt lady through a mobile app provided by Korea Yakult.