Even when I lived hours away, Manhattan’s Chinatown was my family’s destination for groceries. Decades back, you couldn’t find the same variety and quality of Chinese produce, meats and dried goods in most of the Mid-Atlantic.

But that’s changed.

Cheaper options in Flushing, Queens; Sunset Park, Brooklyn; and elsewhere in the city have drawn working-class Chinese immigrants away from this neighborhood bordered by trendy SoHo and TriBeCa.

As Chinatown’s population changes, what will happen to the grocers and specialty food stores that feed the community?

“One of the reasons Chinese in our neighborhood have been able to sustain our community nutritionally is because these vendors exist,” said Jan Lee, a Chinatown resident and property owner in the neighborhood. “For gentrification, people think it’ll be $8 coffee, but before that happens you’ll displace a fishmonger or a fruit seller who is providing inexpensive food . ”