Asian Grocery Store New York Mart Opens in Rockville

The store measures more than 20,000 square feet and carries everything from dried noodles to live shrimp

By Andrew Metcalf

A grocery shopper inside New York Mart in Rockville. Andrew Metcalf

Local grocery shoppers looking for Asian ingredients have a new store to check out.

New York Mart, a new 20,000-plus-square-foot grocery store, opened Saturday at the former Magruder’s location in College Plaza in Rockville. The store at the corner of Rockville Pike and College Parkway is the 13th location for the business and first in Maryland.

New York Mart also operates stores in New York, Massachusetts, Florida and Virginia Beach.

Assistant Manager Edward Lee said Monday the chain chose the Rockville location after studying the demographics of the area and finding that about 13 percent to 14 percent of the population is Asian.

The business will likely compete against the other Asian grocery stores in the area such as the Great Wall Supermarket and Meixin Supermarket—both of which are on Hungerford Drive.

“We carry a wide diversity of products and most of them are shipped from New York City,” Lee said.

The Rockville store is set up like a typical American supermarket, with fruits and vegetables on the side aisles and meats and fish displayed in the back. In the produce section, shoppers can find a variety of fruits and vegetables including durian fruit, kuduzu root, Chinese okra and bok choy among staples like potatoes, apples, oranges and carrots.

Lee said the grocery store carries more than 180 different types of fruit and more than 200 vegetables—many of which will change with the seasons.

“The fruit is really fresh,” he said.

The aisles are filled with shelves of dried noodles, soy bean paste, sesame oil and chili sauces. There are frozen dumplings, spring rolls and Korean snacks like shrimp crackers. The meat counter offers beef tenderloin, chicken feet, pigs’ kidneys, chicken wings and ribs.

Lee said what sets the store apart from other Asian supermarkets is its selection of fish. Just behind the produce section is the teeming seafood counter where customers can find everything from turtles, frogs and jellyfish to grouper, salmon, live crabs and lobster. Many of the varieties of fish are served whole and some are still swimming in tanks.

Lee said the business’ network of food suppliers in New York helps the store procure an extensive variety of food and also have it delivered while the items are fresh. The store offers mostly Chinese, Korean, Thai and Japanese ingredients, according to Lee.

The grocery store held a soft opening Saturday and is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Lee said an official grand opening is planned in about a month.

The store also includes about 10 restaurant bays inside a dining area, which hasn’t been completed. Lee said eventually that area will house a number of quick-serve Chinese and possibly Korean restaurants—a common feature in many Asian supermarkets.

Eventually quick-serve Chinese restaurants will fill these spaces in a seperated dining area inside the grocery store, according to assistant manager Edward Lee.

All photos by Andrew Metcalf