E-Mart (이마트), a subsidiary of Shinsegae (신세계) which is one of the largest retailers in the country, is about to take an interesting step and start selling gasoline.  E-Mart, Lotte Mart, as GS Mart are huge Super Wal-Mart-like stores, but with much better customer service.  Wal-Mart did try to set up shop here, but happily, it failed and failed miserably.  The last Wal-Mart stores were all bought out by Shinsegae and are now E-Marts.  Additionally, the British firm of Tesco, in partnership with Samsung, operates Home Plus.  Costco is here, too.  One of my fellow teachers from ECC used to regularly go up to Daejeon to Costco, as they had Western-style food for sale, something not easily found in Gwangju. 

So, now E-Mart will be selling gasoline at discount prices, at least 100 won less than everybody else.  It should be interesting to see how this pans out.  If it works out, I am certain that Lotte Mart (롯데마트), GS Mart (GS 마트), and Home Plus (홈프러스) will follow suit.  The American model of everything under one roof now seems almost complete.  There aren’t car repair shops in them, though perhaps it is only a matter of time.

One of the interesting features of the Korean mega-stores are the inclined moving walkways.  These resemble the moving walkways that one would find in an airport, but they are inclined to permit easy travel between floors.  Additionally, the wheels of the shopping carts are specially designed to grasp onto the grooves of the moving walkway floor.  Thus, despite travelling upwards or downwards at angle, your shopping cart won’t move until you push it even if you are going down.

To get a shopping cart, you have to put a 100 won coin into the lock.  The shopping carts are all locked together and it takes a coin to unlock them.  To get your coin back, you have to lock the shopping cart back with the other shopping carts.