Grocery Shopping

Michael and I go grocery shopping about once a week. Last weekend, we went to Homeplus, which is our usual place for groceries. Sometimes we go to an actual grocery store, but Homeplus seems to have a better selection and is overall cheaper. On occasion we will eat at the food court like I talked about earlier this week. At their food court, the food is a little cheaper than Emart, but also not as tasty. We bought a set which included donkatsu, soup, salad, radish and rolls for only 6,000 won. Due to the horribly declining rate of the won, that is only $5.13. The rolls had kiwi dressing on them, which we decided made them taste funky.

There was nothing very exciting about our shopping trip. We bought our usual supplies. Fruit is still expensive, so we spent nearly 1/3 of our total on kiwis, bananas and grapes - the only things that seem to be in season. We stock up on cheap things like eggs, yogurt, and lettuce and splurge on milk, onions, and wheat bread.

One cool thing here is the concept of bonuses. They seem to be on everything here. Basically, stores find whatever they have laying around and tape them to the package. Sometimes we get extra yogurts taped to the front, or extra handsoap. You may find an extra pack of tofu with your purchase, it's pretty random. Last week we saw stock girls taping mugs and storage containers to the boxes of Kellogs cereal. Michael insisted on getting two so we could both have a mug. They are pretty sweet.

In Korea, there is a large shift from plastic to reusable bags (I assume that this is happening in a lot of places, not just here). Some stores like Emart no longer sell plastic bags and others like Homeplus charge 100 won per bag. We bring our own bags because they give us a discount. For anyone who doesn't want to spend money either way, they do things Costco style here. There is a counter with boxes and tape and you fill up the boxes with your groceries. It's pretty nifty, but it's always crowded. It's much easier to just remember to bring our own bags. 

When we get home, Gizmo is there to greet us. She likes to help me unpack :)