Import Stores in Seoul

A friend asked me where the import stores are and I spent nearly 45 minutes writing it up. I want to post it here as well so for future reference I can show this page instead of re-writing that all again.

So here you have a guide to some of the import stores within Seoul:

신촌 - behind 현대백화점 there is a 3-sided concrete park. At one end is a large 닭갈비 place. Next to it is an import store. It has a fridge, baking items, deodorant, and a lot of other food stuff.

신촌 - 신촌역 exit 8, walk straight, pass the Grand Mart, pass the Canon Store, pass the 999 Won place, and soon after the alley you'll see the road ... See Moreto your left slopes down and it's more like an enclosed traditional market. The entrance is between a locksmith/shoe repair place and a large bowling pin. Walk down and as you get close to an intersection (like 15 meters) there are several import stores. Good for toothpaste, over the counter medicine, and tons of snack foods.

신 촌 - 신촌 exit 8 (or in between exits 7 and 8 is basement 2 entrance) If you go into the Grand Mart, basement 1, near the milk they had an import section but it might have been moved when they changed around the store. Not too big but it's something.

해방촌 - 녹사평역 exit 2, walk straight down hill. The Yongsan military base is on your left. The slow ends and you'll hit a crosswalk. Ignore the crosswalk and instead turn left and keep hugging the military base concrete wall which will quickly turn into a ton of kimchee pots (this spot is nicknamed Kimchee Pot Gate). Keep going on the incline, on the left, with the cars next to you. First intersection on your left is a good import store. Keep going and you'll hit 3 or 4 more good import stores. Do try even the Philippino places as they have good Western food as well. There is one Philippino place I have in mind, it's decently far up on that main straight street, on your right. It has various phone card signs in it's window. On your left is a little mart which looks like an average Korean selfowned mart. However towards the rear of the store is where you'll find the import items.
Since this area is right next to the Yongsan military base it'll mainly have items from the base and sometimes items from Costco (like muffins, cheese, and instant oatmeal).

이태원 - 이태원역 between exits 3 and 4 (across the street from the Hamiliton Hotel) they are opening a Taco Bell (first one outside of the military bases). This area has a lot of Muslims and hence has a lot of Halal foods in their marts. If you go on that road~ish you'll find some import places and tons of international restaurants if you wander around enough. To be honest I don't know Itaewon as well as other expats. This is a great area for curry supplies as well. But I also found that red packages of curry (domestic brand, forgot the name, available in places like E-Mart) are available in more flavors than the standard yellow and are darn good.

동대문 - Inside Doota, go up several floors, near the escalators and near a coffee shop there is a good import place. I am not positive which floor it is but it's up at least several floors.

Express Bus Terminal - Look at a map, find both Express Bus Terminal and 반포역. In between those is a 4-way intersection. Go north on that (towards the 한간, I normally am on the bus when I am in that area bus lines 143, 342, 362, 4318 all work). And one bus stop past Express Bus Terminal/north of that big 4-way interersection, on the left, is a McDonalds, a Pizza Mall and a place called Kim's Club. You'll want to enter the building just right of McDonalds and you'll go down an escalator. Drop off your backpack in the lockers, go inside the store. The first part is all non-food items; keep going and you'll find the food area of the store. On the right side, right before the food court-like stores (there are like 3 or 4), you'll find a nice import section. It has a wood motif and has multiple rows of things.

Costco - There are 4 locations within Seoul; Ilsan, 양재, 영등포, and the 4th I forgot the exact location. Their website has basic maps with locations but were not helpful before. Maybe they have been updated? Membership is around 35,000W or 40,000, I forgot. Everything is big sized, no plastic bags provided but they do give their used cardboard boxes. These stores have a lot of import items from the West (sometimes British chocolates) and some Japanese items as well (Japanese style 짬뽕 is wonderful). Like Costco in the US they only accept 1 kind of credit card and it changes, they don't take debit cards, they really only want cash. Keep this in mind. When thinking of how much money to bring expect everything to cost between 10,000W and 15,000W. Also keep in mind how hard it will be to take it home.
This store has a lot of import items, all big sizes, and pound for pound cheaper than you'll find anywhere outside of a US military base. Great for things like peanut butter, jelly, various cooking sauces, cereals, trail mix, cheese balls, muffins, bagels, bread, marshmallows (so hard to find in Korea), vitamins, cheese (normally so expensive in Korea) and also decent priced pizzas (also hard to find in Korea) and cheap passport photos (but for technical reasons "passport" sized in the US and in Korea are different sizes. So if you need US passport sized pictures then you should get them in the subway stations. The difference between them are they Korean ones are the same size as the one found in a standard US passport; a rectangle. But the US government likes a wider image (square) and for things like renewing a US passport they want the square sized, stapled to the application, and then they cut it down to a rectangle.
You need a membership to get into the store and need to use it to buy things (except at their food court).

And technically you aren't supposed to but if you have an army friend they have access to things on base as well.