Howdy,
Surprisingly there’s nothing new here. I’m just getting really bored and it doesn’t help that before last Tuesday I wasn’t able to withdraw any money from our old dear, Sampopankki (that’s the damn Finnish bank I’m having troubles with). I also didn’t have any cash left or neither money in Daegu bank, so I was totally broke and trapped at dormitory for a couple of weeks. I’m still pretty pissed off because of all the this and just looking for a way how to make money transfers outside Europe again. Right now its impossible – great!
Anyway, I’ve been following Finnish news recently trying to tune in on that life you live over there. Stockmann seems to famous for its “fresh food policy” which means selling old stuff with extra price and new dates. Well, I ran into same strategy here – that new food store I’m visiting almost every day apparently unpacks old veggies, cuts off the bad parts and then repacks them. Actually there’s nothing to complain about – its fresh and in good shape what you finally can buy there but a couple of times I’ve bought some broccoli that is clearly outdated.
I think I’m not the only one who discovered this, but unlike the Finnish Stockmann, the shopkeeper here took an action to solve the problem: when I grabbed a bag of broccoli today, the clark insisted to see the package and changed it to another one which was in a better condition. I also got some discount and friendly service. Cool.
This broccoli is from Wikipedia
The good service is, I think, the biggest single thing I’m going to miss in Korea. Whatever you’re buying – food, clothes, electronics, bank services, you name it – you’re always treated as the Most Important Person In the World. I was told that that’s because of the high competition (yes, there are no big supermarkets, only smaller shops to buy stuff). But an another reason is definitely the overall culture: in Korea people are still important as human beings, not only as money-making-robots.
