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There are certain stores which used to flourish in the past. However, with the passage of time and the ever-changing environment of the market, it’s not a big surprise to see that many of these stores have closed down. But some stores have continued to remain standing, continuing to attract many long-term customers who've come to appreciate the worth of these old stores. Here are some of them which have managed to endure through the past 40 years.

A type of shop that is hard to find these days, Daegu Sesame Oil is an oil shop located in the center of Bukchon. Even today, it continues to extract oil from sesame seeds. The interior of this store is like an exhibit out of the Folk Museum of Korea. Roasting sesame seeds with a machine that’s been constantly in use for decades, the small shop is filled up with an amazingly deep and rich savory smell. Although bottles of sesame oil are readily available in the aisle of supermarkets, many people keep coming to this very store for their unforgettably deep and flavorful sesame oil, a product born from what can only be described as a labor of love.

Among the stores that line up the streets in front of Jogyesa Temple, Sambowon is a tiny store which can be easily overlooked. The store wasn’t always this small. In the past, it was a big building. However, with the onset of urban development, a third of the store had to be demolished to make way for the construction of Ujeongguk-ro Street. It is also a store which has helped its owner, Ms. Kim Geum-ran, stand firm and persevere through the past 50 years. In Sambowon, visitors can find items such as monks’ robes, Buddhist scriptures, prayer beads, wooden fish, Buddhist images, and more.

Visitors will gasp once they set their eyes on this store. Hundreds and thousands of LP records, tapes, and CDs are laid out and stacked up along the entranceway. Although the neighborhood of Hwanghak-dong is considered to be a treasure trove for music fans, it’s hard to find a place with as many records as Dol Record . It can be fun to browse through the collections, occasionally discovering pieces of someone’s memories tucked into the corners of tape and record covers. This store has been able to survive to this day due to word of mouth, attracting many ardent music fans all over Korea.