Ask politely if you want a discount
Korean retail runs on fixed prices, and that includes almost everything inside a traditional market (전통시장). Do not assume a price is an opening bid. If you ask for a discount, be polite and accept the seller’s answer.
You may encounter two practices:
- 덤 (deom) — a little extra thrown in. Buy a bag of mandarins and get three more pressed into it. It is a gift, offered rather than asked for.
- 에누리 (eonuri) — a small reduction, typically rounding a total down when you are buying several of something from one stall. ₩13,000 becomes ₩12,000. One polite question, one answer.
A seller may be more willing to discuss a discount when you are buying several items: three of the same T-shirt, a full box of fruit, several pairs of socks. There, 많이 살게요, 좀 깎아주세요 — "I'll take a lot, please knock something off" — means “I’ll buy several; could you give me a discount?” The seller may decline. For a single food item or a clearly priced retail item, expect to pay the displayed price.
In the few markets with heavy tour-group traffic the risk runs the other way: an unposted price is more likely to be inflated than negotiable. Ask the price before you commit, and walk if it only appears after the food is in your hand.
Confirm the price before accepting the goods
Korea's price-display duty comes from the Price Stabilisation Act (물가안정에 관한 법률 제3조) and the ministry’s price-display notice. It catches retail shops of 33 m² or more, or 17 m² or more inside Seoul and the metropolitan cities, and every retail unit inside a large store — "traditional markets excluded", in those words. Local designations can add requirements, so a missing tag does not establish the legal position by itself. Ask 이거 얼마예요? (how much is this?) before anything changes hands.
The same notice lets a provincial governor designate a market where display becomes compulsory, and that power is now in use: after two years of overcharging stories at Gwangjang Market, Seoul and Jongno-gu opened a two-month inspection in May 2026 using Korean and foreign mystery shoppers, with permanent expulsion for repeat offenders. The direction of travel is towards posted prices, not towards more bargaining.
Cash, cards, and what you can insist on
Bring cash — ₩1,000 and ₩10,000 notes; a stall may not be able to break ₩50,000.
The rule on cards cuts both ways. A business registered as a card merchant may not refuse a card and may not pass its merchant fee to you — the Specialised Credit Finance Business Act (여신전문금융업법 제19조) — and doing either is a crime, up to one year's imprisonment or a ₩10 million fine. But the duty binds only businesses that joined the scheme. A stall that never registered has no terminal and no obligation, and its "cash only" is simply lawful.
Ask which card networks the terminal accepts. A terminal’s presence does not guarantee that a particular overseas card will work, so carry another payment option.
The Seoul markets, and what each is for
| Market | What it is for | Practical |
|---|---|---|
| Gwangjang Market (광장시장), Jongno | The market sells prepared food, fabrics for traditional Korean clothing called hanbok, and vintage clothing. | Line 1 Jongno 5-ga, exit 8, or Lines 2/5 Euljiro 4-ga exit 4. General market 09:00–18:00, closed Sundays. The food street is listed as 09:00–23:00, open year-round; the vintage arcade 10:00–19:00, also closed Sundays but open on public holidays. |
| Namdaemun Market (남대문시장), Jung-gu | The market sells household goods, clothing, accessories, flowers and many other products. | Line 4 Hoehyeon, exit 5 — 17 m. About 300,000 people a day. Hours differ arcade by arcade; closed Sundays. Its clothing halls are a night wholesale trade — see below. |
| Dongdaemun (동대문), Jung-gu | Fabric, trimmings, wholesale fashion. Dongdaemun Jonghap Market is where hanbok gets made | Lines 1/4 Dongdaemun, or 2/4/5 Dongdaemun History & Culture Park. Largely a night market; much of it trade-only, and the malls take different nights off. |
| Tongin Market (통인시장), Jongno | Small, covered, ten minutes west of Gyeongbokgung (Seoul's largest and main royal palace) — and the one with the coin lunchbox | Line 3 Gyeongbokgung, then a short walk to 자하문로15길 18. Closed every Tuesday and the third Sunday of the month. |
| Mangwon Market (망원시장), Mapo | Residents and visitors shop here for produce and prepared food; cafés are also nearby. | Line 6 Mangwon, a few minutes' walk to 포은로6길 27. Hours set stall by stall; step-free entrance and an accessible toilet by the traders' office. |
Namdaemun's clothing arcades open at 23:00 and shut mid-afternoon
The market association's arcade-by-arcade timetable looks wrong until you see what it is. The womenswear, menswear and childrenswear arcades open at 23:00 or midnight and close in the afternoon — Daedo Arcade (대도아케이드) 24:00–17:00, Poki Children's Wear (포키아동복) 23:00–16:00, the imported-goods arcade 02:00–17:00. Those are wholesale hours, for shop buyers who come overnight. The kitchenware and crockery floors run 08:30–18:30, the accessories arcades 04:00–17:00, the fish market 04:00–18:00 and the eyewear arcade 06:00–22:00.
Check the hours and retail policy of the arcade you want to visit. Wholesale halls may trade overnight and may not sell individual items to casual shoppers; other shops have daytime retail hours.
Try Tongin Market’s coin lunchbox
At Tongin Market you buy brass coins (엽전) at the customer centre on the second floor at ₩500 each, walk the market spending them at the stalls showing an 엽전 price, and bring the tray back to eat. Rice and soup are about two coins each; ₩10,000 buys twenty coins, a generous lunch. It runs 11:00–16:00 on weekdays (coins sold until 15:00) and 11:00–17:00 at weekends (until 16:00).
Closing days: markets do not follow the supermarket rule
The two-Sundays-a-month closure that shuts hypermarkets comes from the Distribution Industry Development Act (유통산업발전법 제12조의2), and it reaches large marts only. Each market, and often each stall, sets its own rest day, and there is no national list of them — Tongin on Tuesdays and one Sunday, Dongdaemun's malls on different nights each, produce stalls whenever the owner chooses.
Check the market section and individual stall before visiting. Gwangjang’s general market closes on Sundays, while its food street is listed as open year-round. Namdaemun hours vary by shop and arcade.
Check eligibility before buying market vouchers
The Onnuri voucher (온누리상품권) is the government's traditional-market gift voucher, valid five years, sold at a discount to Korean residents through Korean banks and a Korean app with Korean identity checks, and accepted only by registered member stalls. For a short-stay visitor it is not worth chasing; cash does the same job with no setup.
