14 ms·

The Lure of H Mart, Where the Shelves Can Seem as Wide as Asia

117 points by jbredeche 5y ago

datameta 5y ago
I visited one with my partner and a few friends - luckily they were on a timetable or we would have been lost in there for eons. My favorite part of the haul was frozen durian, some great earthy oolong, and 8 pommelos. This article prompted me to discover that there are also several H Marts within NYC!
- klmadfejno 5y ago
  Also for some reason, they're the only large grocer I can find that carries guava.
  - datameta 5y ago
    The breadth and depth of the fresh produce section definitely surprised me.
  - notyourday 5y ago
    If you are in Brooklyn/Queens, Food Bazaar carries it.
    - squeaky-clean 5y ago
      I used to live across the street from a Food Bazaar. Moved last year to a different area in Brooklyn and now there's no Food Bazaar or H Mart within a reasonable distance of me. CTown just doesn't compare.
refurb 5y ago
“As wide as Asia”? Is that some colloquialism I’m not aware of?
- Perolan 5y ago
  Just normal hyperbole. It's a big store with tons of stuff jam packed on every shelf
  - eplanit 5y ago
    My wife and I went to one last week. The seafood and meat departments were impressive, and the rice selection is great -- but it didn't wow us like this article hypes. We still think 99 Ranch is a better Asian grocery store. That was our first impression, anyway.
    - loudmax 5y ago
      The quality of grocery stores can vary within the same chain. My wife and I usually shop at the Ranch 99 that's local to us, but there's another one about 40 minutes away that has a better selection. Or at least, a slightly different selection. We also shop at H-Mart, Lotte and Great Wall. Each of those tends to have at least a few items we like that the others don't typically stock.
    - acwan93 5y ago
      I thought 99 Ranch would be the grocer that “sparked an Asian American revolution” as the article suggests. 99 Ranch started expanding back in the 80s and had a lot of what the author mentioned.
- NikolaeVarius 5y ago
  Yes. Now you know
- the_optimist 5y ago
  No. Searching for this phrase reveals that it is not used outside of this article, except in a literal context (e.g. “across Asia”). It is a strange and inept description, and the NYT would likely shadow-edit it if someone were to raise the question of what Asia has to do with being wide.
- triceratops 5y ago
arielweisberg 5y ago
H-Mart is cool. Food court has a lot of interesting inexpensive food.
klmadfejno 5y ago
HMart's great. Good food court with a variety of cusines. Nice prepackaged take home food. Tons of free samples pre-covid. Huge section of dumplings. Lots of niche asian things you have trouble finding elsewhere, like dashi and what not. Check it out if you have one nearby. To those unfamiliar with asian cuisines, try grabbing some kimbap (~korean sushi), korean bbq sauce, dashi (~umami soup base), hot sesame oil, gochujang paste, a fuck ton of noodles, etc. This article puts a large emphasis on race relations but honestly I think the anti-asian voice is very small. Certainly an order of magnitude smaller than what arabs a decade prior. Casually looking up stats on the FBI hate crime database (2019 https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2019/topic-pages/tables/table-1.xls https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2019/topic-pages/tables/table...), asian hate crimes are an order magnitude less than black/african american hate crimes. I've seen stats suggestings a 100%+ increase in rates for asian americans in the past year, but that still puts it at a relatively lower number than other groups. Idk. As an aggressively liberal asian american living in a heavily blue area full of BLM and other progressive movements, this one doesn't resonate with me as the cultural emergency it's being shaped as. This could be local bias, but I don't believe the sentiment towards asians for the median, or even 90th percentile individual has changed that much. I don't know if I believe the local experience of the median asian has changed all that much either. As a non-chinese, I'm also annoyed at the lack of differentiation between Asian and Chinese- and then further from Chinese descent vs. CCP supporter. If there is any growing anti asian sentiment, it's almost entirely due to the actions of the CCP. If trends continue in this direction, I foresee a push to stop using the term Asian. Many (most?) Asian cultures consider the CCP to be a hostile nation and likely won't tolerate being lumped in with them.
- roflc0ptic 5y ago
  An acquaintance of mine mentioned that in college, she was involved in a college group that was trying to organize against anti-Asian violence, and there ended up being so little of it that they had to reorient to being a volunteer organization. I'm also pretty liberal, but it feels like the NYT has decided it's their role to litigate the culture war. I really don't love it. Being driven to substack a la Taibbi and Greenwald, because it's not like going and reading Breitbart or whatever is going to give me better info.
prepend 5y ago
HMart has the most fresh produce and it’s prices are low because it’s not organic. I was trying to eat a lot of greens and found that most stores have “tourist greens” with small servings in big plastic tubs. Even Whole Foods was hard to buy large amounts of spinach. Their green produce is mostly processed and wrapped in plastic and $5 for what’s $.75 per bunch at HMart.
- clairity 5y ago
  i end up going too often to the large chain groceries for convenience, which contradicts my own principle of supporting small-/mid-sized businesses foremost (bad me). but ethnic groceries (plus trader joes) are slowly becoming more and more of my grocery pie, from korean places like h mart, to jons (hispanic/latino), mitsuwa (japanese), india sweets & spices, 99 ranch (chinese), bangkok market, and seafood city (filipino). i love the great array of ethnic, especially asian, groceries available in LA. it's wonderful!
- llsf 5y ago
  Talking about plastic... I just ventured for the first time 2 weeks ago, in an H Mart. The first impression was "what a lot of plastic!". The packaging is innovative, bright and smart. But that is a lot of packaging and plastic in general, sometimes for little product. We just ate last night one of their ramen, and beside the outer plastic wrapping, it had a styrofoam plate inside for which the only purpose was to hold two other internal plastic bags of noodles, and multiple plastic bags of sauce, all individually wrapped. While the fresh products section was impressive and definitely a plus for me. All the other aisles were overwhelmingly full of individually wrapped in plastic products, from top to bottom. Hopefully we could do better here.
leephillips 5y ago
I have a visceral hatred of supermarkets. But H Mart is different. I actually like going there. It also seems like a kind of logistic miracle. How do they keep such a dizzying variety of stuff on the shelves, such a huge selection of fresh produce, meat, and fish?
creaghpatr 5y ago
>From the beginning, it was important to her that the stores were clean, modern and easy to navigate, to defy the stereotype of Asian groceries as grimy and run-down. >To be welcoming to non-Koreans, H Mart puts up signs in English. At the same time, the younger Mr. Kwon said, “We don’t want to be the gentrified store.” So while some non-Asians recoil from the tanks of lobsters, the Kwons are committed to offering live seafood. I grew up in Georgia and H Mart definitely changed the game with this strategy. They make it very accessible for someone who is unfamiliar with international grocery stores to come in and explore without feeling culturally intrusive. I speculate that H Mart and their food courts were the gateway drug to Korean food becoming a huge cuisine in Metro Atlanta as they were the first big brand in the game that I became aware of. Edit: Also shout-out to Chai Pani, definitely hit that place up if you are ever in Decatur.
- athenot 5y ago
  And also the Buford Hwy Farmers market which still manages to have an impressive array of Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Caribbean, Mexican, Eastern European and even some Western European goods.
  - blamazon 5y ago
    You can buy an entire goat at the Buford Highway farmers market. The scale of that place has to be seen to be believed.
  - ak217 5y ago
    Your Dekalb Farmers Market is still the best :)
    - drail99 5y ago
      Meh, YDFM is a little bit more of a farmers market, but neither it nor BuHiFM are farmers markets they're both grocery stores and YDFM doesn't have anywhere near the international selections. The real, actual farmers market is the Atlanta State Farmers market in Forest Park and it's one of the largest and most active in the US.
v77 5y ago
Reading this yesterday I was impressed a grocery chain managed to get a pure propo piece into the NY Times. Well done, H Mart PR.
- creaghpatr 5y ago
  They plugged some ATL chefs in there so I'll allow it.
Dowwie 5y ago
I'm very fond of H-Mart. I've been grocery shopping at H-Mart stores since I've been within driving distance of them. The produce is fresh, affordable, and diverse. The stores are very well managed. Of all the stores I've gone to since the pandemic, H-Mart has managed crowds and public health the best. They've been very responsible. If you're interested in Korean cooking, I recommend watching Maangchi's youtube channel cooking show: https://www.youtube.com/user/Maangchi https://www.youtube.com/user/Maangchi Maangchi teaches traditional recipes in a clear and concise fashion. One of my favorite recipes is Jjolmyeon, which is a chewy noodle with spicy sauce that is loaded with vegetables.
1MachineElf 5y ago
I'm not sure where in the US I'll end up living in these next couple years, but it will have to be a place with H Mart nearby.
boynamedsue 5y ago
Love HMart for the selection. Hate HMart for the customer service. Forget about getting help with anything while in there. I routinely experience unhelpful, uncaring employees that make shopping at HMart completely frustrating.
- clairity 5y ago
  ha, i think that's a weird cultural quirk with asian groceries in general. you're expected to know what you want, acquire it efficiently, and then get out quickly. that's in contrast to other types of asian stores, where the salesfolk follow you around and talk up everything you touch as if it were the smartest choice you could have possibly made (go you!).
- dqv 5y ago
  I love their customer service. Not once have I have I been asked how I'm doing at check out. I guess some people expect it but I find the obligation to have small talk annoying.
treyfitty 5y ago
I’ve been to multiple H Marts, mostly in or near urban areas (NYC). I absolutely HATE going to H Mart because it’s always crowded, and the aisles are too narrow to have someone navigate through if there is another person in that same aisle. Is this the norm for H Marts elsewhere?
- etrautmann 5y ago
  This is true of all grocery stores in NYC..
- Bukhmanizer 5y ago
  Nah go to the Jersey H-marts if you can, they’re pretty big.
- cm2012 5y ago
  The ones out in east Queens and Nassau are wide open
spodek 5y ago
For a somewhat contrarian view, most Americans who shop at these places may claim to want authenticity and variety, but probably ignore the authenticity and variety of what local farmers grow. How many buy radishes, turnips, and cabbage from nearby farms, let alone stinging nettles, fiddlehead ferns, or less common plants that grow nearby (I'm writing in New York City, not sure what grows near you)? The U.S. used to grow thousands of varieties of cabbage. Most Americans probably eat two or three a year. Most of the products the article describes, though not all, are ultraprocessed and packaged for indefinite shelf life and global shipping. I'm all for variety and experiencing other cultures, so nothing against these stores, but I hope people look nearby to find healthy, affordable, local basic foods too. Their farmers, environment, and taste buds will thank them.
ocdtrekkie 5y ago
This article is intriguing to me, because I live near an H Mart... had never been in it, and had no idea what it was. I assumed it was just like... a generic off brand grocery store. I learned something new today!
- kyawzazaw 5y ago
  You should go checkout one!
- taurath 5y ago
  I buy all my produce and a lot of meat at asian grocery stores. Way better selection of greens, cuts of meat, etc, and tends to be cheaper especially for produce.
yawnxyz 5y ago
The Canadian equivalent is T&T Supermarket and it's just as awesome as H Mart. Though I'm in Atlanta and Buford Highway Farmer's Market is still superior...
- __turbobrew__ 5y ago
  There is at least one H mart in Canada: in Vancouver. Great place to get cheap food down town.
- lightfooted 5y ago
  Yeah love that you mentioned T&T. It’s more Chinese rather than Korean focused though. I think they really cleaned things up when Loblaws bought them. They’ve got some really nice stores (clean, spacious and well-lit) in Markham.
- citrusybread 5y ago
  There's also Adonis as the Lebanese equivalent, in ON/QC at least.
mlex 5y ago
Love H Mart and highly suggest 99 Ranch as the large Chinese equivalent in California.
triceratops 5y ago
How in the heck is Patel Brothers in competition with 99 Ranch or H Mart? They're completely different markets.
- Clewza313 5y ago
  Because they're both "Asian", and Hindi Chini bhai bhai!
x3n0ph3n3 5y ago
So there's some interesting history on the founding of H Mart that doesn't exist in English. The founder of H Mart is the child of a former secretary of former president Chun Doo-hwan, who is believed to have laundered a bunch of money from the Korean government. It's widely believed that some of the money was used to start H Mart, and my Korean wife is cautious about patronizing it because of that. I wish I could provide English sources, but they only exist in Korean.
- rat87 5y ago
  not originally in English but here's a news? story someone translated https://www.bostonkorea.com/news.php?code=en&mode=view&num=17871&page=1 https://www.bostonkorea.com/news.php?code=en&mode=view&num=1...
haspoken 5y ago
http://archive.is/fIhHZ http://archive.is/fIhHZ

117 points by jbredeche 5y ago

I visited one with my partner and a few friends - luckily they were on a timetable or we would have been lost in there for eons. My favorite part of the haul was frozen durian, some great earthy oolong, and 8 pommelos. This article prompted me to discover that there are also several H Marts within NYC!

klmadfejno 5y ago
Also for some reason, they're the only large grocer I can find that carries guava.
- datameta 5y ago
  The breadth and depth of the fresh produce section definitely surprised me.
- notyourday 5y ago
  If you are in Brooklyn/Queens, Food Bazaar carries it.
  - squeaky-clean 5y ago
    I used to live across the street from a Food Bazaar. Moved last year to a different area in Brooklyn and now there's no Food Bazaar or H Mart within a reasonable distance of me. CTown just doesn't compare.

refurb 5y ago

“As wide as Asia”? Is that some colloquialism I’m not aware of?

Perolan 5y ago
Just normal hyperbole. It's a big store with tons of stuff jam packed on every shelf
- eplanit 5y ago
  My wife and I went to one last week. The seafood and meat departments were impressive, and the rice selection is great -- but it didn't wow us like this article hypes. We still think 99 Ranch is a better Asian grocery store. That was our first impression, anyway.
  - loudmax 5y ago
    The quality of grocery stores can vary within the same chain. My wife and I usually shop at the Ranch 99 that's local to us, but there's another one about 40 minutes away that has a better selection. Or at least, a slightly different selection. We also shop at H-Mart, Lotte and Great Wall. Each of those tends to have at least a few items we like that the others don't typically stock.
  - acwan93 5y ago
    I thought 99 Ranch would be the grocer that “sparked an Asian American revolution” as the article suggests. 99 Ranch started expanding back in the 80s and had a lot of what the author mentioned.
NikolaeVarius 5y ago
Yes. Now you know
the_optimist 5y ago
No. Searching for this phrase reveals that it is not used outside of this article, except in a literal context (e.g. “across Asia”). It is a strange and inept description, and the NYT would likely shadow-edit it if someone were to raise the question of what Asia has to do with being wide.
triceratops 5y ago

arielweisberg 5y ago

H-Mart is cool. Food court has a lot of interesting inexpensive food.

klmadfejno 5y ago

HMart's great. Good food court with a variety of cusines. Nice prepackaged take home food. Tons of free samples pre-covid. Huge section of dumplings. Lots of niche asian things you have trouble finding elsewhere, like dashi and what not. Check it out if you have one nearby. To those unfamiliar with asian cuisines, try grabbing some kimbap (~korean sushi), korean bbq sauce, dashi (~umami soup base), hot sesame oil, gochujang paste, a fuck ton of noodles, etc. This article puts a large emphasis on race relations but honestly I think the anti-asian voice is very small. Certainly an order of magnitude smaller than what arabs a decade prior. Casually looking up stats on the FBI hate crime database (2019 https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2019/topic-pages/tables/table-1.xls https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2019/topic-pages/tables/table...), asian hate crimes are an order magnitude less than black/african american hate crimes. I've seen stats suggestings a 100%+ increase in rates for asian americans in the past year, but that still puts it at a relatively lower number than other groups. Idk. As an aggressively liberal asian american living in a heavily blue area full of BLM and other progressive movements, this one doesn't resonate with me as the cultural emergency it's being shaped as. This could be local bias, but I don't believe the sentiment towards asians for the median, or even 90th percentile individual has changed that much. I don't know if I believe the local experience of the median asian has changed all that much either. As a non-chinese, I'm also annoyed at the lack of differentiation between Asian and Chinese- and then further from Chinese descent vs. CCP supporter. If there is any growing anti asian sentiment, it's almost entirely due to the actions of the CCP. If trends continue in this direction, I foresee a push to stop using the term Asian. Many (most?) Asian cultures consider the CCP to be a hostile nation and likely won't tolerate being lumped in with them.

roflc0ptic 5y ago
An acquaintance of mine mentioned that in college, she was involved in a college group that was trying to organize against anti-Asian violence, and there ended up being so little of it that they had to reorient to being a volunteer organization. I'm also pretty liberal, but it feels like the NYT has decided it's their role to litigate the culture war. I really don't love it. Being driven to substack a la Taibbi and Greenwald, because it's not like going and reading Breitbart or whatever is going to give me better info.

prepend 5y ago

HMart has the most fresh produce and it’s prices are low because it’s not organic. I was trying to eat a lot of greens and found that most stores have “tourist greens” with small servings in big plastic tubs. Even Whole Foods was hard to buy large amounts of spinach. Their green produce is mostly processed and wrapped in plastic and $5 for what’s $.75 per bunch at HMart.

clairity 5y ago
i end up going too often to the large chain groceries for convenience, which contradicts my own principle of supporting small-/mid-sized businesses foremost (bad me). but ethnic groceries (plus trader joes) are slowly becoming more and more of my grocery pie, from korean places like h mart, to jons (hispanic/latino), mitsuwa (japanese), india sweets & spices, 99 ranch (chinese), bangkok market, and seafood city (filipino). i love the great array of ethnic, especially asian, groceries available in LA. it's wonderful!
llsf 5y ago
Talking about plastic... I just ventured for the first time 2 weeks ago, in an H Mart. The first impression was "what a lot of plastic!". The packaging is innovative, bright and smart. But that is a lot of packaging and plastic in general, sometimes for little product. We just ate last night one of their ramen, and beside the outer plastic wrapping, it had a styrofoam plate inside for which the only purpose was to hold two other internal plastic bags of noodles, and multiple plastic bags of sauce, all individually wrapped. While the fresh products section was impressive and definitely a plus for me. All the other aisles were overwhelmingly full of individually wrapped in plastic products, from top to bottom. Hopefully we could do better here.

leephillips 5y ago

I have a visceral hatred of supermarkets. But H Mart is different. I actually like going there. It also seems like a kind of logistic miracle. How do they keep such a dizzying variety of stuff on the shelves, such a huge selection of fresh produce, meat, and fish?

creaghpatr 5y ago

>From the beginning, it was important to her that the stores were clean, modern and easy to navigate, to defy the stereotype of Asian groceries as grimy and run-down. >To be welcoming to non-Koreans, H Mart puts up signs in English. At the same time, the younger Mr. Kwon said, “We don’t want to be the gentrified store.” So while some non-Asians recoil from the tanks of lobsters, the Kwons are committed to offering live seafood. I grew up in Georgia and H Mart definitely changed the game with this strategy. They make it very accessible for someone who is unfamiliar with international grocery stores to come in and explore without feeling culturally intrusive. I speculate that H Mart and their food courts were the gateway drug to Korean food becoming a huge cuisine in Metro Atlanta as they were the first big brand in the game that I became aware of. Edit: Also shout-out to Chai Pani, definitely hit that place up if you are ever in Decatur.

athenot 5y ago
And also the Buford Hwy Farmers market which still manages to have an impressive array of Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Caribbean, Mexican, Eastern European and even some Western European goods.
- blamazon 5y ago
  You can buy an entire goat at the Buford Highway farmers market. The scale of that place has to be seen to be believed.
- ak217 5y ago
  Your Dekalb Farmers Market is still the best :)
  - drail99 5y ago
    Meh, YDFM is a little bit more of a farmers market, but neither it nor BuHiFM are farmers markets they're both grocery stores and YDFM doesn't have anywhere near the international selections. The real, actual farmers market is the Atlanta State Farmers market in Forest Park and it's one of the largest and most active in the US.

v77 5y ago

Reading this yesterday I was impressed a grocery chain managed to get a pure propo piece into the NY Times. Well done, H Mart PR.

creaghpatr 5y ago
They plugged some ATL chefs in there so I'll allow it.

Dowwie 5y ago

I'm very fond of H-Mart. I've been grocery shopping at H-Mart stores since I've been within driving distance of them. The produce is fresh, affordable, and diverse. The stores are very well managed. Of all the stores I've gone to since the pandemic, H-Mart has managed crowds and public health the best. They've been very responsible. If you're interested in Korean cooking, I recommend watching Maangchi's youtube channel cooking show: https://www.youtube.com/user/Maangchi https://www.youtube.com/user/Maangchi Maangchi teaches traditional recipes in a clear and concise fashion. One of my favorite recipes is Jjolmyeon, which is a chewy noodle with spicy sauce that is loaded with vegetables.

1MachineElf 5y ago

I'm not sure where in the US I'll end up living in these next couple years, but it will have to be a place with H Mart nearby.

boynamedsue 5y ago

Love HMart for the selection. Hate HMart for the customer service. Forget about getting help with anything while in there. I routinely experience unhelpful, uncaring employees that make shopping at HMart completely frustrating.

clairity 5y ago
ha, i think that's a weird cultural quirk with asian groceries in general. you're expected to know what you want, acquire it efficiently, and then get out quickly. that's in contrast to other types of asian stores, where the salesfolk follow you around and talk up everything you touch as if it were the smartest choice you could have possibly made (go you!).
dqv 5y ago
I love their customer service. Not once have I have I been asked how I'm doing at check out. I guess some people expect it but I find the obligation to have small talk annoying.

treyfitty 5y ago

I’ve been to multiple H Marts, mostly in or near urban areas (NYC). I absolutely HATE going to H Mart because it’s always crowded, and the aisles are too narrow to have someone navigate through if there is another person in that same aisle. Is this the norm for H Marts elsewhere?

etrautmann 5y ago
This is true of all grocery stores in NYC..
Bukhmanizer 5y ago
Nah go to the Jersey H-marts if you can, they’re pretty big.
cm2012 5y ago
The ones out in east Queens and Nassau are wide open

spodek 5y ago

For a somewhat contrarian view, most Americans who shop at these places may claim to want authenticity and variety, but probably ignore the authenticity and variety of what local farmers grow. How many buy radishes, turnips, and cabbage from nearby farms, let alone stinging nettles, fiddlehead ferns, or less common plants that grow nearby (I'm writing in New York City, not sure what grows near you)? The U.S. used to grow thousands of varieties of cabbage. Most Americans probably eat two or three a year. Most of the products the article describes, though not all, are ultraprocessed and packaged for indefinite shelf life and global shipping. I'm all for variety and experiencing other cultures, so nothing against these stores, but I hope people look nearby to find healthy, affordable, local basic foods too. Their farmers, environment, and taste buds will thank them.

ocdtrekkie 5y ago

This article is intriguing to me, because I live near an H Mart... had never been in it, and had no idea what it was. I assumed it was just like... a generic off brand grocery store. I learned something new today!

kyawzazaw 5y ago
You should go checkout one!
taurath 5y ago
I buy all my produce and a lot of meat at asian grocery stores. Way better selection of greens, cuts of meat, etc, and tends to be cheaper especially for produce.

yawnxyz 5y ago

The Canadian equivalent is T&T Supermarket and it's just as awesome as H Mart. Though I'm in Atlanta and Buford Highway Farmer's Market is still superior...

__turbobrew__ 5y ago
There is at least one H mart in Canada: in Vancouver. Great place to get cheap food down town.
lightfooted 5y ago
Yeah love that you mentioned T&T. It’s more Chinese rather than Korean focused though. I think they really cleaned things up when Loblaws bought them. They’ve got some really nice stores (clean, spacious and well-lit) in Markham.
citrusybread 5y ago
There's also Adonis as the Lebanese equivalent, in ON/QC at least.

mlex 5y ago

Love H Mart and highly suggest 99 Ranch as the large Chinese equivalent in California.

triceratops 5y ago

How in the heck is Patel Brothers in competition with 99 Ranch or H Mart? They're completely different markets.

Clewza313 5y ago
Because they're both "Asian", and Hindi Chini bhai bhai!

x3n0ph3n3 5y ago

So there's some interesting history on the founding of H Mart that doesn't exist in English. The founder of H Mart is the child of a former secretary of former president Chun Doo-hwan, who is believed to have laundered a bunch of money from the Korean government. It's widely believed that some of the money was used to start H Mart, and my Korean wife is cautious about patronizing it because of that. I wish I could provide English sources, but they only exist in Korean.

rat87 5y ago
not originally in English but here's a news? story someone translated https://www.bostonkorea.com/news.php?code=en&mode=view&num=17871&page=1 https://www.bostonkorea.com/news.php?code=en&mode=view&num=1...

haspoken 5y ago

http://archive.is/fIhHZ http://archive.is/fIhHZ