Costco

So we heard there was a Costco here in Seoul. We checked on the internet and there are six of them in Korea. First, I guess I should say that we bought a car after we got here and finally got all the paperwork and such taken care of so that we could drive it. Then last Saturday we got brave and decided to go driving to find Costco. It was only about 5 or 6 miles away from our house, but getting there was a little crazy. It wasn’t just the traffic: we drove by the store at first because we could not figure out how to get in. So we did like everyone else here and made a U-turn in the road. The Costco here has a guy whose job is to just wave you towards the parking garage. On top of that, each level in the building has another employee waving you on to the next level. We got (un)lucky and ended up parking on level 5, so we got to see a lot of the employees. The only way we could have parked any higher up would have been to go up to the roof level. We got out of the car, walked to the elevator and rode it down while everyone stared at the Americans going to Costco (mostly they stare at our kids, of course).


We got inside and James signed us up and paid our membership fee of 35,000 won. No, they don’t take American Express or debit cards like back in the States; they only take Samsung cards. Unfortunately, we didn’t think about that and so didn’t bring a lot of cash with us. After standing in line for a short while, we finally got our photos taken and membership cards made and then we were off shopping (aka, dodging people). Apparently, the Koreans love Costco. We were a little disappointed because the entire store was fairly Westernized. We were expecting to be able to buy Korean products in bulk, but it turned out they stocked the products we were accustomed to. We ended up buying some bottled water ( 1900 won for six 2-liter bottles…yes, we must learn to love the metric system here) a bag of frozen chicken, and James’ favorite snacks made of rice and bean paste (찹쌀떡, known in Japan as daifuku - 大福). In total, we only spent 17,000 won. That is by far the least I have ever spent at Costco. The cool thing was it was two floors and you rode on moving sidewalks/escalators that were made to lock your carts in place. I managed to get a few pictures while we were in the checkout lane before an employee asked me kindly not to. I am not sure if Costco will be a weekly thing. Even though the samples they give out here include alcohol and they have a great selection of fresh octopus, I think I need a little more than that to go back in. Maybe a football helmet with a face mask, shoulder pads and a motorized cart…then I might be ready.