Economy of Seoul

After being in three other Asian countries, South Korea has me baffled with the strong economy and matching costs of goods and services to the US and European countries!  What is it that has the economy so robust?  SouthKoreaAsia.com says that despite being heavily agricultural in 1945, industry has been booming with Samsung and LG electronics being based out of Seoul, not to mention South Korea is one of the lead suppliers of semi-conductors! Pretty incredible! A quote from the article is below:

In 1945, South Korean economy was mainly agricultural. In the following decades South Korea developed light industry, consumer products and heavy industry. South Korean economy was further boosted in 1988, thanks to the Summer Olympics and in 2002 because of the Football World Cup, hosted in South Korea and Japan. At the same time the service industry grew immensely.
At the beginning of the 21st century, South Korea is leader in the IT sector thanks to the aids received by its government. Leading firms in this sector are Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.
As for exports, South Korea has established itself as a main provider of semiconductors in addition to exporting various IT products. For the future, the South Korean government is beginning to invest in the robotic industry.

 Wikipedia says that it is:

a market economy which ranks 15th in the world by nominal GDP and 12th by purchasing power parity (PPP), identifying it as one of the G-20 major economies. It is a high-income developed country, with a developed market, and is a member of OECD.

and

As the headquarters for Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Kia and SK, Seoul has become a major business hub. Although it accounts for only 0.6 percent of South Korea's land area, Seoul generates 21 percent of the country's GDP.^[40]

A large concentration of international companies are headquartered in Seoul.^[41] International banks with branches in Seoul include Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Grupo Santander, UBS, Credit Suisse, UniCredit, Société Générale, Calyon, BBVA, Macquarie Group, ING Bank, State Street and Standard Chartered. The Korea Exchange Bank is also headquartered in the city.

Regardless, I was hoping for half priced electronics, 10th priced textiles and 50 cent food vendors.  Perhaps it will have to wait for another Asian adventure!