Korean immigrants in the NYC food scene: Grocers, H mart and beyond
Upon moving to New York City from Korea, I was intrigued to find that many Koreans have settled here over decades. I was curious about their regions of origin and why they chose NYC. I was especially interested in understanding why so many chose to go into the grocery business. These questions made me excited to begin my research about Koreans’ endeavors in retail and grocery stores.
There are few academic studies dealing with Korean grocers. While a key part of urban areas in the United States, there has been a gradual decline of Korean grocery businesses in the last four decades. However, their decline was rarely documented and happened under the radar. The continuous assimilation of Koreans into American society has played a key role in this trend. Most second and third generation offspring declined to operate their parents’ grocery in favor of more lucrative, mainstream careers. In the early 1980s H mart, a new supermarket concept appeared in NYC. A Korean immigrant named Il Yeon Kwon opened the first location in 1982 in Queens, and it now has 79 stores around the world, with the majority located in the United States.[1]
This research project draws primarily from my in-store observation in three Korean grocery stores conducted in spring 2020. My observations during these visits differed from my expectations. Not only did the stores cater to Koreans, but also Southeast Asians and Americans. Although the staff was not completely fluent in English, they seemed to be surviving fine and had no problem helping all their customers.
How Koreans Came to be NYC Grocers
Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Koreans came to replace Chinese workers. American missionaries in Korea contributed a lot in this process that almost half of the first group of Koreans were Christians.[2] In the early 1900s, Koreans also immigrated to Hawaii, working as plantation workers. During the Japanese colonization of Korea (1919-1945), many Koreans fled to the United States, but the number was never a large-scale.
The Korean War (1950-1953) played a significant role in the mid-century immigration of Koreans to the United States. Since the war was a fight against Communism, the United States was portrayed as the place for freedom and opportunity. The McCarran and Walter Act of 1952 nullified the Asian immigration ban and made certain Koreans eligible for U.S. citizenship.[3] These included wartime babies (fathered by the American servicemen), wartime children adopted by Americans, and Korean women who married American soldiers. The years following this legislation marked the first big-scale immigration to the U.S.
The second large-scale immigration started when the 1965 Naturalization and immigration Act was enacted. The dominance of Koreans in the grocery store industry happened around this time. The Koreans who came this time were educated and trained as doctors, lawyers and other white-collar professions. However, when they arrived, they realized that their skills were not transferrable. Due to the language barrier and lack of experience, many chose to start their own businesses in lieu of taking low-wage manual labor positions. Small grocery stores made economic sense because they required minimal capital to open particularly for those brave enough to rent storefronts in areas that other merchants were fleeing.[4] The former owners of theses groceries were Jewish and Italians who had retired, and this paved the way and made it easier to make the transition to Koreans. This time period coincides with the white flight in the city, when the large-scale migration of people of various European ancestries moved from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban regions.
By the mid-1990s, New York City had as many as 2,500 Korean grocery stores.[5] In order to attract customers, many shop owners displayed and sold fresh flowers that they had purchased wholesale from Hunts Point Market. Most of these grocers worked around the clock and involved the entire family in the business. Korean churches also played the role of a social hub where immigrants could exchange information and support each other. The particular loan system called kye (계), the tradition from Korea, contributed to their success as well – this enabled immigrants to start with enough capital, even though the amount of money they could bring to the U.S. was limited. Koreans in New York faced racial discrimination, but with strong community support from within their ethnic enclaves, many succeeded as business owners.
The Korean grocer scene started shrinking in the 2010s, for a number of reasons. The majority of Koreans put massive importance on educating their children and sending them to good schools. Their children, American citizens fluent in English, thus they had other options to choose from in the job market. Also, the political situation in Korea had improved. This led to the decrease in numbers of total immigration. Rent prices in NYC had significantly gone up over the years, prompting many stores to close. Lastly, competition from online stores negatively affected these stores as well.
Korean Grocery Stores Ethnography
The demise of small Korean grocers does not signal the failure of Asian food culture. The influence of Asian foods in America has been on a continuous increase. Asian food is so coveted today that even non-Asian restaurants are increasingly offering Asian-inspired options.[6] The disappearance of Korean grocers and the success of H mart highlights the importance of moving with the times. Second or third-generation Koreans tend to have more expendable income compared to their parents’ generation, which enables them to shop at upscale food markets. Other factors, such as Asian celebrity chefs, have also contributed to the popularity of Asian foods and the success of Asian grocery stores.
Korean grocers have continuously revamped their stores to become more appealing to customers. The detailed ethnography I conducted will illustrate the state of New York City’s Korean groceries in 2020. These stores all target different customer base, and the area they are located are largely different from each other. I visited each store three times at all different times of the day to get a better grasp.
The first store is the brand-new H mart[7] near Union Square, opened in 2019. It is the closest to the modern Korea supermarket experience of all the stores in this ethnography. They specifically target the large number of Asian students at NYU – they carry lots of items needed for college life. Thus, it is natural to see many Asian students inside. They sell many Japanese products as well (such as electronics and cosmetics), which happens to most grocery stores in Korea.
The second is the Hanahreum Mart[8] in Woodside, Queens, located near a sizable Korean church as well as Korean hair salons and laundromats. Due to the considerable Korean population in the area, the majority of customers are elder Koreans, and the total vibe is entirely different from H mart at Union Square. Because of this reason, the merchandise they have, and the shopping experience was also a lot different. This somewhat reminded me of grocers in Korea in the 1990s, which have increasingly disappeared over the years. Despite being the original location for the H mart chain, they maintain different styles and work separately from other H marts.
The last one called Kimchee market[9] has more American touch to it. A second-generation Korean immigrant runs it, which made it very localized – there was nothing lost in translation when it comes to description of merchandise, which enabled non-Korean customers to feel at ease to shop. It is located in Greenpoint and they are affiliated with two hipster Korean restaurants in Brooklyn, so the whole vibe is hip and young, which were different from the other two stores. The store owner runs a kimchi factory that supplies kimchi from. There is an eating space inside and they also provide food delivery service. The owner’s activity on a Korean food-related podcast, as well as Instagram, work to his advantage to promote his business.
Through the comparison between each store, we can acknowledge the difference in style and target audience. We can also notice how far Korean grocers have come in the United States. I have included various photos of my experience, and I hope this will help the readers understand the unique character of each place.
Conclusion
This paper illustrates the history and current presence of Koreans in a particular sector of the NYC food industry. As the final work of my food studies program, I felt it was essential to write about the influence of Korean supermarkets on many lives and neighborhoods. There are still some surviving stores from the earlier era scattered around the city. However, how long can these mom-and-pop stores last with huge competitors is questionable. During my visits to three locations, I certainly noticed three generations of Korean supermarkets – I was more impressed with the one near NYU. The modern building and extreme lighting make it easy on the eye. As a Korean studying here, it is a way for me to have a taste of home whenever I needed it.
Writing this paper was a pleasure. I take pride in the fact that Korea has its little slice of American immigration history along with other ethnic groups. Today, I have technology at my fingertips to find out where I can have my favorite Korean dishes. I can only feel for those first-generation immigrants arriving here with no grasp of the language and no sense of connection to society. I get overwhelmed to think about how difficult it must have been for them. Learning about how they built a memorable presence and have adapted in the current economic climate to remain relevant and operate profitable businesses was meaningful. In a nutshell, it has been an honor to delve into the history of the Korean grocers in the city I call my second home.
References
[1] https://www.hmart.com/ourstores/
[2] Choy, Bong-Youn. Koreans in America. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979.
[3] http://sites.bu.edu/koreandiaspora/issues/history-of-korean-immigration-to-america-from-1903-to-present/
[4] https://www.city-journal.org/html/where-did-korean-grocers-go-13353.html
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/nyregion/korean-grocers-a-new-york-fixture-are-on-the-decline.html
[6] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/03/the-fastest-growing-food-in-the-world/
[7] 39 Third Ave, New York, NY. 10003