The Grocery Store and Customer Service

Actually, as in many countries, they don't use the term "grocery store." It's a supermarket. There's a GS Supermarket just up the street a piece from me, so I go there a couple times a week. If I go after 9pm, I can get many things on sale. That's convenient, because I get out of work at 9, and except for weekends, it's pretty much the only time I can go shopping.

Korean stores (even Targetesque superstores, but not retail stores) encourage you to bring your own bags, which is cool. If you don't bring your own bags, you have to pay 50 won (about a nickel) for each one. The bags are big. I usually don't use more than one.

In Korean stores, there are a wicked lot of employees hanging around. They have to stand watch over certain areas, like the produce section, the fishery, the gift box section, and other random places. At retail stores, there is at least one employee for every section. They always have to greet you kindly, and I think, say something purchase-encouraging, even if you clearly don't speak the language. I usually just say hi back (in Korean) and look like I don't understand the rest, which I don't. They don't blame me.

There are more things in grocery stores in Korea than in the states. They have the gift box section, like I mentioned. This is where you can get nice looking sets of fruits, chocolates, and other typical food-item gifts. They also have Spam gift boxes. Spam is big here. They don't get the joke. Fish gift baskets are also big, although I don't think they have those at GS. They have them at the posh grocery stores, though, which are located at the department stores. It's like six whole, unblemished fish, delicately arranged in a box, with molded plastic over them. Weird.

The gift box employees have to wear traditional Korean clothes, called Han-bok.

They also have jewelry stores in the grocery stores, and underwear and small clothing sections. They don't seem to have flower shops in the grocery stores like we do. The fish sections are way bigger than we're used to. They smell bad. Free samples are also more common.

Customer service is hardcore here. The amount of employees in each store is kind of shocking. As you enter a retail store, an employee stands by the entrance and bows. The employees around the store don't bow as much, but then in the parking structures, there are a million parking attendants, and as you pass each one in your car, they give you a full-on 90 degree bow. They bow fast, though. It's kind of funny.

One final note on grocery stores in department stores: they sell fruit for like 140,000 won apiece (about $150). I went into the Hyundai Department Store to buy groceries once with my boss' parents, and I was shocked at the prices. I'm not sure why we were shopping there, actually. There was plenty of food there that wasn't make-me-throw-up expensive, but it was still pricier than the GS Supermarket, which is like four blocks from their house.