Last year, Americans bought half a billion packets of Shin Ramyun, the spicy, beefy Korean instant noodle. The bold red-and-black packaging feels inescapable: It’s a staple of college dorm rooms, bodegas, middle-of-the-country Walmarts and viral TikTok videos.
But 30 years ago, the noodles were largely unknown in the United States. No grocery store would stock them, said Kevin Chang, the director of marketing for Nongshim, Shin Ramyun’s parent company. Except, that is, for a few small Korean grocers, including a fledgling shop in Woodside, Queens, called H Mart.
In the 1970s and ’80s, as Asian immigration to the United States soared, grocers like H Mart; Patel Brothers, an Indian grocery founded in Chicago; and 99 Ranch Market, originally focused on foods from China and Taiwan, started in Westminster, Calif., opened to meet the demand for ingredients that tasted like home. These were tiny mom-and-pop shops in suburban strip malls or outer boroughs with large Asian immigrant populations. They weren’t fancy, but they were vital to their communities.
Now, those same shops have transformed into sleekly designed chains with in-store roti machines, mobile ordering apps and locations across the country — all aiming to serve the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States and the millions of others who now crave flavors like Shin Ramyun, chili crisp, chaat masala and chai.
The H Mart of today is a $2 billion company with 96 stores and a namesake book (the best-selling memoir “Crying in H Mart,” by the musician Michelle Zauner). Last month, the chain purchased an entire shopping center in San Francisco for $37 million. Patel Brothers has 52 locations in 20 states, with six more stores planned in the next two years. 99 Ranch opened four new branches just last year, bringing its reach to 62 stores in 11 states. Weee!, an online Asian food store, is valued at $4.1 billion.
Asian grocery stores are no longer niche businesses: They are a cultural phenomenon.
Weird to see H Mart getting national attention. When I was growing up, it was definitely a regional thing. I recommend it if you ever get a chance to go.
I love H Mart, but fair warning, anything you can find at Target or a regular grocery store is probably overpriced at H Mart. One of the hot sauces I like was 50% more there, my mom got apples and they were like 3x the price of the same ones at Target, and so on. I only buy the specialty stuff I can’t get anywhere else now.
True, it’s an expensive place. I have never shopped for staples there, just the fun stuff you can’t get elsewhere.
Not sure if they all have food courts but that’s a highlight too
The one by me is suuuper cramped, so no full food court, but they do have a little cafe area. I’ve never eaten there because I’m vegan and the menu is not, but I look sadly at it every time I pass it because Korean is one of my favorite cuisines.
Yup, I go for the items that I can only find there, but the rest of the regular stuff I just get from my local grocery store. Other than that, it’s the foodcourt I really go to.
That’s funny. I’ve had the opposite experience. I would buy El Yucateco by the armful from there. They frequently go on sale for $2.49/bottle. I moved a couple years ago, so that may not be the case anymore.
When the H Mart in Burlington, MA opened up (I think 2010?) it was such a big deal; they had police directing traffic around it for the first few months 😅
I had no idea H Mart was national, I just assumed it was another local Asian grocery. We have a BUNCH of them here.
Fubonn is fascinating:
https://www.oregonmetro.gov/news/my-place-profile-michael-liu
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/oregon/coolest-place-to-shop-or/
Hadn’t heard of H Mart until about 15 years ago when they opened one in the University District here.