The other day my director took me to HomePlus. It’s a department store. HomePlus is in a huge wharehouse with floor after floor of merchandise. Think Wal-mart times ten. Each floor has something like electronics, groceries, clothes, food court, appliances, and so on and so on.
In one section there was a section sort of like a walgreens where you could buy grooming products like toothpaste or hair gels or shampoo. The attendants there wore these cute little outfits in blue, green, or pink skirts. People at home would riot if they had to wear stuff like that. Oh, and the shopping attendants were all on the cute side.
They even sell baby clothes and I was about to buy something to ship back to my ten month old nephew when I saw the prices. My director told me that in South Korea anything and everything that has to do with babies is very expensive. No lie. For one cute baby outfit my wallet would have been hurting around seventy thousand won ($70). I’ll send something else.
I wandered in the grocery section checking out all the products I didn’t recognize. There are what seems like thousands of Korean brands and if there isn’t a distinguishing picture or mark (like a piece of fruit or something) then I’m at a loss. It was fun though. I’ll go back and take more close ups and you can try to guess what each product is.
I’m a blogger, writer, and teacher. I’ve been working in South Korea’s ESL field for the last three years. My one year contract has unexpectedly turned into a journey that I’m still on and loving.
