Supermarkets, Convenience Stores: Shopping in Korea
If you’ve just moved to Korea and are wondering where to pick up your groceries, you’ve come to the right place. Moving country comes with various questions, but the first one on most peoples’ minds once they land and have a house is where to get food.
Fortunately, there are plenty of options when it comes to Korean supermarkets. Whether you’re looking for your favorite, or maybe soon-to-be favorite, Korean snacks, or the cooking staples your kitchen needs, find out more about the grocery stores in Korea.
From fresh produce, meat, or seafood, or the foods to simply satisfy your cravings, this guide will have you covered. There are a variety of grocery store chains in Korea that include E-Mart, Homeplus, Lotte Mart, No Brand and then you can find western brands like Ikea and Costco too.
Between those big shops, you’ll find mom and pop grocery stores and convenience stores to stock up like Seven Eleven, CU, and GS25. Here’s what to know about them.
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Supermarkets in Korea
Tips for getting a discount at supermarkets in Korea
- Sign up for the membership. These stores offer a lot of discounts especially for their members. Use their app and you’ll be notified of various deals. I’m always on the look out for E-Mart’s cheese and wine sales myself.
- Shop late in the day. If you head to these shops near the end of the day, you’ll notice a lot more deals on produce including dairy, meat, vegetables, chickens and deli goods with discounts up to 30%.
What you should know about supermarkets in Korea
- Plastic bags: There is a surcharge for plastic bags at the supermarket so it’s best to take your own reusable bags. These bags that you purchase are multipurpose and can also be used as trash bags, which are localized to each district. This means that you want to grocery shop IN your district to also be able to use the bags as trash bags.
- Cardboard boxes: If you don’t have bags, supermarkets also have tables with cardboard boxes after the check out area or in the parking lot areas which you can use.
- Closures: Major supermarkets are closed on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month in an effort to get people to shop at the traditional markets more.
- Checking out: There aren’t baggers in Korea so you’ll want to simultaneously be bagging while the cashier is checking you out because once you’ve paid, the next person will start checking out immediately. You will be rushed. Get used to it and pack everything up yourself.
- Seasonality: Unlike the US where you can get a lot of fruits and veg all year round, in Korea, produce is very much seasonal. You will have sticker shock for strawberries that are out of season but you can get buckets and buckets in the winter when they are in season. Be aware of what is in season and shop accordingly for the best deals.
What are the most popular grocery store chains in Korea?
E-Mart (이마트)
One of the most popular supermarket brands in Korea, E-Mart started up in 1993 and is older than the other two popular brands in the market; Lotte Mart and Home Plus. E-Mart also has their own in-house brand for budget friendly goods called No Brand. Find the No Brand section in the store or the stand alone shops to check out all of the goods.
Part of the Shinsegae Group, they have everything from groceries to clothing, products to keep your house together, cleaning supplies, and so on. E-Mart has also partnered with SM Entertainment on quite a few special releases. If you’re looking for K-Pop goods only released in Korea, E-Mart might be your best bet.
- Website: E-Mart Korea Website
Homeplus (홈플러스)
Kind of the Korean Walmart, Homeplus has great prices and a lot of options. Homeplus is similar to E-Mart in what they offer having everything from groceries to clothes, cleaning supplies, house goods, etc. Originally owned in a partnership between Samsung and Tesco, Homeplus carries some foreign goods you won’t find at other stores.
Homeplus has a great membership program as well to help you take advantage of all of the sales and deals.
- Website: Homeplus Website
Lotte Mart (롯데마트)
The third biggest supermarket chain in Korea, Lotte Mart is more of a discount store with a motto that proudly says “Don’t be shy about buying items here”. We don’t shop at Lotte Mart often, but that’s because we’ve always lived closer to a Homeplus or E-Mart. Lotte is one of the biggest brands in Korea so shopping here is where you’ll find all of the Lotte goods from your favorite Korean snacks to electronics, and more.
- Website: Lotte Mart Website
Costco (코스트코)
There are currently 18 branches of this popular US wholesale chain. Just like in the US, you need a membership to shop at Costco. Just stop by the desk when you stop in to get a card and start shopping. You can buy a lot of your favorite foreign brands and products and great Korean goods in bulk.
Specific reasons to shop at Costco in Korea:
- Cheese. You will find the largest quantities of cheese and the wider variety of foreign favorites at Costco.
- Frozen veg. Frozen vegetables aren’t so popular in Korea. You’ll find frozen fruit and meals at Emart and Homeplus, but just vegetables are readily available at Costco.
- Pies and holiday goods. One of my favorite reasons for Costco was for the holiday pastries and goods like pumpkin pies, apple pies. They also carry all of your favorite Halloween candies, Christmas goods, and more.
Costco shopping isn’t for everyone, because it is bulk after all. A lot of foreign teachers will go in on a membership together to make it work. Of course, if you’ve got kids and enough mouths to feed, it can be worth it.
- Website: Costco website
No Brand (노브랜드)
As mentioned above, No Brand is the E-Mart in-house brand and after it became popular they started opening No Brand stores. Their goal with the brand was to bring high-quality products to consumers without inflated supermarket chain prices.
It is probably the cheapest grocery store in Korea and you can get all kinds of things like pasta, cereal, Korean snacks, Korean sauces, and more at really discounted prices. You can even get produce, eggs, salmon and other goods there though it is mostly focused on packaged goods.
The specific No Brand stores are not huge like the supermarkets where you can get everything, but they have a lot of household goods and more inside that is worth a stop by when you need to stock up. We love getting snacks, pasta, and other Korean noodles from No Brand shops.
Online grocery shopping in Korea
All of the major supermarket brands listed above are also available online and have online shopping available. But there are some websites for grocery shopping in Korea that don’t have in-person stores that are also good to know about especially for foreign goods. Here are some websites to check out for your health products, groceries, and more.
Best website to buy supplements and vitamins in Korea
iHerb
When it comes to getting health supplements, my personal go-to is iHerb. iHerb is a US based multichannel direct-to-consumer e-commerce retailer and they specialize in vitamins, supplements, nutritional and natural products. They have the largest selection of natural supplements, home, and personal care products in the world.
- Website: iHerb.com
Best website to buy vegan, Muslim, and foreign foods in Korea
Shejang
Shejang was started by a group of foreigners in Korea who realized they couldn’t get their favorite foreign goods. They are not the largest online international grocery marketplace in the country. They really focus on providing foods that foreigners look for and can’t find in Korea and specifically work to cater to the vegan, vegetarian, and Muslim foreigners as well. Definitely check them out to stock up on the goods you want.
- Website: Shejang.com
Online grocery shopping in Korea with a foreign card
Shuttle
Shuttle Delivery is well known for being a food delivery service that caters to foreigners in Korea, but now they also delivery groceries. Shuttle provides easy next day grocery delivery. You can get home essentials, produce, bakery items, vegan food, wellness, and beauty items and Halal food. They can deliver nationwide and they are especially foreign and tourist friendly being able to accept foreign cards for payment.
- Website: Shuttle Delivery
Gmarket
The largest shopping site for all kinds of goods. They a multilingual site so it’s easy for foreigners to work and they actually ship worldwide so you can shop both in and outside of Korea for a lot of the goods you’re looking for.
- Website: Gmarket
Farmer’s Markets
If you want the best price for the most produce, definitely find your local farmer’s market. There is usually a more traditional style market in every district of Seoul and around the country. Of course, there are popular markets like Gwangjang Market or Tongin Market downtown that tend to be more touristy, but even they are stocked with local produce for sale.
If you want to take a look at a more local traditional market, there’s Mangwon Market one of our tried and true spots for convenient and great quality produce. Now, traditional markets are the place to go for Korean side dishes, produce, fish, and meat for sure, but you won’t find your favorite pasta sauces or good pasta or other foreign foods so you will have to head to those bigger brand supermarkets that stock foreign foods for those. But, if you’re looking to maintain a budget, be like Koreans and shop here, there, and everywhere to get the best price.
Why you should shop at a traditional market in Korea
- Budget friendly: Traditional markets tend to offer great produce at cheaper prices as it’s not through the big name brand companies above but more direct from farmer to consumer.
- Friendly: You can create relationships with the vendors who are there day in and day out. Stop by the fruit vendor, the vegetable vendor, the fish vendor. Not only will they get to know you, but they can recommend what’s in season.
- Better side dishes: Traditional markets are THE BEST place to get Korean side dishes in my opinion. If you don’t want to make your own and want to buy pre-made, the traditional markets have the stuff. Again, you can get these at the big name brand shops, but I don’t find them to be as good. Traditional market side dishes are just a bit more delicious as they were made by hand.
- Great street food: If you’re looking for a nearby spot to get street food, the traditional markets are often your best bet if you don’t want to go around trying to find street food stalls.
How to find your local traditional market in Korea
If you’re looking for your local traditional market, just search 시장 in the map app you’re using to find the nearest one.
Convenience stores in Korea
It is not uncommon to see multiple convenience stores on one block when you walk down the streets of Seoul, Korea. You’ll see a GS25 and two buildings down, there is a CU. You can visit convenience stores in Korea to stock up on Korean snacks, coffee, candy, food, beer, spirits, and wine. You can also buy your T-money card for transportation, find ATMs, and send mail at your local convenience store.
How to say convenience store in Korean: 편의점 (pyeonuijeom)
Popular Korean convenience stores
CU
One of the most popular convenience stores in Korea, if you visited Korea many years back and remember “Family Mart”, then you’ll want to know that this is the rebrand. After the Family mart franchise license ended, all of the Family Marts were rebranded to CU and they have all of the local convenience store items you’ll want to eat, drink, and more.
GS25
GS25 is the second largest convenience store brand in Korea. You can find them everywhere, on every corner, and they also have a membership option.
7-Eleven (세븐일레븐)
This Japanese-American convenience store brand is popular in Korea too and carries some things that CU and GS25 don’t. Partnered with Lotte, you can also use your Lotte membership cards there.
E-Mart 24 (이마트24)
After the popularity of E-Mart, the brand branched out into convenience stores with E-Mart 24. Just like their high-quality brands in store, their convenience stores are a bit more cleaned up and stylish like their stores compared to the other convenience store brands in Korea.
Ministop (미니스톱)
Not as popular as the other convenience stores mentioned above, Ministop has been in Korea since 1990 and has a lot of the same items as the brands mentioned above but they tend to be a bit smaller and not on major thoroughfares in my experience but down alleys.
Now you’re ready for shopping in Korea whether you’re looking for grocery stores in Korea, the most popular supermarkets in Korea, convenience stores in Korea, or online grocery stores in Korea. Get out there, get food, and enjoy!
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