Grocery Shopping at Nonghyup Hanaro Mart in Uiwang

Translated from the Korean original.

Where do you do your grocery shopping, neighbors?

These days online markets have grown so strong that neighborhood offline supermarkets quite often end up closing down.

Even though online has its own place and offline has its own place, and each one is needed for something different.

I still don’t use places like Coupang or Market Kurly much. By “much” I mean I don’t even order once every three months… haha

I signed up for Coupang, ordered fewer than ten times, then cancelled my membership — and now they keep telling me to come back~~~ hahaha, tempting me with coupons.

So about a week ago I scored a whole 10 kg of tangerines — which cost a fortune these days — for a mere KRW 5,900!!!!!! Wow!!!

As for Market Kurly, I joined back when they had just opened and were running KRW 100 promotions, and I ordered two or three times, but well… I don’t buy meal kits either, and while the packages are small and the products are good, the prices are inevitably higher than at a traditional market or a big-box store.. so I automatically became a dormant member..

Honestly, when I shop I don’t buy everything in one place — I make the rounds of about four? stores. haha Do I have energy to spare??

No, nope!! Each store has its own items I need to buy. First up is the Hanaro Mart in my neighborhood. I like this one’s opening days.. it’s open every single day of the year!!

But it closes early, and that’s the shame. In the evening, when I’ve eaten and cleaned up and want to run out for a few things for tomorrow, it’s already closing time.

Nothing to be done… the staff have to go home too.. It used to stay open until 10 at night or so, which was nice ^^::

The good thing about Hanaro Mart is that it has a local-food corner.

Once in the morning and once in the afternoon, the farmers bring in the crops they grew themselves and arrange them on the shelves in person. So it’s fresh. The price, well…

I honestly can’t tell whether it’s cheap.. since I also shop at the agricultural and fisheries market hahaha, I end up comparing it with that place.

Still, thanks to the origin-traceability system the produce is fresh and you can trust that it’s Korean-grown, so being able to eat it with peace of mind is a big advantage.

I’m so bad at taking photos….ㅠㅠ Anemone haha isn’t the flower’s name so pretty?? And the flower is pretty too hehe

I don’t know whether other Hanaro Marts are like this, but the Hanaro Mart in my neighborhood sells fresh flowers like that, and the prices are reasonable, so when spring comes, freesias, tulips and the like —

I go shopping and come home with a bunch each time ~~ KRW 5,000 worth of happiness haha It’s my favorite corner, but life has been tight lately…

so I just look at these flowers and walk on past.. ㅠㅠ

I saw in the news today that people in the US can’t buy eggs because of Elon Musk? I don’t know the reason, though..

Free-range grade 1 fertile eggs — grade 1 especially is really hard to find. Even the ones sold as fertile or antibiotic-free at ordinary big-box stores are grade 3, not grade 1..

Considering that, the price is reasonable too, so these are my household’s main source of protein these days haha I hope they keep stocking them!!

Maybe because there are so many apartment households nearby, if you go late in the afternoon the shelves are bare like that..

Since it’s local produce, there aren’t a huge number of vegetables, and the variety isn’t as wide as at a traditional market.

They say the homes of successful people, of the wealthy?, always have flowers in them haha I think it’s less about having money to spare and more about having room in your heart.

Neighbors, how about putting a bunch of tulips in a vase at home e~~very now and then? ^^

You can see the price of the greenhouse tangerines over on the far right, can’t you? hehe

I’m so pleased with myself hahaha And they taste amazing too haha

I picked up some siraegi (dried radish greens) thinking I’d buy it, then gently set it back down.. hehe It isn’t dried like this, but I remembered the radish greens sitting in my kimchi fridge haha

And that was Hanaro Mart, my regular grocery stop.

Next time I’ll be back with the agricultural and fisheries market, and No Brand..

Neighbors, where do you go to shop offline rather than online?

Of course, plenty of you must order delivery or buy ready-made side dishes.. All of it is good.. Please share your recommendations.

Let’s share the good things with each other!!! ^^