I never liked kimchi until I went to Korea first time 3 years ago. Frankly, kimchi in US sucks big time. My wife would buy it in our local Lotte stores but to me it was just a smelly food. Long story short, I had it in Seoul 3 years ago as a side dish and since then I'm hooked. We do long connections at ICN on purpose so I can load up on kimchi Every time we are at Korean bbq places in US, I ask people working there why kimchi in US tastes different comparing to the one in Korea. Nobody knows.
The only one comparable to the real deal that I found in US is JayOne. Sometimes they have it on sale in our local Sam's club 3lbs jar for $11. I know it sounds crazy (especially comparing it to the Lotte prices), but flavor of this one in my opinion resembles the real one from Korea.