Shun Fat Supermarket
Shun Fat Supermarket (traditional Chinese: 順發超級市場; simplified Chinese: 顺发超级市场; pinyin: Shùnfā Chāojíshìchǎng; Cantonese Yale: seuhn faat chīu kāp síh chèuhng; Vietnamese: Siêu Thị Thuận Phát; also known as SF Supermarket) is a small, but growing, Chinese Vietnamese American supermarket chain in the San Gabriel Valley region in California, Sacramento, California, San Pablo, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Shun Fat Supermarket was started in the mid-1990s by a Chinese Vietnamese entrepreneur and seafood wholesaler named Hieu Tran, owner of the H&T Seafood. Its first store was opened in the Chinese American suburban community of Monterey Park, California. The name "Shun Fat" for a grocery store has caused some amusement in the English-speaking press, but means, approximately, "fortunate".[1]
Shun Fat is an Asian supermarket chain that sells imported grocery items from Asia - particularly Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam - and also a few mainstream American brands as well. Its locations tend to be in newer suburban Chinatowns as well as in developing ethnic Vietnamese American commercial districts. Selection at each location may differ as most stores are focused on Chinese customers from Vietnam, but the Rowland Height location caters to immigrants from Taiwan.
The market chain competes mainly with the 99 Ranch Market and Hong Kong Supermarket. Like these two supermarket chains, Shun Fat Supermarket usually serves as a major anchor store in some Asian shopping centers and strip malls, which in some cases have been renovated extensively by Hieu Tran. The San Gabriel Superstore is a uniquely a Chinese hypermarket, as it sells clothing, small electronics and other products in addition to groceries,[2] although these stalls are operated by independent vendors with separate payment. In 2005, Shun Fat Supermarket opened a 105,000-square-foot (9,800 m2) megastore in the Little Saigon of Westminster, California, joining the already highly-competitive Vietnamese supermarket commerce in the community.[3]
Locations[edit]
- Pacific Asian Plaza - Las Vegas, Nevada (Chinatown, Las Vegas) - newly built
- Mar Plaza - Monterey Park, California - replaced previous Chinese supermarkets - replaced a Vons
- Pacific Square on Colima Road - Rowland Heights, California - replaced a Vons
- South Gate Plaza on Mack Road - Sacramento, California - replaced a Ralphs
- Pacific Plaza - Sacramento, California[4]
- El Monte Superstore - El Monte, California - replaced a Chinese market
- San Gabriel Superstore - San Gabriel, California - replaced a Target
- San Pablo Marketplace - San Pablo, California
- Westminster Superstore - Westminster, California - replaced a K-Mart
- West & Hammer Lane Plaza - Stockton, California - replaced a Save Mart
- Garden Grove Superstore - Garden Grove, California
- Linda Vista Shopping Center - San Diego, California
- North Park Plaza Shopping Center - San Jose, California - replaced a PW Supermarket
External links[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Steve Harvey, "Welcome to Los Angeles, and Be Sure to Have a Shun Fat Day", Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2000.
- ^ Wei Li, Ethnoburb: The New Ethnic Community in Urban America (University of Hawaii Press, 2009), ISBN 978-0824830656, pp. 76, 109. Excerpts available at Google Books.
- ^ Cziborr, Chris. (May 23, 2005) Orange County Business Journal Little Saigon Superstore Opens at Old Kmart Site. Volume 28; Issue 21; Page 3.
- ^ Thuy-Doan Lee, "Vietnamese Americans Increasingly Find Opportunity in Sacramento, Calif.", Sacramento Bee, January 6, 2004 – via HighBeam Research (subscription required).
