Shopping Galore

There seems to be a lot of shopping options everywhere, whether it be indoor or outdoor shopping plazas, open-air markets, or street vendors. However it's still very different than what I'm used to, whether it be because of the products being sold, how the people act, or the general set-up of the place.  

AK Shopping Plaza

14 story shopping plaza

AK Shopping Plaza is an enormous department store chain that has four locations in the country. It's about 9 stories tall and has many floors of shopping, food courts, a grocery store, access to the train station, and maybe a movie theater. However the actual 'department store' areas are like none I've ever seen. Say you get off the escalator on the 4th floor. Instead of there being a few big name stores and a handful of little other stores there are probably 50 or so tiny stores. And I use the word 'store' loosely. It's not as though there are walls and doors separating each store, or even names of stores listed. It feels as though you are walking through Boston Store but each aisle or two of merchandise is a new business. If you look at something too long or even better, pick something up, you will have an employee standing super close to you, ready to help you purchase. At first I thought maybe I was making the workers nervous since an American was looking at their merchandise, but it seems to be the cultural difference in personal space and what is considered good customer service. That could take a while to get used to!

This video makes me a little dizzy when it's full screen--next time I do a circle shot I need to turn slower. You can kind of see what I mean about all the stores being smashed together though.

Here are some views of Pyeongtaek from the rooftop garden of AK Plaza.

                     

Bonus! The parking garage at the plaza has well-dressed workers at a few locations outside. As you drive by they bow and shout pleasant greetings to you. Some of them have microphone headsets and everything! They also have people working in the garage to direct you to a parking spot which is nice rather than driving up and down each row to find an opening. 

Here's a picture from the grocery store in the plaza. They sell bags of rice like we sell dog food.

However, they sell bags of dog food made for tiny dogs only. Note that Asia is bigger than the bag of food I purchased. Ha! Luckily I have an email address and phone number for the food distributor who said he could order bigger bags for me. 

I found a music store! I thought it was pretty funny it's called IBach though. Unfortunately smoking is a very common thing here and allowed pretty much anywhere. I walked into IBach and walked right back out. It smelled awful inside and I couldn't imagine getting a piano that I knew was going to smell like cigarettes. 

I can only describe the general shopping district as 'shopping spam.' I've heard people say that Koreans are good at utilizing space. Since there are so many people and such little space everything is put to use. I think that same logic is applied to advertising. The more the better, right? It's a little intense for me. And brighter colors are obviously the better choice--lots of reds & yellows are used.

It's been fun ducking into little shops and seeing what 'treasures' they have to offer, though we really haven't bought anything yet. I'm looking forward to finding shopping districts that might be a little more traditional/authentic to the area.