Sunreung Station: Buy Virtual Slippers in the Seoul Underground

There are probably plenty of times when you are rushing to catch a train and you suddenly think to yourself, Blimey, I really need to buy a new pair of slippers but I don’t have time / don’t want to buy them and carry them home. Well now that problem is solved if you happen to be hurrying through Sunleung station on the Seoul underground (number 2 line) because here you can buy those slippers and other essential items at the Home Plus Virtual Store! (Home Plus is by Tesco and Samsung) Yes, these slippers are not real.

All you need is the Home Plus app on your iphone! My students tell me that they ‘can’t live without’ their smart phones, but it seems that the day we will all BE REQUIRED to own a smart phone is COMING…

virtual slippers at the Home Plus Virtual Store in Sunreung station

Sunreung station is in Gangnam which, as everyone in the world probably now knows after singer Psy and his horse dancing ‘Gangnam Style’ made it famous, is the upmarket area in Seoul full of snazzy apartments and swanky designer stores. (btw The Sunreung Joseon tombs are also nearby and worth a visit.)

I suppose the stations in the cool part of  town have to be ahead of the others with any new technology – at my local underground station I still have to buy real things and pay for them straight away AND carry the items home and everything. It’s a hard life 🙁

According to the instructions on the virtual store wall thingy, you can just download the Home Plus App and then hover the phone over the barcode next to the picture of the product and the item will go into your virtual shopping bag and be delivered to you later.

But I wonder how popular this style of shopping is, since I was under the impression that  buying groceries online is not really done here. Back in England doing a weekly Tesco shop online is quite common. But I’ve yet to meet anyone who does that here. I don’t even know if it’s possible.

Anyway, you never know what you will find in the Seoul underground and that makes riding the underground just that little bit more interesting. At Banpo station (number 7 line) for example you can check your blood pressure, on Jongak station (number 1 line) you can buy poo bread, :). Other stations have exhibitions or sometimes live music. And I’m keeping my eyes peeled for anything else!