The commissary at Yongsan Garrison will close its doors on July 30, 2023, after 35 years in the heart of Seoul, South Korea, according to the Defense Commissary Agency. (David Choi/Stars and Stripes)
SEOUL, South Korea — Another vestige of the U.S. military’s former headquarters on the Korean Peninsula will disappear next month as part of a decades-long effort to shrink the military footprint in the country’s capital city.
The commissary at Yongsan Garrison will close its doors on July 30 after 35 years in the heart of Seoul, according to an email Wednesday from Kevin Robinson, spokesman for the Defense Commissary Agency. Some commissary employees and equipment will move to Camp Humphreys, roughly 40 miles to the south in Pyeongtaek.
The move appeared imminent on June 2; some commissary shelves were empty as a handful of customers browsed the aisles or proceeded to the one checkout lane still in operation.
Civilian electronics technician John Dehaven, a 25-year Yongsan resident, said he shops at the commissary for its cheaper meat. The store’s closure will be a minor inconvenience, Dehaven said. He plans to do his future shopping at nearby South Korean stores or the Osan Air Base commissary about 30 miles away.
“I do shopping for myself here,” Dehaven told Stars and Stripes near the commissary on June 2. “My wife is Korean, and she doesn’t like American cuisine. That’s why she shops off-post. We never shop together.”
Army spouse Ashley Woods said she shops at the commissary because “it’s easy and it’s convenient.” Woods said she will probably “brave Emart,” a South Korean retailer, after the closure.
Overcoming the language barrier in South Korean stores will be a challenge, she said.
Going to the commissary has “just become kind of our routine,” Woods said as she left the building. “Definitely going to miss it and the people that work here.”
The commissary at Yongsan Garrison will close its doors on July 30, 2023, after 35 years in the heart of Seoul, South Korea, according to the Defense Commissary Agency. (David Choi/Stars and Stripes)
The closure is part of the broader move by U.S. forces to Camp Humphreys, the largest U.S. military base overseas.
In 2002, U.S. Forces Korea and South Korea’s government agreed to consolidate most American personnel from Yongsan and other dispersed outposts to Humphreys and return the land to Seoul.
All of the major U.S.-led commands in South Korea — USFK, U.N. Command, 2nd Infantry Division, Eighth Army and the Combined Forces Command — moved from Yongsan to Humphreys as part of the nearly $11 billion relocation project. The Combined Forces Command, the last of the five commands to move, vacated Yongsan in November.
Business at the commissary over the years reflected the falling numbers of customers. Roughly 47,400 transactions took place there in 2021, according to the commissary agency. That number dropped to about 41,300 the following year.
The 113 remaining Defense Department civilian employees and U.S. service members — mostly military police — still living at Yongsan have several options for grocery shopping beyond the base, Yongsan Garrison spokeswoman Laurel Stone said in an email Friday.
Several large South Korean stores that sell the same or similar products are within five miles of the garrison, including Costco Wholesale, Emart and Lotte Mart.
The next closest commissary is about 10 miles away at the U.S. Army’s K-16 airfield in Seongnam. Robinson said the hours of operation there will increase and it “will remain a fully servicing commissary.”
