Korean pharmacies just what the doctor ordered with new tourism trend

Pharmacies are increasingly making tourist itineraries for "must-go" places in Korea as they look for more potent drugs than what can be found at the dominant lifestyle store Olive Young.

Optima Wellness Museum Pharmacy in Gangnam District, southern Seoul [CHO YONG-JUN]

Stepping into the newly opened Optima Wellness Museum Pharmacy in the posh Gangnam District feels less like entering a typical drugstore and more like walking into a Muji-style lifestyle retailer or upscale furniture boutique. Wooden shelves line the space, goods are neatly stacked with intention, and every product is tagged with plain labels printed in four languages — Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese.

Spanning 462 square meters (4,973 square feet), the two-story building represents a makeover underway in the Korean pharmacy industry to better attract the growing influx of foreign tourists, moving beyond their stable and somewhat rigid structure. An increasing number of tourists flock to drugstores in popular destinations with "must-buy items" lists — mostly consisting of skin care products — circulating online.

Many pharmacies in Myeongdong in central Seoul and Hongdae in western Seoul had labels and guidebooks in multiple languages and staff members recommending over-the-counter drugs in Chinese.

Some market observers project that the trend would lead to the boom of “K-pharmacy” after K-beauty, as consumers tend to put higher trust in products sold in pharmacies than in cosmetics stores.

Optima Wellness Museum Pharmacy in Gangnam District, southern Seoul [CHO YONG-JUN]

Flooding tourists

The growth has been so rapid that one pharmacist interviewed by the Korea JoongAng Daily declined to disclose the store’s name — wary that further exposure could draw even more attention.

“There are a lot of tourists visiting our pharmacy; in fact, I’d rather not get the media attention because I fear we might get even more people here,” a staff member at a pharmacy in Myeongdong, central Seoul, said, requesting that the pharmacy’s name not appear in the paper. Even around lunchtime on a weekday, tourists were checking out the pharmacy.

The TikTok hashtag Koreanpharmacy has been trending for quite some time, with TikTokers and even pharmacists themselves telling people what to buy in Korean pharmacies, ranging from acne care products to vitamin supplements and hangover relief jellies.

Optima Wellness Museum Pharmacy in Gangnam District, southern Seoul [CHO YONG-JUN]

The new Gangnam pharmacy, which dubs itself a museum, specifically targets young Koreans and tourists.

"There are a lot of hotels that foreigners stay at near here, so I wanted the pharmacy to be a bit of a special place that tourists can pay a visit to when they come to Korea, which is why I've had all the explanations in the store in four languages," Son Jung-min, representative pharmacist of the Optima Wellness Museum Pharmacy, told the Korea JoongAng Daily.

The pharmacy also had pharmacists curate and recommend different drugs and health supplements to customers.

A pharmacy in western Seoul shows its best-selling drugs [CHO YONG-JUN]

Pharmacies sell things not sold in Olive Young

Online travel platform Creatrip said on Sept. 18 that pharmacy bookings through the platform rose by 44 percent in the second week of September compared to the previous week. And there's a good reason for that; you can't buy everything from Olive Young.

Tai, from Hong Kong, said she visited a pharmacy in Korea because it sold products that Olive Young didn’t sell. While the popular health and lifestyle store is often compared with Boots, CVS or Japanese drugstores, it does not sell any over-the-counter drugs or medicine requiring prescriptions; they are mostly exclusive to pharmacies in Korea.

"It's very different from Olive Young," Kwon Song-hyun, responsible for the marketing of the Optima Wellness Museum Pharmacy, said.

"You can't really buy things like acne care ointment from Olive Young, and even if there are products for acne care, over-the-counter drugs often have higher medicinal content compared to products sold outside pharmacies," she said.

While many of the pharmacists did not pinpoint a single product that was popular amongst tourists, they all collectively said skin-related products and acne care drugs are what many tourists look for.

A pharmacy in Myeong-dong, central Seoul [CHO YONG-JUN]

One pharmacy in Hongdae had a handy guidebook for different drugs sold at the store, in different languages. Having checked the booklet and other listed drugs on the bestselling shelves, the repeating names were Acnon Cream, meant to be used for acne vulgaris, and a gel from Aclean for clogged pores and blackheads. Noscana Gel was a recommended drug that removes scars left by acne and other abrasions, while PDRN creams — which stand for polydeoxyribonucleotides, said to have healing and antiaging effects — range by PDRN percentage, with Rejuall and Rejuvenex creams both frequently seen.

Shopping at Korean pharmacies, however, should be approached more thoughtfully, as the products sold do include over-the-counter drugs and not just any skincare and cosmetic products sold elsewhere.

Prices also vary from store to store, as they don’t have a suggested retail price set by the manufacturer; instead, it is up to the pharmacy. Over-the-counter drugs also can't be purchased online, making it difficult to compare the prices, too.

While pharmacies are landing on more and more itineraries, they still have some way to go to catch the top dogs.

“Olive Young has most of the stuff I want from Korea already,” said Tai.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]