New food retailer joins a 200-vendor Asian marketplace on the East Side
Today: Meng Store licensed for food retail at Hmong VillageNew here? Follow stories to track developments over time. Create a free account to get updates when stories you care about change.
Overview
Updated 1 hour agoMeng Store has cleared a food-handler license to operate at 1001 Johnson Parkway, unit A16 inside Saint Paul's Hmong Village. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture lists the business as cleared to handle food at retail, without saying when the store will open.
The license is a small step, but it lands in a large machine. Hmong Village packs more than 200 vendors into a former Rainbow Foods store on the East Side, anchoring the largest Hmong population in any US city. Each new tenant adds foot traffic that keeps smaller stalls viable.
Why it matters
Every new vendor at Hmong Village strengthens Saint Paul's chief economic hub for Hmong-owned small businesses and immigrant food entrepreneurship.
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People Involved
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A 200-vendor Asian marketplace inside a former Rainbow Foods store on Saint Paul's East Side.
The state agency that licenses retail food establishments handling open food.
Timeline
2004 September 2026
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Meng Store licensed for food retail at Hmong Village
Today RegulatoryFood-handler license record for Meng Store appears on the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's public list.
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Hmong Village opens on Johnson Parkway
OpeningInvestors convert a closed Rainbow Foods store at 1001 Johnson Parkway into a market that grows past 200 vendors.
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Hmongtown Marketplace opens in former Kmart
OpeningFirst US Hmong market opens on Como Avenue, proving a vacant big-box store can host refugee vendors.
Historical Context
3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.
Hmongtown Marketplace opens (2004)
Entrepreneur Toua Vang converted a shuttered Kmart on Como Avenue into Hmongtown Marketplace, the nation's first Hmong market. Dozens of refugee vendors sold produce, fabric, and cooked food from one-time department-store aisles.
The market drew large crowds and proved a vacant big-box store could carry immigrant small business.
It set the template that Hmong Village later expanded at a bigger scale.
Hmongtown showed that converting closed retail space into an ethnic market works; Hmong Village is the larger second act.
Midtown Global Market opens (2006)
In Minneapolis, a redeveloped former Sears building opened as Midtown Global Market, housing immigrant food businesses from East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.
The market drew nationwide attention and revived a struggling commercial corridor on Lake Street.
It became a model for using retail markets to rebuild under-served neighborhoods.
It is a sibling Twin Cities project showing how old retail shells become working immigrant markets, the same mechanism Hmong Village keeps using.
Hmong Village opens (2010)
Investors converted a closed Rainbow Foods grocery at 1001 Johnson Parkway into Hmong Village, which grew past 200 vendors with dozens of food stalls, produce stands, and clothing shops.
It became the largest Hmong market in the Midwest and a daily gathering place on the East Side.
It anchors a neighborhood economy and serves as a hiring and mentoring hub for immigrant entrepreneurs.
Meng Store's license is the latest step in the market's ongoing absorption of new small food vendors.
