Skip the duty-free floor, go down to the food hall

We went to the department store food hall to buy souvenirs. Not the duty-free floors above — the food floor below.

The food floor under the duty-free shop

We went into the duty-free shop at Shinsegae department store, but the basement was the target.

Buying souvenirs abroad, going where local people buy their groceries is more interesting than working through the luxury counters in a duty-free hall. The sense of what things cost, and what counts as everyday, is clearest there.

Counter after counter of prepared food

The basement is glass cases running on and on.

There is a confectionery section, and beyond it the prepared-food counters. The range of things on display is wide. The construction is similar to a Japanese depachika and the contents are different, so it does not read as the same kind of place.

Side dishes are portioned out and lined up.

The produce section had a high proportion of leafy greens.

In a Japanese supermarket leafy greens means a handful of kinds; here there are many more. Several varieties I could not name were stacked up. Having eaten the minari hotpot, it made sense — this is a country that eats that much vegetable.

What we bought

This is the sort of thing we took home.

What is sold in a souvenir shop at a tourist site is generally made for tourists. What is in the department store basement is what local people buy ordinarily. When you eat it after getting home, the second kind is what continues the trip.

Notes from this visit

• The Shinsegae department store duty-free shop in Myeongdong, and the food floor in its basement
• Confectionery, prepared dishes and produce counters run one after another
• A wider range of leafy greens than in Japan
• For souvenirs, local grocery items travel better than tourist souvenirs
• This stay was at the end of March 2025
• Range and hours change. Check before you go

Visited March 2025. Store information is as it was at the time of the visit.

The vegetables made sense after the minari hotpot in Seongsu.

More from this trip to Seoul

• Myeongdong at eight at night, where you cannot walk where you want to
• A minari hotpot in Seongsu, and the whole surface was green
• Breakfast in Myeongdong, Seoul: Ox-Bone Soup That Arrives Unseasoned