Korean Grocery Sensation H Mart Wants to Conquer the Sun Belt – Commercial Observer

Shopping hauls are some of the Internet’s most popular videos, but some Gen Zers are sampling and sharing their impressions of an Asian supermarket’s products instead of their latest luxury splurge.

In February, TikTok user Linda Vo (@itslindavo) posted a short clip of her emptying a paper bag of Korean salt bread, a triangle kimbap, vermicelli, pears and puffy rice cakes that she purchased at her local H Mart, a Lyndhurst, N.J.-based chain of grocery stores that specialize in Asian goods.

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“I went to H Mart because I’ve been seeing so many viral things online and I had to try them for myself,” she said.

In April, TikTokerer Ari Kytsya (@notburnttoasthehe) filmed a haul where she slathered cooked baby octopus with Sriracha mayo, slurped on a yogurt drink in a package resembling a baby bottle, then bit into a purple piece of ice cream shaped like a blackberry. Her review for each item consisted of making an increasingly louder, longer “Mmmm!” sound.

A month later, an influencer named Leo Baek described an array of Korean products, including carbonated milk sodas, Korean rice cakes, Korean pears and perilla leaves he piled into his shopping cart set to a chill, feel-good Anderson .Paak song.

It may seem unusual for a grocery store, let alone a specialty market offering produce and products imported from East Asia, to attract so much social media attention. But H Mart has become a nimble operator in a highly competitive industry with $2 billion in annual sales and more than 100 locations across the U.S. and Canada. Now the chain is proceeding with a rapid expansion into some of the nation’s fastest-growing communities in Florida, Texas, California and Nevada. 

Along the way, H Mart became an essential destination for Asian American families seeking authentic ingredients from their homelands that couldn’t be found in other grocery stores, a bond celebrated in Michelle Zauner’s bestselling 2021 memoir Crying in H Mart. Soon a much broader audience of Americans, who have embraced Korean dramas, K-Pop music, Japanese culture and have traveled to East Asia, started shopping there too. 

“Food is a cultural bridge and people want to enjoy foods from other cultures, not only at restaurants but to make at home,” Helen Lee, executive vice president of F&T Group, which owns Tangram Mall in Flushing, Queens, told Commercial Observer. “Asian food and culture are no longer considered niche, it’s become part of everyday life.”

In 1982, South Korean immigrant Il Yeon Kwon established a corner store called Han Ah Reum (which translated to “an armful of groceries”) in Woodside, Queens, providing Asian staples to the neighborhood’s fast-growing Korean immigrant population. The company slowly began to expand in the Northeast, opening 10 stores in areas with large Asian American populations over the next decade before venturing into the Washington, D.C., area in 1997.

There were plenty of other family-owned grocers in New York City at the time. But H Mart, distinguished itself by its ability to fill smaller, more affordable storefronts while prioritizing hard-to-find imported ingredients, even as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s arrived in Manhattan in the early aughts. 

Jeffrey Rosen, vice chairman and founding partner of Newmark’s retail division, said Korean markets like H Mart did well because New Yorkers were starved of affordably priced fresh produce commonly available in suburban markets.

“New York City was always grocery-challenged. You had stores that were in 7,000-square-foot, low-ceiling spaces that were just as unappealing as it could get,” Rosen said. “H Mart was able to adapt to different configurations, which is key in New York City, where big space is difficult because it’s expensive.”

H Mart’s emphasis on fresh produce and welcoming displays has been a key to building brand loyalty. Many of its labels are written in both Korean and English, its employees helpfully answer questions about how to cook with unfamiliar ingredients, and its prepared foods section allows people to cook a Korean-style dish at home without making a marinade from scratch. 

“Customers find comfort in the shopping experience, and its produce is best in class,” said Brandon Singer, CEO and co-founder of Retail by MONA. “It has a fresh, clean, nice aesthetic that goes a long way. When people have that, it lends itself to a successful operation.” 

But the grocery chain’s growth also coincided with the increase of immigration into the U.S. from South Korea, China and Japan in the 21st century and expansion of their influence in American culture. Chinese New Yorkers who moved from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan became the city’s largest foreign-born population for the first time in 2023, surpassing its Dominican population, according to the city’s Newest New Yorkers report.

Their purchasing power has also increased substantially over the past decade. Household income of Asian Americans grew 57 percent, from $99,000 in 2017 to $155,000 in 2024. Their household spending rose as well, from $453 billion to $735 billion over the same period, a 62 percent jump, according to federal data. 

“The second-generation Asians are better educated, more affluent and can buy more sophisticated products at H Mart as opposed to the first-generation immigrants who didn’t have the level of affluence to travel to a sophisticated grocery store,” said Chase Welles, executive vice president at brokerage SCG Retail. “A lot of that mainstream popularity has been powered by the second-generation immigrants.”

Now H Mart is chasing places where wealthier Asian American families are moving: suburbs in the Sun Belt. 

Last summer, H Mart debuted a 54,500-square-foot branch in Las Vegas, its first in Nevada, opened its fourth market in Houston, and launched a 70,000-square-foot market and food hall in Orange County, Calif., before completing a 100,000-square-foot store in Orlando, its first in Florida, in the fall. (And, as per the Korea Times, it’s “one of the largest H Marts in the country.”) This year, the company started construction on a 46,000-square-foot store with a Korean food hall next to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, prepared to open its second Austin-based market this summer, and announced it would build an even larger location inside a former Kohl’s store in Freemont, near San Francisco, resembling its own mall with a food hall, restaurants, bar and entertainment options.

Even in New York City, H Mart has targeted suburban-style locations for new sites. In 2022, it opened its largest market at 48-18 Northern Boulevard on the edge of three Queens neighborhoods, then added a food court two years later offering Korean corn dogs, bubble tea, kimbap and rice bowls.

H Mart’s expansion has also been fueled by its rising popularity among non-Asian audiences. Nearly one-third of its customers are not Asian American, H Mart President Brian Kwon told The New York Times in 2024. (H Mart did not make its executives available for an interview or answer a list of emailed questions.)

Cynthia Yeh, a PR and marketing associate at F&T Group, believes H Mart has become cool among Gen Z shoppers on social media because its products are both novel and shareable. 

“Whether it’s trying a new snack, finding an imported product, or filming a grocery haul, customers have essentially become brand ambassadors,” Yeh said. “That kind of authentic, user-generated content builds curiosity and introduces H Mart to audiences who may have never stepped into an Asian supermarket before.”