Happened to catch this today down at The Boston Globe and I just thought it was an interesting story about the competition among Asian grocers in the area highlighting the growing Asian American population.
For years, Super 88 dominated the market, filling a niche for the fast-growing demand for Asian foods. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of Asian-Americans in Massachusetts soared 68 percent, according to the US Census Bureau. This population's considerable buying power and loyalty to shops providing fresh produce and seafood soon made rival grocers jump into the market. At the same time, supermarket chains like Stop & Shop and Shaw's expanded their ethnic food offerings.Check out more down at the globe.
The competition intensified in recent years, with rivals C Mart Supermarket opening near Chinatown and Kam Man Foods debuting in Quincy. This year, H Mart, a national chain specializing in Asian foods, unveiled plans to open a 51,000-square-foot store in Burlington.
"The fact is Asian-Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the state," said Paul Watanabe, director of the Institute for Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
