It is customary for Korean businesses to give away free calendars to anyone for the New Year. However, due to the long-term economic depression, many Korean businesses have either cancelled or greatly reduced their orders for 2009 calendars as a way to cut costs. These days not everyone can get a calendar – now they are for customers only. This has left Koreans in the N.Y./N.J. area with the question: Where can I get a free calendar?

The Korea Times surveyed Korean businesses and calendar manufacturers and discovered that Korean business owners are in such financial straits that they do not want to spend money for promotional items such as calendars – usually printed with the company name, address, telephone number, etc. With sales in some cases already down by as much as 40 percent, owners of Korean markets and groceries see little chance for improvement in the future. One Korean printing company, in Bayside, Queens, reported that the number of orders for 2009 calendars is down by 20 percent from last year. They said that orders for small notebooks have been reduced as well. These promotional items are usually ordered for VIP customers.

The survey shows a new tendency among many Korean restaurants, long a sure source of the valued calendars: following the decline in business, calendar orders have dropped by 20 to 30 percent over the past year. Owners are also choosing a different style of calendar. Most restaurants usually order expensive large-sized wall calendars. This year, many restaurants placed orders for less expensive, smaller desk calendars.

One Korean auto parts company in Queens – Auto Paw – used to offer their customers an array of promotional gifts, including expensive wall calendars, desk calendars, notebooks, and even bottled wine, around the New Year. Now the company has a new policy regarding gifts: everyone will receive a small desk calendar, but the expensive bottles of wine are reserved for a lucky few.

"We tried to cut expenditures last year. Since the economic prospects for 2009 still don't look too bright, we've decided to curtail all unnecessary spending. I think the calendar is not always an effective method of advertising, so we decided to order a very small number," said Auto Pew president Mr. Kang.

Almost all Korean businesses could tell the same story; calendars yes, but fewer, and only with a purchase.

This might sound rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but for Korean businesses, this is really an unusual and perhaps drastic measure. Customers are really left to wonder where they can get a free calendar, and calendar manufacturers are crying because orders from merchants have dropped. No one is speaking of a "special procurement boom" in 2009.

"Orders have dropped 30 percent compared with two years ago, and merchants' orders are greatly reduced," said Mr. Lee, the president of Tongbang Press, in New Jersey.

One company, Mr. Card, with four branches in the greater New York area, recently announced that their sales dropped by 40 percent compared with two years ago. A spokesman for the company said "orders have really slowed compared with 2007, and our sales income has dropped accordingly. Many Korean businesses are fighting to survive under the severe economic depression, and one of the victims in this fight is the calendar. Customers are placing small orders for less expensive items, and asking for lower-priced items, to shave whatever they can from their advertising budget."

At a loss where to find a free calendar this year, many Koreans are turning up at some of the larger Korean banks and restaurants, which are still giving out calendars. Mr. Kim, the branch manager at Uri Korean Bank, said, "In the case of banks, we see our clients regularly. It's hard to suddenly stop offering them calendars. But even we ran out of stock before the New Year."