Pyongyang Department Store No. 1

The Pyongyang Department Store No. 1 (Korean: 평양제1백화점) is a major retail store in Pyongyang, North Korea. On Sungri Street near Kim Il-sung Square in downtown Pyongyang,^[3] it is one of the largest retail stores in the country and is often the site of large commodity exhibitions.^[4]

Pyongyang Department Store No. 1
Location in Pyongyang
General information
Type	Department store
Address	Sungri Street
Coordinates	39°1′20.14″N 125°45′11.42″E
Completed	c. late 1980s
Renovated	c. late 2000s - early 2010s[1]
Owner	Pyongyang City People's Committee of the WPK
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Yun Ko-gwang[2]
Other information
Public transit access	Chŏllima: Sŭngni Trolleybus: Sadong-No.1 Department Store

Paradise Department Store - taken from the first floor down towards the ground floor

The store, along with two others, are reportedly run jointly with Chinese business partners.^[5]

Shopping

The store offers a variety of items including electronics, clothing, furniture, foodstuffs,^[6] kitchenware, and toys.^[3] As of 2013^[update], approximately 70 percent of the items in the store were produced domestically.^[7] The store is also one of several official tourist stops in the city.^[8] Department Store No. 1 accepts only local currency.^[9][10] According to the pro-North-Korean newspaper Choson Sinbo, it is a popular shopping destination for local residents and in 2016 an average of 20,000 shoppers visited the store daily.^[11]

Swedish journalist Caroline Salzinger [sv] described her visit to the department store as a tourist in the mid-2000s. Upon arrival, the store was closed.^[12] One of the tour guides accompanying her tried to distract her, while the other one rushed in to get the doors opened. When opened, the guide had to scramble passers-by to occupy the store as "shoppers". The moment they stepped in, the escalator was started.^[13] The shoppers appeared clueless as to how to act in a department store. When after great pains Salzinger managed to purchase the goods she wanted,^[14] the cashier was confused and would not hand her a plastic bag for her items: "We look at each other in the eyes. She knows that something is wrong, and that not everything is like it should, but she does not know what it is."^[15] According to Salzinger, a Western diplomat monitored the department store for one hour and saw no one come out with purchased items.^[14]

Theodore Dalrymple visited in 1989. He described the Potemkin nature of the place: "I also followed a few people around at random, as discreetly as I could. Some were occupied in ceaselessly going up and down the escalators; others wandered from counter to counter, spending a few minutes at each before moving on. They did not inspect the merchandise; they moved as listlessly as illiterates might, condemned to spend the day among the shelves of a library. I did not know whether to laugh or explode with anger or weep. But I knew I was seeing one of the most extraordinary sights of the twentieth century."^[16]

See also

• North Korea portal

• Pothonggang Department Store