Residents of Seoul recently welcomed its first new department store in over ten years: The Hyundai Seoul Mall.

To say that it’s massive would be an understatement. 

The Hyundai Seoul took a dramatic and intentional approach to how it set up its open spaces.

While it could have added additional retail space, the developers instead chose to build a more park-like interior. 

As with many openings, the Hyundai Seoul was crowded during its first weekend. While I visited at night, the number of skylights and windows should provide an ample amount of natural light during the day time. 

From what I read elsewhere, many of the trees within the department store are real living plants. There’s even a waterfall within the space that extends for multiple floors to create an almost fantastical landscape.

The Hyundai Seoul mall is divided into six floors and currently has partitions in place to help direct the flow of traffic and allow for some social distancing.

The sheer number of people and the queues made it almost impossible to shop, so we opted to go nearby to the IFC mall that’s just across the street.

It seemed like a lot of the visitors wanted to see the interior of the Hyundai Seoul and like us chose to eat and shop at the IFC due to the crowds.

I definitely want to go back and check out the Hyundai Seoul again when it’s less crowded. The park-like atmosphere on the 5th floor seems like a relaxing experience after a day of shopping. 

The addition of art and technology put into the design can be felt from almost every angle. It was fascinating to see a large number of visitors posing at different spots for their Instagram photos and it felt almost like a typical Sunday afternoon pre-COVID.

Malls and department stores were something that I grew up experiencing back home in the US but is something that’s more of a dying pastime in the US. But over here in Korea, it’s an industry that’s been thriving (outside of COVID-19). 

I’ve never really been a fan of shopping for long periods of time; in fact, I do a lot of my shopping online for the added convenience. Online shopping is also something that’s big over here in Korea. In the Seoul Metro area, you can even get groceries delivered to your door the following morning.

So I wonder what makes malls and department stores so popular here.

Is it the experience of hanging out with your friends? Are there certain items that they can only get in the department store?

Let me know in the comments what you think. Is the Hyundai Seoul something that you’ll add to your list of places to visit during your next Korea trip?