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How Korean convenience stores work

Mr. Latte

A convenience store in Korea is less a place you go shopping than a counter you pass through several times a day. Most of its rules are settled in the few seconds you stand at the till, and knowing those seconds in advance takes the awkwardness out of it.

The short version

A convenience store here is less a shop than a counter where you send parcels, top up your transit card and buy medicine at midnight. A few rules come attached. Bags cost money, alcohol and tobacco are only sold against a physical ID, and in stores that run unstaffed overnight you cannot buy either at all.

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Right now

  1. 1A card cannot be refused because the amount is small. A single 1,000 won item goes on the card.
  2. 2Bags are not free. If you have nothing to carry things in, say you want a bag when you pay.
  3. 3Bring a physical ID if you plan to buy alcohol or tobacco. A photo on your phone is not accepted.

What to have ready

  • A physical ID: Passport or Alien Registration Card (ARC). If you look young, you will be asked every time.
  • Some cash: Topping up a transit card is usually cash only.
  • A bag of your own: Cheaper than paying for one at every till.

Phrases you can copy and paste

Step by step

  1. 1

    Know the four chains and the opening hours

    Four signs cover almost everything: CU, GS25, 7-Eleven and Emart24. What is on the shelf and what it costs depends more on location than on the brand, and stores inside stations or in tourist areas charge more for the same item. Twenty-four hour opening looks like the default but it is not universal. Some stores in residential and office areas close at night, and a growing number are staffed by day and run unattended in the small hours. During the unattended hours you tap a card at the door to get in and pay at a self-checkout. Alcohol and tobacco are locked away for that stretch. Take-home alcohol has to be sold face to face, so shops close off that shelf while nobody is behind the counter.

  2. 2

    Know what happens at the till before you get there

    Cards work almost everywhere. The idea that a purchase is too small to put on a card does not apply here: the law says a card merchant cannot refuse payment on the grounds that you are paying by card. Cards issued abroad usually go through the terminal too, and if the screen asks whether to charge in won or in your home currency, pick won. After that you will usually hear three questions: whether you want a bag, whether you want it heated, and whether you want points. Points need an app registered to a Korean number, so if you do not have one just say no. Keep the receipt; you need it for exchanges and refunds.

  3. 3

    Heat up the ready-made food

    Lunch boxes, triangular rice balls, cup noodles and frozen dishes are all made to be eaten on the spot. Ask at the till and staff will put it through the microwave. For cup noodles you take hot water from the dispenser yourself. Wooden chopsticks and plastic spoons sit beside the till or the dispenser, and if the shop has a window counter or a standing bench, that is where you eat. Plenty of small stores have no seating at all, so glance inside on the way in if you intend to sit down. Empty containers go in the bin inside the shop, which is there for things bought in that shop. Bringing rubbish in from outside is not welcome.

  4. 4

    Alcohol and tobacco go by age

    The line is drawn by birth year, not birthday. In law a minor is anyone under 19, except a person who has already reached 1 January of the year they turn 19. In 2026 that means anyone born in 2007 or earlier can buy. The seller is required to check the buyer's age and identity, and it is the seller who is punished for getting it wrong, which is why anyone who looks young is asked without exception. As a foreigner, show your passport or Alien Registration Card (ARC) in the original. A photo saved on your phone is refused in most places. There is no time window that blocks convenience store alcohol sales, so a shop that is open will sell to you at four in the morning. What stops you is the unattended stretch described above.

  5. 5

    Buy medicine after the pharmacies close

    Some twenty-four hour convenience stores sell a small set of household medicines. Not every store can: it has to run around the clock all year and have completed the seller training before registering, so plenty of shops have no such shelf. The range is fixed by the government and comes to a handful of painkillers, cold remedies, digestives and medicated patches. Nothing that needs a prescription, nothing for children under 12, and one pack per visit. The list is short enough that what you want is often not on it. When that happens, a pharmacy the next morning is the faster route.

  6. 6

    Send and receive parcels

    This is how a delivery reaches you when nobody is home. Each chain runs a cheap store-to-store parcel service, called bangap taekbae at GS25 and altteul taekbae at CU. You drop the parcel at a nearby branch and the recipient collects it from a branch of the same chain near them. On the mainland the GS25 service costs 1,900 won up to 500g, 2,300 won up to 1kg and 2,700 won up to 5kg, and arrives within four days counting the day you send it. It is slow in exchange for being cheap, it is prepaid only, and anything over 5kg has to go by normal courier. One thing to watch: if you put the shop's address in the sender field, a parcel that goes wrong has nowhere to come back to. Use your home or work address. Choosing store pickup when you shop online uses the same network.

  7. 7

    Top up a transit card and take out cash

    A physical transit card is topped up at the till. Hand it over and say how much you want on it. This is normally cash only. One top-up can be anywhere from 1,000 to 90,000 won and a card holds up to 500,000 won. At GS25 and CU you can also ask for the change from a purchase to go straight onto the card, down to the last 10 won. If you need cash, the ATM inside takes different cards on different machines, so look for the international card logos on the front. Fees tend to be higher than at a bank machine, and if the screen offers to charge in your home currency, choose won here too.

  8. 8

    Tell shopping bags from rubbish bags

    Nowhere gives bags away. Handing out disposable items free of charge is blocked by law, so what the till sells is a paper bag, a biodegradable bag, or an official waste bag. The last of those is the one that confuses people. It carries your shopping home and doubles as your neighbourhood's rubbish bag, so you fill it with household waste afterwards and put it out as it is. The price, colour and size are set by each district office, and a store sells the bags for the district it stands in. Move house and you can end up with bags you cannot use. Whether a neighbouring district accepts them varies, so it is worth reading your own district office's guidance once.

The Korean words

봉투 드릴까요?bongtu deurilkkayo?· do you want a bag?
Not an offer of a free one. It is asking whether you want to buy one.
데워 드릴까요?dewo deurilkkayo?· shall I heat it up?
What you hear after buying a lunch box or a frozen dish.
신분증 좀 보여 주세요sinbunjeung jom boyeo juseyo· may I see your ID
Said when alcohol or tobacco reaches the till. It has to be the original.
원 플러스 원won peulleoseu won· buy one get one
Marked 1+1 on the shelf. You have to pick up both items yourself.
종량제 봉투jongnyangje bongtu· official waste bag
The rubbish bag set by your district office. Sold at convenience stores.
상비약sangbiyak· over the counter basics
The short medicine list some stores are licensed to sell.
충전이요chungjeon-iyo· top up, please
Asking for money to be put on your transit card.

Easy to miss

  • 1+1 and 2+1 only apply if you carry the full number of the same item to the till. Bring one and you pay full price.
  • Alcohol and tobacco shelves are closed off during unattended overnight hours. An open door does not mean everything is for sale.
  • An official waste bag is your district's rubbish bag, not just a carrier. Move house and the ones you have left may become useless.
  • The bin inside the shop is for what you bought there. Carrying rubbish in from outside will be stopped.
  • Fewer stores sell medicine than you would expect. If you need something at night you may walk to several.

You can skip this if

  • If you need a prescription drug, or anything outside the short household list, a convenience store will not solve it. Look at pharmacies and clinics instead.
  • For bulky staples like rice or detergent, a large supermarket or an online order is far cheaper.

When it is time for a person

  • Once you are settling into a neighbourhood, someone who can walk you through the local rules, from bin collection days to district office paperwork, saves a lot of guessing.

Where this comes from

Rules, fees and deadlines change and depend on your exact case. Please confirm the details with the official sources before you act.

Questions and notes

Been through this? Add what you learned, or ask what is still unclear.

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