<story><title>The Lure of H Mart, Where the Shelves Can Seem as Wide as Asia</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/dining/h-mart.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>creaghpatr</author><text>&amp;gt;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.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;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.&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Also shout-out to Chai Pani, definitely hit that place up if you are ever in Decatur.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Lure of H Mart, Where the Shelves Can Seem as Wide as Asia</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/dining/h-mart.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>prepend</author><text>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.&lt;p&gt;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.</text></comment>