Grocery Shopping in Riyadh: The Price Sticker Mistake and Other Things I Learned
By Gardener
On one of my first grocery runs in Riyadh, I left most of my shopping behind at the checkout. I had enough money. The problem was that my fruit and vegetables had no price stickers.
Here is what I have learned from years of grocery shopping in Saudi Arabia. If you are new here, remember the first section at least.
First: fruit and vegetables must be weighed
At the supermarkets I use, produce is not priced by the pack as it is in Korea. It works like this:
- Bag as much as you want.
- Take it to the staff member at the scale.
- They weigh each item and attach a price sticker.
- Take the stickered items to the checkout.
Without a sticker, the item can’t be rung up. Check your bags before you join the queue.
Where to shop
I mainly use the large Danube, Carrefour, LuLu and Tamimi stores. In late 2024, the Chinese hypermarket WEMART also opened its first Saudi store in Riyadh.
| Looking for | My experience |
|---|---|
| Everyday groceries | Danube, Carrefour, LuLu, Tamimi |
| Shin Ramyun, Buldak noodles | Easy to find, at about three times the Korean price |
| Soy sauce, sesame oil, breadcrumbs | Appear now and then, so buy them when you see them |
| Napa cabbage, Chinese ingredients | WEMART |
Korean ingredients exist, at a price
Korean products turn up at the big supermarkets more often than you might expect. Instant noodles are easy to find but cost far more than in Korea, probably because of shipping. WEMART carries a good range of Chinese products, including napa cabbage.
There is no pork
Saudi law prohibits importing pork and pork products. Don’t plan on bringing any in your luggage.
Living here made me realize how much Korean cooking relies on pork. Lamb is far more common locally, so there are plenty of lamb dishes to try. If you worry about its strong smell, high demand and quick turnover keep it relatively fresh here. In my experience it smelled much milder than the lamb I ate in Korea, and it tasted good.
The fruit looks different too
The fruit section is fun to browse. Pears have a different shape from Korean ones, peaches are the flat kind, and watermelons can be long or yellow inside.
The local food I came to love
Shawarma: a quick, easy meal, much like gimbap in Korea. Meat cooked in the style of a Turkish kebab is rolled up with fries and a few vegetables, and it usually comes wrapped in paper. To a Korean palate the beef version tends to have a noticeable smell, so I nearly always order chicken.
Hummus: finely blended chickpeas with a rich, nutty flavor. It is wonderful scooped up with bread.
Checklist for your first shop
- Get fruit and vegetables weighed and stickered before checkout.
- Expect instant noodles to cost about three times the Korean price.
- Buy soy sauce and sesame oil when you see them.
- Try WEMART for napa cabbage.
- Pork isn’t sold here and can’t be imported.
For Korean grocery stores, Korean restaurants and hypermarkets that stock Korean products, see the Riyadh Korean community map, which links each place to Google Maps directions.
Tools for this article
Sources
- US Department of Commerce, Saudi prohibited imports
- Sharikat Mubasher, WEMART’s first Saudi store (Dec 29, 2024)
Photos: Ananthu Ganesh, Imad 786, Unsplash License. Karen Laårk Boshoff, Pexels License.
