Myeongdong CU Foreign Sales: Why CU Myeongdong Station Became a K-Food Convenience Stop

CU Myeongdong Station has become one of the clearest examples of how foreign tourist spending is reshaping Korea’s convenience store market. The store’s foreign-customer sales share has been reported at an average of 52%, with daily sales reaching as high as about 68% from foreign customers, making it a useful case study for anyone tracking Myeongdong Convenience Combos and K-food shopping patterns in Seoul. ¹

Why CU Myeongdong Station Stands Out

The strongest signal is not just that more travelers are buying snacks, drinks, and ready-to-eat food. It is that CU Myeongdong Station is operating in a very different pattern from ordinary convenience stores. Segye Ilbo reported that the store’s foreign sales share was 52%, compared with roughly 2% at general stores. ² That gap explains why Myeongdong convenience stores are now being discussed as tourist-facing retail spaces, not simply quick local stops.

The broader convenience store market shows the same direction. In the first half of 2026, CU’s sales based on overseas payment methods rose 86.3% year over year, while GS25’s AliPay and WeChat Pay payment amount rose 60.2% and 7-Eleven’s foreign tourist sales rose 50%. ¹ For January to May 2026, another report put CU’s overseas payment-method transaction amount up 65.7%, GS25’s foreign payment service sales up 78%, and 7-Eleven’s foreign sales at 1.5 times the previous year’s level. ²

For a visitor, the practical takeaway is simple: convenience stores in areas such as Myeongdong are no longer just places to buy water or emergency items. They are increasingly structured around products that tourists actively seek out after seeing Korean food and convenience store culture through Hallyu content and social media. A GS Retail official said the fact that convenience stores became known through Hallyu content and SNS as a must-visit course in Korea was a key factor. ²

What Visitors Are Actually Finding Inside

CU began operating CU Myeongdong Station as a K-food specialized convenience store for foreign tourists in November 2024. ³ That positioning matters because the store is not merely benefiting from foot traffic; it has been arranged around products and eating formats that match tourist demand.

Reported in-store features include Yonsei Cream Bread, banana milk, Biyotte, a ramen display with 40 varieties, and a cup-noodle-style tasting area. ³ These details help explain why searches around Myeongdong Convenience Combos often focus on pairing ready-to-eat items, dairy drinks, desserts, and ramen rather than on a single product category.

The store is also an outlier inside CU’s own network. Dailian reported that CU Myeongdong Station ranked within the top three among more than 18,800 CU stores nationwide by foreign-customer share. ³ Its average foreign sales share of 52% and daily peak near 68% were repeated across multiple reports, which gives the figure more weight than a one-off anecdote. ⁴

Industry commentary also points to food content as the main driver. One industry official described convenience stores as places where foreign visitors can easily consume the “food content” of K-culture, turning them into essential tourist routes. ¹ Professor Seo Yong-gu of Sookmyung Women’s University was quoted as saying that the variety of K-food found only in Korean convenience stores is appealing to foreign tourists. ⁴

That does not mean every branch has the same setup or the same foreign-customer ratio. The available figures specifically highlight CU Myeongdong Station and other tourist-heavy areas. Maeil Business Newspaper also reported that sales growth was prominent in areas with many foreign tourists, including Myeongdong, Hongdae, and Gwanghwamun. ⁵

How to Use This Trend as a Visitor or Retail Watcher

If you are visiting Myeongdong, the best way to understand the trend is to treat CU Myeongdong Station as a compact K-food browsing stop. Look for items that are explicitly highlighted in the available reporting: Yonsei Cream Bread, banana milk, Biyotte, and the multi-variety ramen section. ³ These are the products and categories most clearly tied to the store’s K-food positioning in the source material.

For travelers interested in practical shopping services, CU’s tax refund service is also relevant. BGF Retail stated that CU and the Korea Tourism Organization ran an instant VAT refund cashback promotion for foreign tourists, with CU’s tax refund service operating at more than 600 stores nationwide. ⁶ The company also said the previous year’s tax refund service usage count rose 16-fold and sales rose ninefold, and that shopping bags and leaflets were provided at five top-sales stores including Myeongdong Station to raise awareness. ⁶

For retail observers, the key point is that payment infrastructure and tourist-facing service are part of the same story as food merchandising. Maeil Business Newspaper reported that convenience stores were strengthening AI interpretation and overseas payment promotions while foreign payment amounts rose sharply in 2025: CU by 101.2%, GS25 by 74.2%, 7-Eleven by 60%, and Emart24 by 38%. ⁵

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Patrick Choi

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