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Are Seoul’s Markets Cheaper Than Supermarkets? 23 Reviews Compare

Travel Analysts

📄23 reviews of Gwangjang Market, Namdaemun Market and Mangwon Market compare prices with supermarkets and malls: 18 say the market is cheaper, 5 say it is not.

Shoppers seen from behind at a butcher’s counter in a Seoul market, under pink display lights and handwritten price cards

💡Quick Answer

Are Seoul’s traditional markets cheaper than supermarkets? For fruit and vegetables, reviewers say yes. Twenty-three reviews of Gwangjang Market, Namdaemun Market and Mangwon Market compare prices with a supermarket, department store or mall: 18 say the market is cheaper and 5 say it is not. Eight of the 18 are about fresh produce. One of the five says branded goods are better bought at a supermarket.

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Are Seoul’s Traditional Markets Cheaper Than Supermarkets?

We looked for every review of the three markets that compares its prices with a supermarket, a department store or a mall, and read them.

🛒 Market	🟢 Say the market is cheaper	🔴 Say it is not
Mangwon Market	11 reviews	3 reviews
Namdaemun Market	4 reviews	2 reviews
Gwangjang Market	3 reviews	none
All three	18 reviews	5 reviews

Twenty-three reviews make the comparison. Eighteen say the market is cheaper and five say it is not. These are counts, not rates: the samples hold 3,923 reviews and only a handful of reviewers think to compare.

Nine of the 23 are written in Korean, six on the cheaper side and three on the other. Most of the detail comes from Mangwon Market, where reviewers describe doing the household shopping.

my favorite place to shop groceries (way cheaper than the big supermarket at Seoul Station, iykyk) — Google Maps review of Mangwon Market, 5 stars, October 2025

The trade-off: a reviewer who found the market more expensive may be less likely to write the comparison down than one who found a bargain. Read the 18 to 5 as what people reported, not as a price survey.

Fruit and Vegetables: Where the Gap Is

🍓 What the 18 found cheaper at the market	Reviews
Fresh fruit and vegetables	8
Groceries and dry goods	4
Snacks, kimchi, side dishes and local specialties	3
Prices in general, against a supermarket or department store	3

Eight of the 18 are about fresh produce, seven of them at Mangwon Market.

Fruits much fresher and cheaper than supermarkets/convenience stores too — Google Maps review of Mangwon Market, 5 stars, April 2024

Fruit there is inexpensive compared to grocery stores — TripAdvisor review of Mangwon Market, 5 stars, May 2024

Three reviewers put a number on it. A visitor writing in Chinese had seen strawberries at 7,900 won in a supermarket and bought a box at Mangwon Market the next day for 4,000 won, in May 2025. A Korean reviewer in 2021 says vegetables and fruit there run 30% or more below the neighborhood supermarket. Another, in 2023, puts farm produce and seafood about 30% below the shop near home.

A Korean reviewer who lives in the district and goes five or six times a month says the vegetables and fruit are always fresh and cheaper than at a supermarket. At Namdaemun Market, a reviewer writing in Chinese bought grapes and cherries for more than 5,000 won less than at a hypermarket, in January 2025.

The trade-off: the reviewers with the firmest figures are residents buying for a kitchen. A visitor can use the same prices for fruit to eat that day. We did not verify any of them today.

Groceries, Snacks and Side Dishes

Four reviews say groceries and dry goods are cheaper, and three more name snacks, kimchi, side dishes or local specialties.

The visitor quoted above comes back to Mangwon Market on every trip for injeolmi powder, seaweed, nuts, and sesame and perilla oil. Another reviewer says some items in the market’s general stores cost less than at chain supermarkets. At Namdaemun Market a Japanese reviewer says food is cheaper than at a supermarket, and adds that the clothing and sundries are cheap and may be poor, with real bargains among them.

All three comparisons at Gwangjang Market are of this kind. A Japanese reviewer in 2025 found the sweets people buy to hand out, milk crackers and yakgwa among them, cheaper than at Lotte Mart. Another, in 2020, says kimchi and side dishes cost less than in a department store food hall or a shop aimed at tourists. A reviewer writing in Chinese found local specialties much cheaper than at a department store.

If you want something cheap, best come here instead of going to the department stores. — TripAdvisor review of Namdaemun Market, 4 stars, June 2019

The trade-off: three of the reviewers who say the market is cheaper attach a condition. One says the quality is not especially good. One says some stalls do not take cards. One says some street stalls quote tourists a high price for bags and then pretend to discount it.

Five Reviewers Say the Market Is Not Cheaper

Three of the five are about Mangwon Market and two about Namdaemun Market.

A reviewer writing in Chinese, noting a general store inside Mangwon Market, tells readers not to assume a traditional market undercuts a supermarket, and to keep buying branded goods at the supermarket. Two Korean reviewers go further. One says prices at Mangwon Market are higher than at most supermarkets, traditional market or not. The other, in a two-star review, says the market is more expensive than a department store.

Prices are not cheaper than shopping mall. — Google Maps review of Namdaemun Market, 4 stars, December 2024

A Korean reviewer of Namdaemun Market in 2026 is unsure it beats the neighborhood shops and says the express bus terminal was cheaper.

Two more reviewers of Namdaemun Market point elsewhere for ordinary items. One says to compare hats with Daiso before buying. A French reviewer says that for products found everywhere, Daiso is the place.

The trade-off: none of the five is about fruit or vegetables. The one that names a product is about branded goods.

Prices Change Inside the Market Too

Three reviewers of Namdaemun Market say where you buy inside it matters as much as whether you go.

They sell things cheaper if you navigate inside the buildings well. — Google Maps review of Namdaemun Market, 5 stars, June 2024

That reviewer bought souvenirs at a street-front shop, thought it a good deal, and then found them for less on the second floor of one of the market buildings. A Japanese reviewer says the same bag is priced differently from shop to shop, and that the shops toward the Shinsegae side were cheaper than those by the gates and on the main street. The French reviewer found better prices in a shop upstairs.

The trade-off: three reviews agree on the direction, away from the street front, and none of them maps it. We did not verify which buildings or floors are cheaper today.

What the Reviews Do Not Cover: Department Store Food Courts

We went looking for reviews that compare market food with a department store food court. There are none in the three samples.

Department stores do appear. Ten reviews of Namdaemun Market name Shinsegae, the department store beside it, and most use it as a landmark for finding the market. One Japanese review mentions a department store food hall, and only to say that side dishes at Gwangjang Market cost less.

One Korean reviewer of Mangwon Market makes the opposite point about shopping: the market is now so full of prepared food that it is hard to do the groceries there, and a supermarket or another market serves better for that.

The trade-off: people reviewing a market write about the market. Whether a department store food court is the better place to eat is a question these reviews cannot settle, and this article does not try.

Methodology

Figures come from the SeoulFoodTour research corpus. This article uses samples of rated reviews from Google Maps and TripAdvisor, collected without filtering by rating: 1,458 of Gwangjang Market, 1,376 of Namdaemun Market and 1,089 of Mangwon Market.

What was counted. Two searches, in every language in the samples, matched 95 reviews that name a supermarket, department store, mall, convenience store or chain shop. Each was read. Twenty-three compare prices outright. The rest name a store as a landmark, or call the market’s own food area a food court.

Counts, not rates. Twenty-three reviews out of 3,923 is too few for a percentage to mean anything, so every figure here is a count.

Quotations. Every quotation is from a review written in English and is reproduced exactly as it appears in the original record, spelling included. Reviews in other languages are counted and described in our words, never quoted.

What this article does not do. It does not survey prices, and it does not verify any price today. A review records what one shopper paid on one day, compared with what that shopper remembered paying elsewhere.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Are traditional markets in Seoul cheaper than supermarkets?+

Most reviewers who compare say yes. Of 23 reviews of Gwangjang Market, Namdaemun Market and Mangwon Market that set market prices against a supermarket, department store or mall, 18 say the market is cheaper and 5 say it is not. The clearest gap is in fruit and vegetables.

Is fruit cheaper at a market than at a supermarket in Seoul?+

Eight reviews say so. One visitor saw strawberries at 7,900 won in a supermarket and bought a box for 4,000 won at Mangwon Market the next day, in May 2025. Two Korean reviewers put produce at Mangwon Market about 30% below their neighborhood shops. We did not verify today’s prices.

Is Mangwon Market cheaper than a supermarket?+

Eleven reviews of Mangwon Market say so and three say it is not. One Korean reviewer who shops there five or six times a month says the vegetables and fruit are always fresh and cheaper than at a supermarket. A reviewer writing in Chinese warns that branded goods are not cheaper there.

Is Namdaemun Market cheaper than a department store?+

Four reviews say Namdaemun Market is cheaper than a department store or supermarket, and two say it is not or doubt it. Three more say prices change inside the market itself: lower upstairs and inside the buildings than at the street-front shops.

What is not cheaper at a Seoul market?+

Branded packaged goods, according to one reviewer of Mangwon Market, who says to buy those at a supermarket. A French reviewer of Namdaemun Market says products found everywhere are better bought at Daiso. Two Korean reviewers say Mangwon Market costs more than a supermarket or department store, without naming items.

Are department store food courts better than market food in Seoul?+

Our review samples cannot answer that. No review of the three markets compares its food with a department store food court. Ten reviews of Namdaemun Market name the Shinsegae department store, as a landmark next to the market and not as a place to eat.