Costco in Korea (January 20, 2022)
We finally explored Costco in Korea for the first time after moving here 6 months ago (wow that sounds like a long time!). The membership is much cheaper here, only about $30 but you are required to get a Hyundai credit card.
In the end it was actually great to finally get a credit card for me to use here. For some reason as a foreigner my debit account is limited to about $250...and pretty annoying to keep transferring money after grocery shopping.
So Costco looks mostly the same but there is a combo of traditional Kirkland brand products paired with jumbo sizes of Korean brands. So the freezer section has a ton of Costco frozen shrimp but also rows and rows of frozen mandu (Korean dumplings).
The meat section had the usual beef and fish BUT also had huge portions of octopus and abalone, which are popular here. And the prepared deli food was mostly focused on Korean favorites and sushi.
I was a bit bummed by the bakery section, I was hoping to find some chewy and hearty bread, but alas it was focused on Korean favorites. Which means everything was covered in sugar...you can't buy garlic bread without a sweet glaze on top. I did find some bagels so that was a win!
The alcohol section was actually worth the membership alone. Alcohol is expensive here (unless it's Korean makgeolli (wine made from rice), beer, or soju). So we stocked up on wine which is like 1/2-1/3 of the price elsewhere.
I was thrilled to see American toothpaste, body wash, and cetaphil. Sounds boring, but the brands I like are very expensive elsewhere.
And finally, yes they do have Costco pizza! They made it Korea-friendly with a mayo drizzle, but the crust and sauce was so much better than most pizza here.
They did have some fun Korean food near the pizza too, including a persimmon smoothie.
