Shopping culture in Korea

Hello hello~

I have been super busy lately as I started new part-time job and I got also my free days booked full. I kind of dug my own grave xD Finally I have a free day I don't have anything specific so I have time to write this post.

Because I'm hyped about my South-Korean trip I will continue my post series with introducing shopping culture in Korea. I will go to details about restaurants and cafe's in next post because otherwise this post would be reeeeeeeeeeally long. Note; these are all my own experiences.

Manners in cosmetic stores

Every country have different manners how to act in stores and how sales assistants acts towards you. I thought to mention korean cosmetic stores specifially as there might come the biggest surprise for you which might be even uncomfortable (especially for finns who like their own space lol). In cosmetic stores sales assistants usually approach you quickly, they ask if they can be of any help and even when you say 'you are looking' or 'I don't need help' they will in 90% of cases continue to follow you. They will be right next to you and follow you through the store. Most of them don't speak english (except maybe in Myeongdong stores) but they still follow you. If you touch a product they assume you are interested in it and they usually pick up the product for you to try and are almost ready to put the product to your shopping basket. So to avoid this, don't touch products you are not interested at all ^^;;; Well, you can obviously say you are not interested to sales assistant but then they will proceed to introduce some other product to you...
Note; in some stores sales assistants leave you alone because you're foreigner but in tourist spots they will surely approach you.

 By the way, in cosmetics stores they have these mini shopping baskets, they usually have some samples inside for you to keep for free. But if you are given a shopping basket or you take one yourself, sales assistants expect you to buy something from their store. So until you are sure you're going to buy something, don't take a shopping basket (I did this couple times and when I didn't buy anything I was given a mean look..)
 In some stores sales assistants who follow you offer to take your shopping basket and they will carry it for you. When you are ready to pay you just have to say you're done or if you don't speak korean and they don't speak english then gesture towards cashier table.

It's very common that cosmetic stores will give you free samples, especially if you buy alot. They also have campaigns that if you buy something let's say with 50,000won they will give you bag/notebook/something extra. Cosmetic stores also have 1+1 or 2+1 offers very often which basically means buy one get one free etc. They just mark it that way rather than with a sentence. And if you are interested in a product that has this offer, sales assistants will mention it to you buy saying one plus one / two plus one. They use this expression in english which is funny, they never say it in korean.

Cosmetic stores have usually one person outside trying to attract customers to visit their store. They mostly have free samples in their hands and if you take that, they expect you to buy something from their store. If you don't, they see you as a rude person (they will let you keep the sample anyway).

And just a side note; cosmetic stores allow you to take photos of products but they do not allow you to film videos (I think only few cosmetic chains don't mind so it's better to not take videos at all to not get yelled at).

Other

Often people are confused when they go to pay and there are some mannerism that are unique to Korea. But because you're a foreigner, it is usually forgiven if you make a mistake. When you pay by card or cash, give it either with two hands or with your right hand while your left hand is below you right hand's elbow (or your wrist). This is a gesture to show your politeness and respect towards the store/restaurant/any cashier. Sales assistant/cashier will do the same to you to show respect (they will bow to you also when you leave the store/restaurant/etc) and you should receive change/your card back with same gestures.
If you forget to do this gesture, don't worry they will not mind as you are foreigner and they will not expect you to know their mannerisms. But if you do, they will respect you even more.

Stores usually have displays outside which is strange to western people; we are used to that if you leave something outside unattended, it will be stolen quickly. But Korea has very low criminal rates and if you have something stolen from you in Korea, you are extremely extremely unlucky.
So, if you walk through the streets you will notice soon that like every second store have some displays outside.

Seoul has limited space, many people and tough competition from customers. That's why many stores are in different floors, it feels really packed in most neighborhoods. So when you're shopping keep your head up to check out what 2nd and 3rd floors in buildings offer. For example in Myeongdong ground level is full of cosmetic stores while 2nd and 3rd might host great restaurants, cafes and sometimes clothing and cd shops. Sometimes entrance to these shops that are in other floors are through ground level store, sometimes through small staircase in between ground level stores.

In Korea decorations tend to be grand scale. Especially in ground level stores. They have big decorations and even bigger billboards. Billboards often show if they have sales going so definetly keep that in mind if you are on a budget.

Popular stores to shop clothes, decorations, lifestyle stuff etc. are Åland (yup, Åland), Lotte department stores, Home Plus, Forever21, Top shop, Mixxo, Artbox, Butter and so on. There's especially many unique stores in Korea that don't belong to any chain where you can get many affordable items and in these you can bargain.
Popular cosmetic stores are for example Nature Republic, Innisfree, Missha, Etude House, Aritaum, Tonymoly and Holika Holika.

Some shops offer tax free over 50,000won purchase and they will usually automaticly fill you tax free form but you can also ask shops if they have tax free service. Interesting note; in Lotte department store Myeongdong there's small post office where you can send your purchase straight to your home so that you don't even have to carry it around. I think it's great service if you want to buy something but your luggage is already full. Oh, and sending post package from Korea is extremely cheap for western people (finns know the pain of sending even small stuff with overly expensive price).


I hope this was useful information :) Until next time~

Planning trip to Korea? part 2

This will be kind of second part to my previous post. So;

Planning trip to Korea? What nobody told you

I decided to gather some info about things when you arrive Korea and have no idea how things work and nobody told you. Again, this is mainly done for finnish travellers but there might be some tips for non-finnish too who travel from other countries~
Also in here is info for those who travel solely to Seoul but again, some tips might be useful for those who are planning on travelling to other cities.

Arriving

You have landed Korea and go out from the plane, what now? What most people don't know is that first you have to follow "exit" and "immigration" / "luggage claim" signs to a certain train. People usually get confused at this point like wait what, where is the exit. You have to take a small train ride to side of terminal where immigration is in. So no fear, just follow other passengers to that train and it will take you right to where you have to go.

After a minute of train ride, follow signs to immigration, have your passport and immigration card ready and just line up. They will take the card and check your passport, they will also take a photo from you as well as fingerprints.

Now, you are ready to go claim your luggage. Check your luggage claim from monitors (because there's alot). When you collect your luggage and are ready to go out, have your customs card ready, you have to give it to airport staff before you enter landside. The staff is looking kind of like security guard just before doors to landside.

Before doors there's also money exchange but I will not advice to exchange money there as it is more expensive in there than in the city.

Landside

Great, you made it to Korea! Now you are with your luggage in airport landside, where to head next?

I would advice to get your T-money card now. T-money is a travel card for public transportations and it will make your life so much easier! You can get it either from convenience stores or ticket machines. I got mine from convenience store, there are many in the airport (like 7eleven for example). If you want to buy T-money from convenience store, just say T-money at cashier. It costs around 3000won and you can also load it in convenience store but be aware that cashier doesn't necessarily speak english so there might be some misunderstandings. That's why if you don't speak korean I advice to load your card in ticket machines, they are available in english language also.

Now, you have three options of what to take to Seoul city center. Subway, bus or taxi. I advice not to take airport taxi since foreigners usually get scammed easily by airport taxi's. Cheapest way is by subway so if you're on a budget, take the subway. I always take it :P
Anyway, buses and taxi's are right outside when you go out of airport building. To find subway, you first have to take elevator or escalators down one floor and then there's signs so just follow them. Note; you can't go wrong, there are many hallways pointing to traintracks but all are pointing to same place just with a little different route. That can be confusing but you're heading to right place anyway.

When you arrive to subway gates there's ticketing machines on your left side. Now to load T-money, just put it in the middle where's t-money sign. Choose english as your language if you don't know korean. Push T-money button from screen and it gives you options how much would you like to put to your card. Then just pay with notes and voila, you are ready to travel with subway. For the first time, I advice to put something like 25,000won to your t-money card, it will last a long time even if you are travelling with public transportations alot. Because public transportation is very cheap in Korea :) Oh and if you have big luggage, they have bigger gate on left side so if you're unsure if your luggage is going to fit, just use that. It's the same in every station; last gate either left or right side is usually for those with luggage, wheelchair etc.

Bear in mind that this airport subway takes you to only few designated stations and you have to change to other lines if you are not going to Hongdae or Seoul station area in Seoul. Subway ride to Hongdae stop takes about 50 minutes. Usually people who are first time in Korea don't know that it actually takes that long to city center because airport is in Incheon which is in fact, whole other city than Seoul.

When you finally arrive to your station, don't head up to the exit you are supposed to go right away but check if the exit has escalators or not. Because korean stairways are steep and you don't want to carry your luggage upwards those. Either find an elevator or exit with escalator. Usually many stations have only one exit with escalators.

By the way, useful app for your phone is called "subway korea" which you can use even offline. It is available in english and korean. It has basically the whole subway map which works offline. But online you can also check station info like exit location in the area with map, when the next subway train is arriving and if you have to change lines it will inform you which door is the closest one to your next line connection. You can also put starting and ending point to your subway trip and it will calculate time for how long it will take for you to travel the distance. Convenient huh?

In Seoul

Eating and shopping

So now you're in Seoul and it can be kind of confusing at first. There's shops and restaurants everywhere. More expensive restaurants are of course located in tourist spots and more affordable ones are usually on side streets so if you want to save money, just head up to side streets. Sometimes side streets can look shady but they often host many great restaurants.

Korea has an interesting coffee culture; there are lots of different coffee chains as well as unique cafes. You can find cafes almost in every corner no matter where you go. For a coffee addict like me it's heaven lol. Some cafes offer interesting coffee flavors, I have seen such as cranberry coffee and even gingseng coffee! If you want to save money, just try local cafes, don't head to Starbucks.

Food is very affordable in korea, you can get a hearthy meal with just 2000won! Clothes and cosmetics are also affordable, clothes especially from street vendors. Also, if you go to let's say Hongdae and you visit the famous shopping street with lots of street vendors, you can bargain. For me, I have never bargained because I suck at it to be honest but if you're good then you can get your clothes even more cheaper.

I recommend to courageously try korean cosmetics, they might look cheap for western people but they're actually good quality! What makes it so confusing for western people to mistake it as cheap is packaging. Korean people love cute packaging while in western countries cute is associated with childrens products. But as I said, they're actually great quality~ My top favorite brands are Innisfree, Nature Republic, Mamonde and Missha. And there's still some brands I haven't even tried because there's so many of them!

I have talked about Myeongdong before in my Korea trip diaries but it's the shopping street where people head first when they think about shopping. It has lots of cosmetic and clothing stores. In Myeongdong there's also Lotte department store and Lotte Young plaza which have more high end products but you can also make interesting discoveries from there. I especially recommend Lotte department store's food court where they not only have mini mart where you can buy korean food products but also different kinds of korean takeaway foods in one place.

If you're looking forward to taste korean street food, head up to Myeongdong shopping street where especially at evening there's countless food vendors in the streets. Or try Hongdae or Konkuk university area for example.

Other great shopping places are Coex mall and express bus terminal which I have mentioned earlier too.

What isn't usually mentioned anywhere is that most of subway stations around Seoul have shops, cafe's and restaurants also. You can find pretty affordable stuff in them too~

By the way, Korean alcohol (soju and makgeolli) are cheap. So if you like to drink then you will propably get drunk very fast because alcohol is so cheap lol. One Soju bottle is like 1€.

Other things

I won't ramble about sights too much because you can read about those from travel guides and pick your favorites there.

But just to give few tips; many sights have discount tickets for foreigners so check that out before going in. Also, ticketing counters are usually on side of sightseeing places, not right in the front before entering. For example, when you enter Seoul's biggest palace Gyeongbokkung, you can first wander through a big gate. Many might confuse this as "oh is this free" because you kind of get in to first grounds. But no, ticketing counters are on your right side, a bit far from gates to be honest.

If you want to try Seoul's amusement parks there's Lotte World and Everland. Both of them usually offer discount to foreigners, you just have to print out discount coupon from their site and bring it with your passport to get the discount.

If you want to roam the streets when they're quite empty, the best time is between 9am to 2pm. After 3pm it starts to get busy. Also note that 7am to 8am is rush hour! Subways and buses will be veeery full, I advice to avoid that time in public transports if possible.

A few words about music shows; Many are interested in kpop and want to go to music shows but it's kind of hard process... some music shows give out free tickets but to get those you have to basically queue throughout the night where venue is so it can be stessful not to mention it can give you a cold if you are visiting winter time.

If you want to go watch the show through fanclub it's more stessful. Because you have to prepare the group's latest album who you're going to see. Besides that you have to have fanchants printed on paper which you can get from the group's daum fancafe. Most fanstaff ask you to have your name written on album and fanchant paper so you have to write that before anyone checks your stuff.
When you are going to queue you have to arrive like 5am to be sure to get in. If you're later than that, it will be unsure if you're going to see the group or not.
Fanstaff will have queue list so you have to find those people and add yourself in there. If you belong to official fanclub, be sure to mention it to staff as they usually have different queue for those.
At some point fanstaff starts selling official cheering towel, you have to get that also in order to get in to see the group so prepare cash. Fanstaff designates check ups from time to time, don't be late from those or you will be thrown out from your place in queue. Also, keep asking information because some fanstaff don't want to associate with foreigners so sometimes you might not get info about important things. So keep checking what others do and keep asking why they do it like that if you didn't get the info.

So... going to music show can be stressful. If you want to avoid all that some programs offer a chance to buy ticket also. But if you want to get in free, you are going to have one stressful day. And I mean literally whole day because you have to be in there from the morning until the group is recording sometime afternoon and you get to leave close to evening.

Card payments in Korea. Many would think that Visa electron won't work but actually it does. You might not be able to pay with visa electron in small stores but at least for me, it has worked in bigger shops. Also if you're visa electron user like me, you can use Woori bank's global atm. Before visa electron used to work in convenience store atm's and city bank atm's but in my last trip they didn't work with visa electron. So if you are in need of cash, head up to nearest Woori bank atm.
Other cards (credit and debit) should work everywhere.

Signs. Most of signs are in romanized letters so you will have no problem finding sights or places. So don't worry about that :)

I hope I didn't forget anything. These things are not mentioned often in travel guiden if at all so I wanted to do an info package. All of these are what I didn't know when I went to Korea for the first time and I had to just learn by myself. I hope this makes it easier to everyone^^