Day 31: Grand Mart

Today I shopped at Grand Mart, a multistory, miscellaneous mart next to Sinchon Station (신촌역). Honestly this place is rundown and carries items aimed more towards middle aged people, with not-so-fashionable clothes on the top levels, household bedding on the ground floor and groceries on the three basement floors. Because of these surroundings, I had my doubts about whether or not I could find anything interesting in here, when I came across two surprises.

I rode the escalator up to the fifth floor (there are supposedly seven floors, but the escalator stopped at five), and found underwear and...Elite uniforms! This was the first time I spotted Elite uniforms in Korea, so I was so surprised and excited! The two ahjummas working asked if I needed help, and I embarrassingly stated in Korean that I'm an Infinite fan and asked to take pictures, to which they agreed.

There were advertisement posters and event posters lining the walls, along with advertisements hanging from the ceiling and photocopy signed mini posters on the counter.

I was so tempted to ask if they had any freebies, but chickened out.

Afterwards, I headed to the grocery area, asking for bath towels. They sent me down to B3, where there was more underwear, bathroom supplies, sports equipment and...Kpop CDs! This was the most random thing, but in the corner by the register, there was a display of the latest Kpop albums. I asked when they would have Infinite's upcoming repackaged album, but they didn't know when it'd come. I also asked if they had any posters, and the worker showed me a tub of rolled up posters and offered to give me an Infinite poster for free! He had trouble finding it since he had labeled them in the corners, but I just looked at the image of the back half of Myungsoo's hat and hair from "Last Romeo" and knew I found one. I think he commented to another worker how I found it like that. ㅋㅋ While the "Last Romeo" era posters aren't flattering, I'm so happy to now have one!

While Grand Mart may seem dull, don't underestimate its many wonderful surprises! Also there are food samples that are really tasty!