By / Irene tortore lla
If you are looking to immerse yourself in truly unique, well-provided, traditional retail in Korea, look no further than E-mart, Homeplus and LotteMart. Korea’s three major discount chains offer everything from the ubiquitous soju (distilled beverage made from rice, usually drunk neat) to ready-to-cook heamultang (spicy seafood soup).
Their private label products represent more than 25% of sales and occupy prominent areas in the stores around the Korean peninsula. Lotte Chilsung Cider (the first soft drink produced in Korea in 1950 by the Dongbang Beverage Partnership) already topped Sprite and 7up sales, it’s now time to see if Korean colas will outpace the beloved Coca Cola in the near future.
I think E-mart cola, when consumed with green tea crust Korean pizza from Pizza Maru, tastes much better than Coke. I swear it’s true. I know you’re now asking yourself how an Italian can enjoy eating Korean pizza with corn, sweet potatoes and sweeter sauce, but, you know, pizza is always pizza especially if outside the crew hotel it’s minus 10 and you don’t fancy tteokbokki –incredibly spicy rice cakes – before your well deserved sleep. (The publisher strongly disagrees me with on this!)
For those looking for private label processed food, electronics, fashion items, baby products and ajumma brimmed hats for avoiding the sun during Korean summer there is no shortage of stock at E-mart stores. E-mart is absolutely a pioneer in private label retailing and has satisfied Korean customers (and now expats) since 1993.
Major supermarkets in U.S. such as Whole Foods, Walmart and Safeway have begun to stock Korean food products on their shelves, but I wonder why the global popularity and demand for them have grown so much. Is it just to satisfy the millions of Korean people abroad or because Korean food is healthy and tasty? Or because Korean food is healthy and tasty? Or perhaps it’s the Korean wave of popularity thanks to a certain singer? Few Koreans would ever want a meal without kimchi (fermented spicy cabbage based side dish). Startling to many foreigners at first but incredibly addictive once you get used to it, kimchi is full of more than 200 types of lactic acid bacteria, helping Koreans prevent high blood pressure and obesity for more than 2000 years.
My mother is 60 years old, attentive to skin care and my trusted doctor; she visited me in Seoul in 2010 and claimed that Korean women’s perfect skin secret was kimchi itself. Certainly South Korean Cosmetic private labels like Tony Moly, Missha, Nature Republic, Holika Holika and Skin Food played their own parts in this, providing good quality products at affordable prices.
Beans Box, a Korean brand dedicated to finding and sharing the world’s best coffee, is offering to the environmentally conscious in South Korea the opportunity to enjoy organic coffee and organic cosmetics at the same time. Each month the company selects a special coffee producer around the world and team that up with a organic cosmetics brand to provide four of its best products. In short, two of the Korean people’s favorite goods together make the perfect customer deal. Whilst stocks last.
