Exploring The Long-Term Cultural Impact Of Small Asian Grocery Stores

Whether you regularly cook Asian food at home or not, chances are you’ve seen a lot more of the necessary ingredients at your local grocery store in recent years. But that transition has taken decades to complete.

Using your noodle

One example involves Korean instant noodles. More than 500 million packs of Shin Ramyun were sold last year, but in the early ‘90s they were largely unknown beyond Asian communities.

Back then, the noodles were essentially only found on the shelves of small Korean grocery stores, but now authentic ingredients are regularly stocked at major supermarket chains.

And Asian grocers have become more prominent in the process. Take H Mart, for example. This chain gained widespread prominence through musician Michelle Zauner’s memoir “Crying in H Mart,” but its cultural significance speaks for itself.

Far from its humble roots, the chain now operates nearly 100 locations and brings in billions in revenue.

Of course, Asian-owned shops are still just a small sliver of the market, so most shoppers still find these items in the “ethnic” aisle of their local grocery stores — but those sales are similarly growing.

Entering the mainstream

Americans have long embraced foods from other cultures, but often by transforming them into Americanized versions. That seems to be changing, though, with Asian cuisine at the forefront.

Asian ingredients have shifted from a niche sector to common entries on shopping lists far and wide.

• “Asian/ethnic” food sales grew four times faster than groceries in general over the past year
• About one-third of H Mart’s current customer base is non-Asian
• A new generation of Asian grocers like Yun Hai and Sua Superette continue to thrive nationwide

And much of this success can be traced back to the independent grocers who first introduced America to the foods from their homeland.

Chris Agee June 18th, 2024

Share this story: