Asian supermarkets reaching more mainstream consumers

Global Business

Once confined to small stores in local Chinatowns, many Asian supermarkets in the United States are now going mainstream and offering a much larger selection of goods from all over Asia.

CCTV America’s Karina Huber reports from New York.

The Good Fortune Supermarket in New York City looks like a regular supermarket, but its products are far from ordinary.

Its displays hold the popular Southeast Asian fruit, dragon fruit. There’s also durian, notorious for its pungent smell.

What makes Good Fortune stand out is its wide selection of Asian goods, but it also carries a large selection of American goods, including Kosher items that cater to the Jewish community in the neighborhood.

Overall, 30 percent of Good Fortune’s customers are non-Asian.

“I come in for the fish. The fish is fresh. I come in for the produce. The produce is fresh and if you’re looking for any Asian sauces – Korean sauces – they have it here,” said customer John Brienza.

The multi-cultural approach seems to be working. Good Fortune currently has nine stores across the United States and is about to open two more in California.

Part of its success relies on demographics. Asians are the fastest growing immigrant group in America.

Data also shows that Asian grocery products are growing. Annual sales of Asian food products at U.S. grocery stories totaled $461.82 million from June 2014-2015, a growth of more than 4 percent from the previous year, according to data from IRI and Supermarket News.

Overall, the 37,716 grocery stores in the United States in 2014 had a total revenue of $581.6 billion, according to data from Progressive Grocer, Neilsen and Mazzone & Associates.

Supermarket News also found that of more than 300 categories of foods in U.S. supermarkets, Asian food ranked 135 in terms of dollar sales from 2012-2013. The top rated product was carbonated beverages.


Supermarket categories by dollar, unit sales (2013)


To view data, sort columns and scroll left and right and top and bottom. For the 52 weeks ending June 16, 2013. Source: Supermarket News, Infoscan Reviews, Information Resources Inc.