Growth of Asian Grocers in 2018

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SamSpade
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Growth of Asian Grocers in 2018

Post by SamSpade »

2017-2018 are a few "big growth" years for east Asian supermarkets in the United States beyond traditional markets of California, Las Vegas, and the Seattle metropolitan area in Washington it seems.
H Mart:
Adding -
Austin, TX
Manhattan location 2
Chicago, IL (in west loop)
Portland, OR (replacing Zupans)
Hawaii

99 Ranch:
Added first Oregon store in 2017
Austin, TX March 2018
Continued growth in established markets

Even independents seem to have grown over the past few years - in Salt Lake City, Utah there is a very pleasant Chinese supermarket in the central city area that opened a few years ago. I believe I also read that the Seattle-based Asian Food Center chain is growing in 2018 as well.

In the case of HMart and 99 Ranch, these stores seem to be tapping into available real estate (other failed groceries or vacated bankrupt retail spaces) but also renovating to make beautiful reborn stores.

HMart in Portland feels kind of low rent as they stepped into a closed (original build) Tigard Haggen without much renovation done and bought out "G"Mart in Beaverton, operating a separate home goods store nearby. 99 Ranch completely reworked the acquired (Haggen) Albertsons in Tigard.

Both chains seem to be going more for the 'experiences' alongside food shopping by adding large hot deli sections (and in some cases, such as the new Austin HMart a lot more),
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Re: Growth of Asian Grocers in 2018

Post by architect »

SamSpade wrote: February 27th, 2018, 10:25 pm 2017-2018 are a few "big growth" years for east Asian supermarkets in the United States beyond traditional markets of California, Las Vegas, and the Seattle metropolitan area in Washington it seems.
H Mart:
Adding -
Austin, TX
Manhattan location 2
Chicago, IL (in west loop)
Portland, OR (replacing Zupans)
Hawaii

99 Ranch:
Added first Oregon store in 2017
Austin, TX March 2018
Continued growth in established markets

Even independents seem to have grown over the past few years - in Salt Lake City, Utah there is a very pleasant Chinese supermarket in the central city area that opened a few years ago. I believe I also read that the Seattle-based Asian Food Center chain is growing in 2018 as well.

In the case of HMart and 99 Ranch, these stores seem to be tapping into available real estate (other failed groceries or vacated bankrupt retail spaces) but also renovating to make beautiful reborn stores.

HMart in Portland feels kind of low rent as they stepped into a closed (original build) Tigard Haggen without much renovation done and bought out "G"Mart in Beaverton, operating a separate home goods store nearby. 99 Ranch completely reworked the acquired (Haggen) Albertsons in Tigard.

Both chains seem to be going more for the 'experiences' alongside food shopping by adding large hot deli sections (and in some cases, such as the new Austin HMart a lot more),
Overall in many American cities, different Asian communities (particularly Chinese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese) are increasingly assimilating much more with the broader population of said cities at large. As a result, many people are being introduced to authentic products and flavors which simply cannot be found at mainstream grocers, leading many Asian grocers to have an increasingly large base of non-Asian shoppers frequenting their stores. Combined with younger shoppers looking for increasingly authentic and diverse products, companies such as H Mart and 99 Ranch are in a strong position to continue to grow over the next several years.
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Re: Growth of Asian Grocers in 2018

Post by lola42 »

I would agree with the observations above. They tend to incorporate several concessionaires as well, which pay good rent to be inside the grocery store.
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Re: Growth of Asian Grocers in 2018

Post by storewanderer »

Also the fact that the traditional chains do Asian so poorly... does not help their cause any. I get the feeling the traditional chains have no clue how to merchandise Asian foods. They seem to have the wrong items, at the wrong prices, in the wrong locations.

We had a Smiths here with a nice large Asian aisle with a fantastic variety. It had many items I have only seen before in actual Asian stores. Pricing was a little below the small independent Asian markets around town that like to erase/scratch off/cover up the "best by" dates on items, impose $10 minimum for credit card use, and tend to not clearly label their prices. From my observation, that aisle in the Smiths seemed to do pretty well. It was not unusual for items we bought, to be out of stock. Last year, Kroger decided to reset it and cut out the variety and unique items that were offered. Kroger did expand another store's Asian aisle later last year but none of the unique items were added; everything they have, Raleys and Safeway have too (and more in some locations).

I think the Asian grocers have a bright future. 99 Ranch, Seafood City, H Mart, these are all pretty good operators.
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Re: Growth of Asian Grocers in 2018

Post by architect »

storewanderer wrote: February 28th, 2018, 10:55 pm Also the fact that the traditional chains do Asian so poorly... does not help their cause any. I get the feeling the traditional chains have no clue how to merchandise Asian foods. They seem to have the wrong items, at the wrong prices, in the wrong locations.

We had a Smiths here with a nice large Asian aisle with a fantastic variety. It had many items I have only seen before in actual Asian stores. Pricing was a little below the small independent Asian markets around town that like to erase/scratch off/cover up the "best by" dates on items, impose $10 minimum for credit card use, and tend to not clearly label their prices. From my observation, that aisle in the Smiths seemed to do pretty well. It was not unusual for items we bought, to be out of stock. Last year, Kroger decided to reset it and cut out the variety and unique items that were offered. Kroger did expand another store's Asian aisle later last year but none of the unique items were added; everything they have, Raleys and Safeway have too (and more in some locations).

I think the Asian grocers have a bright future. 99 Ranch, Seafood City, H Mart, these are all pretty good operators.
The best Asian selection I have seen at a traditional grocer was at an HEB in College Station, TX that I used to live close to. It had almost an entire aisle of just Asian products alone (including some very specialized items normally only found at Asian grocers), along with at least another half aisle of international foods (and this doesn't include the Hispanic product selection). Clearly, this store was well-targeting the nearby international student base, and does it quite successfully.
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Re: Growth of Asian Grocers in 2018

Post by buckguy »

There are quite a few places where Asian independents do well--DC and Atlanta, for example. And lots of places w/o huge Asian immigrations also have at least a small area with Asian markets--the old Chinatown in Cleveland is like this. People may assimilate, but non-Asians increasingly learn how to make Asian dishes, esp. after traveling there and want something other than the limited selections and dumb-down "Thai Kitchen" stuff they can find in regular supermarkets.
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Re: Growth of Asian Grocers in 2018

Post by pseudo3d »

architect wrote: March 1st, 2018, 5:46 am
storewanderer wrote: February 28th, 2018, 10:55 pm Also the fact that the traditional chains do Asian so poorly... does not help their cause any. I get the feeling the traditional chains have no clue how to merchandise Asian foods. They seem to have the wrong items, at the wrong prices, in the wrong locations.

We had a Smiths here with a nice large Asian aisle with a fantastic variety. It had many items I have only seen before in actual Asian stores. Pricing was a little below the small independent Asian markets around town that like to erase/scratch off/cover up the "best by" dates on items, impose $10 minimum for credit card use, and tend to not clearly label their prices. From my observation, that aisle in the Smiths seemed to do pretty well. It was not unusual for items we bought, to be out of stock. Last year, Kroger decided to reset it and cut out the variety and unique items that were offered. Kroger did expand another store's Asian aisle later last year but none of the unique items were added; everything they have, Raleys and Safeway have too (and more in some locations).

I think the Asian grocers have a bright future. 99 Ranch, Seafood City, H Mart, these are all pretty good operators.
The best Asian selection I have seen at a traditional grocer was at an HEB in College Station, TX that I used to live close to. It had almost an entire aisle of just Asian products alone (including some very specialized items normally only found at Asian grocers), along with at least another half aisle of international foods (and this doesn't include the Hispanic product selection). Clearly, this store was well-targeting the nearby international student base, and does it quite successfully.
Having shopped at said supermarket for years even back to its opening in 2002, the Asian section is still part of the International department (I think you're overestimating the size, it took maybe a quarter of the aisle at most), and a lot of those items are slow-moving novelty items that aren't competitively priced (including Hello Kitty fruit-filled marshmallows, Kewpie Doll mayonnaise, etc.). The British section was also significantly downsized likely because of all the shrink (when working at a food bank when summer there was a lot of cans of things like Heinz Spotted Dick that were donated simply because they ran over their shelf life at the store). None of the prices were comparable to a "real" Asian grocery store down the road, which was a lightly-stocked dump in what was originally a grocery store-attached Kmart (it opened as one of the last Kmart Foods-style grocery stores, so it still has 20k square feet and those iconic ventilation things).

There's still a real disconnect in traditional supermarkets and Asian supermarkets simply because they're vastly different formats. Seafood departments are much larger in Asian grocers, generally, and instead of a deli there's usually a cafe or food court area serving a variety of foods. Additionally, there is often a small mini-mall area with things like clothes and gifts. These have all been fairly consistent in stores I've visited (99 Ranch in a former Fiesta, H Mart in a former Randalls, and an independent that was in a new-build mini-mall but with decor salvaged from Food Lion, etc.)
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Re: Growth of Asian Grocers in 2018

Post by lola42 »

Island Pacific, a Filipino-focused independent supermarket chain, is closing six stores in California:
https://progressivegrocer.com/island-pa ... e-6-stores

99 Ranch is moving to new Pacific Pearl Shopping Center in Pleasanton:
https://www.99ranch.com/img/AdminAdded/ ... 174NCA.pdf
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Re: Growth of Asian Grocers in 2018

Post by storewanderer »

lola42 wrote: April 9th, 2018, 8:03 pm Island Pacific, a Filipino-focused independent supermarket chain, is closing six stores in California:
https://progressivegrocer.com/island-pa ... e-6-stores

99 Ranch is moving to new Pacific Pearl Shopping Center in Pleasanton:
https://www.99ranch.com/img/AdminAdded/ ... 174NCA.pdf
Island Pacific opened too many stores, too fast, in some cases too close together, in some questionable locations.

Opening so many former Fresh & Easy locations was a curious move for this type of format. However it appears none of those are closing, so maybe that worked?

Also pretty sure the one in Seattle closed last month.
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