A SHOPPING TRIP

This is E-Mart, sort of like an upscale Wal-Mart.  We thought it would be fun to take you through a typical shopping experience here.

We start with the parking garage attendant ushering us in with a bow.

Once we park, we get a cart.  Carts are locked together with a key mechanism; to unlock your cart, you put in a 100 won coin which releases the lock.  After shopping, you reconnect your cart with the key and get your coin back.

E-Mart has goods and services on several floors.  We love the escalator.  It is magnetized, and the wheels of the carts have a metal section, so they don't roll as you go up and down.  We thought this was a cute family.  The mom is carrying her baby in a sling, which is what most women do.  Rarely will you see a Korean baby in a carrier, and little babies aren't even in strollers.

You can leave children  - toddlers on up to age 10 - at the child care center where they will be carefully attended while you shop.

We are welcomed in to the shopping area with a bow from the E-Mart greeter.

E-Mart has a big selection of goods on several floors.  Here are books and toys - very colorful.

Pororo, the most popular Korean cartoon character.

T-shirts with English sayings and slogans are popular, but sometimes grammatically amusing.

Winter is here, but don't let that stop you from wearing high heels!  Here, boots with Vibram soles so you can scamper across the snow.  By the way, these are average size boots from the women's department - and they fit in my hand! 

Perhaps you need a rice cooker.  This cheerful attendant will help you pick the just the right one from the many many many available models and sizes.

Maybe you woukld like to take home some live tropical fish for your aquarium.

Or, maybe you would rather choose some live crabs for dinner.

Or, you can play it safe and stick with the ever-popular Spam.

There is a section of authentic traditional Korean specialties, complete with authentic Korean sales clerk to help you pick just the right item for gift giving.

If you aren't sure what you want, you can get samples - lots of samples.

Lots of aisles have these little digital screens with animated ads.

Big green cabbages.  The white things are radishes. BIG radishes.

You can get your clementines in a range of sizes.

Not sure how to prepare crabs or cabbages?  Maybe you can learn at the cooking school, which offers classes.  All in Korean, of course.

The pharmacy and the pharmacist.  About half of the items he stocks are herbal remedies, many of which include red ginseng.

E-Mart makes packing boxes, along with tape and twine, available for free so customers can box up purchases - very helpful if you are going home on the bus.  Bags here cost, so lots of people use the free packaging. 

Well, by now you are probably hungry - we were.  So we  headed to the food court.  Menu choices are replicated in plastic and displayed in glass cases.

This one is a favorite of ours - soup, pork cutlet, small bi-bim-bap, and two sushi-type seaweed rolls.  All for about $5.50.  Here it is in the display case.

And here it is as served - you really get what you see.  And it tastes delicious.

HAPPY HOLIDAY SHOPPING!