Business Reporter Phillip Molnar will be in South Korea for most of September through a fellowship with the East-West Center. The Honolulu-based organization selects six U.S. journalists and six South Korean journalists each year to foster understanding between the two nations. Molnar will be with a group of reporters and editors from CNN, NPR, Politico and others as they travel to Seoul, Busan and the demilitarized zone with North Korea. Korean journalists will mainly be in Washington, D.C. The 12 participants conclude the trip with a two-day conference in Hawaii. His observations from the Asian nation will be posted here.
Digital kiosks are everywhere
Ordering food by digital kiosk is a way of life at restaurants, coffee shops and just about everywhere you can imagine in Seoul.
I know this is a thing in the U.S. too. I distinctly remember struggling with a kiosk at the McDonald’s in Hillcrest last year. However, it is everywhere here, even in hole-in-the-wall restaurants. I find it to be a frustrating experience, even though the alternative of speaking broken Korean to order ramyeon also sounds rough.
Just in case you think South Koreans are so advanced digitally that this is no issue, I can dutifully report long lines at most of these kiosks, and I can see some of the same frustration while trying to navigate menus.
kiIMARC Services Pvt. Ltd., an Indian market research company, estimated that the South Korean kiosk market size was worth $714 million in 2025, and expected to reach $1.3 billion by 2034.
The market research company says a lot of the reasons for adoption include allowing restaurateurs to easily change menus in real time, less chance of a server getting an order wrong, the South Korean population is good with technology, and it reduces labor expenses.
Labor costs are a reason why some experts say we will see more kiosks in California, said Business Insider. California’s $20-an-hour minimum wage for fast food workers, in place since 2024, was used by some franchise owners to explain why they were rolling out kiosks. However, the IMARC report noted other benefits not necessarily related to labor costs.
South Korea has the third-lowest fertility rate in the world, behind Macau and Hong Kong, said the latest United Nations data, so finding workers in the future may prove difficult. Still, there are people around to work right now. I keep finding myself at cafes with a bunch of workers (who usually know quite a bit of English) standing around waiting for me to figure out a digital kiosk before they can get to work making a coffee. One thing I know from Duolingo is how to order a coffee in Korean. There’s just no one to take my order.
Meeting with a Korean style specialist
I have been dressing myself for the better part of 40 years, and it turns out I have been doing it all wrong.
My fiancée booked me an appointment with a personal color and body shape analyst in the Hongdae area of Seoul at a place called Vivid Hue. It was the one thing I was not looking forward to on my trip and not something I would ever think about doing. It actually proved to be an eye-opening experience.
My analyst, Anna (I assume that was a Western-style name she used for foreigners), took all my measurements – chest, stomach, shoulders, arms, legs, waist – and then went into another room with a coworker for 10 minutes to discuss. It’s not exactly a confidence booster because when she returned, I was told I had an “oval” shape, and there were clothes I was supposed to wear to look thinner.
With my ego in tatters, Anna slowly went page by page on a tablet to show me the clothes I was supposed to wear, with plenty of photo examples featuring Korean stars. It turns out Lee Byung-hun, the actor who played the Front Man in “Squid Game,” is my body shape twin.
I was advised over the course of an hour on the type of shirts to wear: V-neck for T-shirts, stripes with low contrast for dress shirts, and the length and style of pants. Anna also did a face analysis and said I have a square/round face combo, which checks out. We went over the types of sunglasses and regular glasses that would complement me, among other things.
The whole process was incredibly detailed, and I got to keep an electronic file of my analysis for future reference. The next day, my fiancée and I hit the town (we got here a week before my fellowship actually starts), and I bought a bunch of dress clothes based on my newfound knowledge. I wore a new dress shirt around Seoul after that, with a smaller collar to not accentuate my round lower face and a narrow striped pattern to look slimmer, and I felt like a million bucks.
Vivid Hue charged us $75 for the consultation, but there are hundreds of similar businesses across Seoul with different prices and, for all I know, probably do the same stuff. Many are known for color analysis, but we didn’t do that. Should I be wearing purple shirts every day? We may never know.
San Diego brand in top Korean beauty store
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Vista-based Dr. Bronner’s soap on sale at an Olive Young store in Seoul, South Korea. The beauty store is famous with foreigners, and locals. (Phillip Molnar/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
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Vista-based Dr. Bronner’s soap on sale at an Olive Young store in Seoul, South Korea. The beauty store is famous with foreigners, and locals. (Phillip Molnar/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
One of the most sought-after stops for any tourist in South Korea is the health and beauty store Olive Young. It’s famous for its Korean-made beauty products, such as face masks, skin treatments, makeup and hair care. So, imagine my surprise when I saw Vista-based Dr. Bronner’s soap on the shelf.
I think if you asked most people, Olive Young is known for its exclusivity and products you can’t get anywhere else. I saw only a handful of non-Korean products in the store, and it was mostly for men’s shaving.
For context: The company opened its first U.S. store in Pasadena in May, and it was pandemonium. Los Angeles TV station ABC 7 was on the scene and filmed people waiting for hours, even sleeping outside in the middle of the night, just for it to open. No one interviewed said anything about Dr. Bronner’s, which is sold just about everywhere in Southern California.
I’m a bit late to the party. Dr. Bronner’s has been in the South Korean Olive Young for several years, even winning an accolade called the Olive Young Award in 2023. However, I think it is worth noting that there is more to San Diego’s trade connection with Korea than just technology, such as the Samsung and Qualcomm partnership.
I was in the Hongdae area of Seoul when I saw Dr. Bronner’s. The 950 milliliter bottles were on sale for 26,790 Korean won or about $20. Olive Young’s website sells other Dr. Bronner’s products, such as bar soap and lip balm.
Background: A huge opportunity
I am thrilled that my 11th anniversary at The San Diego Union-Tribune will be celebrated in South Korea. My goal is to write about business, culture and other topics through the lens of America’s Finest City.
There are already plenty of economic and cultural ties between South Korea and our binational region. San Diego’s Qualcomm has had a partnership with Korean tech giant Samsung for nearly 30 years; Local companies Dexcom and Illumina import components from Korea; Samsung manufactures electronics in Tijuana; and Korean baseball players have made their mark on the San Diego Padres in recent years — including the recent addition of infielder Sung-mun Song.
I will travel to South Korea during a unique time in the partnership between our two nations. President Donald Trump recently decided to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea because of his “very good relationship” with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un. He also criticized South Korea for not assisting the U.S. in its “denuclearisation” of Iran.
I’m grateful to Jung Joo Hwang, founder of Balboa Park’s House of Korea and an accomplished academic, for helping me prepare. You may see her quoted occasionally during my trip as I seek context for things I’m learning.
In addition to serious journalistic activity, I am excited because I’ve been a huge fan of Korean culture for years. I’m listening to K-Pop as I write this. I’ve recently been working through the books of Korean author Kim Un-su and binge-watching Korean TV. My favorites recently have been “Agent Kim Reactivated,” “Moving,” “My Royal Nemesis” (in my defense, my girlfriend got me hooked on that one), “Moving” and “Light Shop.”
I will be leaving for Seoul a week before the fellowship starts to eat my fill of Korean fried chicken, have fun and practice my Duolingo skills. Please follow along.
