A Run to Costco

This last Sunday Leslie and I took the subway across the Han River on the first of probably many ritual pilgrimages to that gastronomical mecca we hold so dear to our hearts: Costco! We were very excited but still nervous. Would the Korean Costco be the same as its American counterpart?, or would it just be full of 2 gallon barrels of kimchi and endless vats of pickled radishes? Well, it turned out to be a little of both.

Costco Korea definitely had its bulky share of seaweed drums, floor mats, and shoe racks, but it also had plenty of what we were looking for. Cheese by the pound, rows of bagels, Tabasco, deli meat, and an assortment of snack foods. Unfortunately, we could only take back what we could carry, so we had to be quite scrupulous in what we left with.

Also, as it turned out, leaving was a challenging matter of its own. As I mentioned before, we went on a Sunday, which we will never do again! The place was packed to the gills, with hundreds, if not thousands of shoppers wielding oversize shopping carts through the narrow winding spaces between other Costco-ers, all on the personal vendetta to get what they came for and escape alive.

It was a complete zoo! The food kiosk looked like the feed lot at the Chicago slaughter pens. People packed shoulder to shoulder, 20 deep, all jostling for get their pizza or hot dog (which were quite tasty in fact, just like back home) There were no open seats and half-a-dozen diners would begin to encircle those on the benches who were finishing their meal. Every person sitting down had someone slowly inching closer to them in a desperate attempt to grab the open seat when they left. People were literally standing right next to diners as they ate.

Leslie and I decided it would be best (and safest) to stand unobtrusively in a corner and match the battle unfold. And it was entertaining to say the least. No one seemed to mind all the people crowding around them as they ate, it must be a normal occurrence at Costco. On a side note, the chopped onions at the condiment station were immensely popular. People would load up an entire plate of them, and put them on everything, and sometimes mix them with ketchup and mustard. Some people would even take the remaining onions home in a bag. Costco even had grinders for people to grind their own onions because they probably couldn't restock the onion tray fast enough, which incidentally made them quite fresh and delicious.

After lunch Leslie and I braved the horde of shoppers and managed to escape with some precious cargo: sharp cheese, Cheerios, pancake mix, olive oil, and salami. It was very exciting. Now we can make sandwiches!

I'm sure we will head back to Costco soon for more things, just not on a Sunday. What a rookie mistake. We heard afterwards that mid week is much calmer. We will put up another post about school and other things soon, so don't go anywhere!