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Exterior of Hong Kong Supermarket in Monterey Park, California, USA

An Asian supermarket, sometimes called an "Oriental supermarket", is a grocery store in non-Asian countries that stock items imported from the many countries in East and Southeast Asia. They carry items and ingredients generally well-suited for Asian cuisines and not found in most western supermarkets.

Operation

Market in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Market in Germany

Most of these supermarkets are often started and operated by Asian immigrant entrepreneurs and their families. Others are started by investors of existing corporate conglomerates already headquartered in Asia, namely Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and most specially the Philippines.

Asian supermarkets can range from small mom-and-pop grocery stores to large big-box stores and may cater specifically to one ethnic Asian immigrant group or to a wide pan-Asian crowd. They serve the generally unserved or underserved immigrant and descendant population. They are usually the main attraction for food shopping within overseas Asian shopping malls and Chinatowns. Asian supermarkets may re-occupy older buildings formerly anchored by mainstream regional or national supermarket chains. Chinese shopping centers and supermarkets have been constructed using traditional Chinese architecture, and provide services catered toward immigrant customers. Examples include Asian restaurants, beauty salons, bakeries, foreign film rental stores, travel agencies, book stores, and other businesses.

In recent years, some mainstream markets have attempted to compete with Asian supermarkets for the minority customer base by stocking certain "Asian" goods as well as directing marketing towards various Asian ethnic immigrant populations. Conversely, some Asian supermarkets attempt to appeal to the general population. Asian markets are reputed to have lower prices than the mainstream chains.

Asian supermarkets represent a new trend in which Asian immigrants no longer settle in old enclaves such as Chinatown, San Francisco, (undoubtedly still the largest in the U.S.), but in suburbs where shopping centers provide services as well as cultural amenities such as hosting ethnic festivals, shows and dance. One of the major redevelopments highlighted in the press has been Buford Highway in the Atlanta suburb of Doraville, Georgia, where Asian supermarkets have done brisk business in a once-blighted neighborhood. Such supermarkets have also revitalized the once-rundown sections of Bellaire Boulevard in Houston, Texas, and turned it into a thriving new Asian shopping district. There are also many competing Chinese supermarkets in the Southern California Chinatowns and Vietnamese markets anchoring communities such as Little Saigon

Asian branded products

International brands

Supermarkets by region

North America

Oceanian

European

See also

• Wet market
• Gods Material Shop
• Night market
• Chinatown
• Koreatown
• Little Manila

External links

• Chinese Supermarkets
• Great Asian Malls & Supermarkets
• http://www.thaitable.com/Thai/learning/saving_money.htm - Why Asian Food Saves You Money - a comparison between Asian supermarkets and mainstream supermarket chains
• "The New Chinatown? Try the Asian Mall" New York Times article on the growing trend of Asian supermarkets in the United States
• http://www.unlimited.co.nz/unlimited.nsf/UNID/21D2D02720AF6138CC256E9E007C5B14?OpenDocument&Highlight=2,asian,food,dollars - Asian food dollars go east, article on impact of Asian supermarkets in New Zealand
• "Grass Jelly, Anyone? 99 Ranch Brings Asian Flavor to East Bay" - newspaper article from Berkeley, CA
• A listing of Asian supermarkets in Boston
• Asian Online Shops - A list of Asian Shops in Germany