AURORA — Aurora is an increasingly popular destination for grocery shoppers who are scouring Asian markets to find specialty products as well as lower prices on some staples.
“As in America as a whole, Aurora and the Denver metro market customer … (is) venturing out into different cuisines and discovering the art of cooking them,” said Tim Gonerka, Aurora retail specialist. “Places like these Asian and other ethnic markets offer the enthusiastic foodie a chance to utilize authentic products and ingredients, while shopping for them in an atmosphere that you just can’t get at your local supermarket.”
Some of the more visible Asian grocery stores in Aurora are H Mart, E Mart Asian & Whole Organic Foods, and Pacific Ocean Marketplace, which opened last December at 12303 E. Mississippi Ave.
That new facility is about 57,000 square feet of food, home products and bakery items, but there are also several other, smaller Asian marketplaces peppering strip malls and major intersections all around the city.
Gonerka said there are about 300 ethnic markets in Aurora.
“These venues have succeeded in serving the broader market by offering strong merchandising, competitive pricing, and most importantly, a unique shopping experience for the non-Asian shopper,” Gonerka said. “The number and sales performance of these types of specialty shopping visits says that it is a broader audience other than just the Asian community shopping these stores.”
Alicja Sitarz, 61, shops at the Pacific Ocean Marketplace in Denver. She buys her meat there because she said she can be sure it’s organic.
“I bought this whole chicken for more than I would have spent at an American grocery store, but I know that this chicken isn’t full of antibiotics,” Sitarz said. “Quality is more important.”
But for some shoppers, it’s the prices that keep them coming.
“I shop at different Asian markets every once in a while because their products are cheaper and more unique,” said Aurora resident Britinie Fitzgerald, 26.
Trong Lam, president of three Pacific Ocean Marketplaces in the Denver metro area, said many of his organic products are typically priced lower than at chain grocery stores.
At Pacific Ocean Marketplace, a shopper can get a 7 ounce can of red pepper powder for $3.99. Most 2 ounce red spices at King Soopers cost $7.49. They can also get ginger root for $1.79 a pound, or $4.99 a pound at King Soopers.
Apples range from $1.79 to $2.49 a pound at King Soopers right now, but Pacific Ocean Marketplace has a sale where all apples are $0.98 a pound this week. Oranges are two for $1 at King Soopers, and $0.39 each at Pacific Ocean.
“We know that since we are local, we cannot raise the prices compared to American chains like a Target or King Soopers — we cannot compete with that,” Lam said. “Since we are primarily an Asian supermarket, we provide imports that we try to mark as low as possible to provide the best prices for everyone.”
Celebrations like the Chinese New Year, which began Feb. 19 and is typically celebrated for about 15 days, brings in a wave of novelty products that are marked down even further. Things like crabs, roasted pigs, tangerines, and seasonal candy are staples of many Chinese New Year celebrations, and so those things can be found in massive, reasonably priced quantities now.
“We work with over 100 different vendors and suppliers from all over the country and the world,” Lam said. “We try to bring in unique products that all kinds of people will like and want to buy, especially during our holidays.”
Stores cater to those holiday shoppers.
“Right now is the lunar New Year period … and there’s obviously a lot of activity in the Chinese, Vietnamese and Koran community in Denver, and in Aurora where there’s a nice concentration of Asians,” said Clarence Low, president and CEO of the Asian Chamber of Commerce in Denver. “What I have found is that there are a lot of non-Asians who shop in these markets.”
When it comes to non-Asian shoppers, Low said: “They may not necessarily know how to cook crab in the (traditional Asian styles), but people from New England or Louisiana, for example, who do boils certainly know what to do with them.”
Megan Mitchell: 303-954-2650, mmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Mmitchelldp
Partial list of Asian marketplaces in Aurora:
Asia Mart at 1481 N. Chester St. H Mart at 2751 S. Parker Road
Lek’s Asian Market at 112 Del Mar Circle
E Mart Asian & Whole Organic Foods at 14301 E. Exposition Ave.
Ngoc Phu Asian Market at 3133 Peoria St.
Lotus Asian Market at 844 S. Buckley Road
Pacific Ocean Marketplace at 12303 E. Mississippi Ave.
Ngoc Anh Supermarket at 11201 E. Colfax Ave.
South Asian Mart at 10 S. Havana St.
Karen Asian Mini Market at 1120 Yosemite St.
M-Mart at 2000 S. Havana St.
