Here's what it's like at the world's largest Samsung store

The world is very familiar with Samsung and you may have even stepped in one of its stores. However, one rises above the rest: the Samsung flagship store in its home city of Seoul, South Korea. This brand-new shop opened at the end of June 2023 and is absolutely massive.

Samsung opened this shop not long after Apple launched its own store in the same Gangnam district of the city. As such, it’s fairly obvious why Samsung wanted to build a towering behemoth just down the street. Samsung is clearly sending a message.

Still, South Korea is a long way for many Samsung fans to travel. Thankfully, we had the opportunity to pay the store a visit during our time in Seoul for the summer iteration of Galaxy Unpacked 2023, where Samsung debuted the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5, and more. Here’s what we saw!

Samsung flagship store: Five floors of Samsung

The store occupies a large building just outside of Gangnam Station. Five of the floors are open to the public, with the first floor being a welcoming area with the core Galaxy products on display: phones, tablets, and smartwatches. Multiple staff members are here to greet you when you arrive and see what you need.

If you head from the first floor downstairs into the basement, you’ll find a customer support center. There’s a large plush couch and multiple kiosks for you to get help with whatever Samsung product you have.

Meanwhile, if you head upstairs from the first floor, you get to what Samsung calls the Connected Hub. Interestingly, the first thing you’ll see when you get to the top of the stairs is a diorama showing old Samsung phones in what appears to be a superhero battle:

The little cape on the Galaxy S2 is pretty silly! Notice anything strange, though? Eagle-eyed Samsung fans will know that that wallpaper is what shipped with the Galaxy S3, not the Galaxy S2. Deliberate Easter egg, or mistake? You be the judge.

Next to this diorama, you’ll find a collection of old Samsung flip phones. Why are these here? Samsung specifically designed this store with Gen Z in mind, and Gen Z loves flip phones, apparently. Astonishingly, most of the phones are still in perfect working order, such as the SCH-G100 from 2005:

The second floor also has more modern Galaxy phones on display, a small table with its huge OLED gaming monitors, and a section devoted to health, complete with an exercise bike. There are also numerous tablets, smartwatches, laptops, and other mobile products available.

This floor also has a wall of cases you can buy for Galaxy smartphones and earbuds. These cases are unavailable anywhere else in the world. Some of them are pretty ridiculous, such as these earbuds cases shaped like Pringles cans, Pepsi cans, bottles of water, and more:

By far, this second floor is where most of the action is happening. Check out the gallery below before we move on to the next two floors.

A cafe, a small theatre, and a ‘playground’ coming soon

If you take the stairs up to the third floor, you’ll first see a small cafe. You can buy tea, coffee, pastries, and other items here. There are bar seats alongside the barista station as well as some more along the windows. Wherever you sit, you won’t be far from a counter display that will have a phone, a smartwatch, and some earbuds for you to play with. Samsung encourages you to use the smartphone (a Galaxy S23 at most of the seats I saw) to snap photos of your latte.

Next to the cafe is a small theatre. It’s pretty barebones, with a small stage and a few rows of stadium bench seats. I estimate it could fit between 50 to 75 people at once. Samsung uses this for presentations, lectures, and other events. I couldn’t get a photo of this, though, as they were painting it and didn’t allow me near the entrance.

Elsewhere on this floor is the SLBS studio. SLBS is a Korean accessory maker. The studio allows customers to buy pre-made accessories for their Samsung devices or make their own by consulting with a clerk. Some of these cases were pretty wild. Check out the earbuds case shaped like The Simpsons’ TV!

We have some more photos of these unique accessories below.

What about the fourth and final floor? Unfortunately, this floor was temporarily closed. It used to house a huge 8K television showing skyscrapers of the Gangnam district. However, I snuck a peek, and it seems like they are converting it into a different type of experience. Samsung calls this the Open Playground, so maybe it’s turning the floor into something that befits the name.

The Samsung flagship store in Korea crams pretty much everything Gen Z cares about into one place. However, this is far from an all-encompassing Samsung experience. There were barely any televisions, for example, not to mention zero home appliances. Gen Z doesn’t really care much about those products, though, so Samsung skipped them.

If you’re a Samsung fan and find yourself in Seoul, visiting this Gangnam store is highly recommended. There are things here you can’t see (or buy) anywhere else. Regardless, it’s also a great place to have some tea and a snack overlooking the bustling city, even if you’re not looking to buy any new Samsung tech.