Where (not) to shop in Seoul this week
Maybe it's just the angle, but the main store in Myeongdong doesn't look a day over 25. How's this for a memorable experience of Korea? Booking a ride up the country's tallest tower that as yet doesn't exist.
That's the tagline being used to lure shoppers to Lotte Department Store -- one of the largest department store chains in the country -- this week as part of a three-week long birthday bash. The store turns 32 on November 15.
Anyone who visits a Lotte Department Store between now and November 24 is eligible to enter the birthday raffle to ride up Korea's future tallest tower -- the 555-meter Lotte World Tower -- and 12 winners will be picked well in advance of the Tower's completion date, which is slated for 2015.
And what better souvenir of Korea than a 24-carat gold miniature of a building that Lotte Department Store is preemptively calling "a Korean landmark," which is being offered as first prize?
The Lotte Duty Free shops are unfortunately excluded from promotions but tourists are not.
Conversely, if you just want some groceries and don't want to be stampeded by the packs of sale hunters and event mongers, it might be best to avoid this particular franchise (and generally the entire Myeong-dong area) during November.
Lotte Department Store, Myeong-dong branch
1 Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul (서울시 중구 소공동 1); +82 2 771 2500; 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m.; www.lotteshopping.com.
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