H Mart's founding in Queens (1982)
A small Korean grocery store opened in Queens, New York, offering immigrants familiar ingredients that were hard to find elsewhere. It proved there was demand for a dedicated Korean supermarket in a city with a growing Korean population.
The store built a loyal customer base among Korean immigrants in New York.
H Mart grew to more than 90 US locations by 2021, including 12 in California, becoming the largest Asian grocery chain in the country.
The SF expansion follows H Mart's four-decade pattern of entering new markets and then scaling up its stores where demand proves strong.
