Lotte Mart

Going shopping in a Korean grocery store is an experience — and unless you enjoy people yelling at you at ear-piercing full volume, it is not usually a pleasant one. In almost every aisle of the store there is a "helpful" representative of some product, usually offering a sample, but almost certainly sounding like a carnival barker as they implore you to add whatever they are hawking to your cart.

Western-style grocery stores are all the rage these days. Relatively new on the scene, they resemble any grocery store back home, and are part of a larger department store. The most popular chains here in Korea are homegrown E-mart and Lotte Mart. These stores are clearly modeled after Wal-Mart, which interestingly enough does have a presence here in Korea, but is not very popular, and has actually had to close stores.


Recently I took my camera with me when I went shopping at my local Lotte Mart. These ladies are working the tofu case and paused their selling long enough for me to snap this picture. To see more pictures from my shopping trip, click here.