Janet (left) and Roselynn Lau check customers out at Oriental Food Value, an Asian grocery store just off Southeast 82nd Avenue. Photo by Samantha Bakall/The Oregonian



By Samantha Bakall

The Oregonian | OregonLive

Daryl Lau sank a large cleaver through a glistening side of crispy-skinned pork with rhythmic thunks as a diverse crowd of shoppers at Oriental Food Value gathered around a brightly lit case of roasted meats.



His uncle shuffled in and out of the roasting room behind the L-shaped meat counter, checking on four whole roasted pigs finishing in the oven. Lau's dad stamped price tags on packets of noodles a few aisles over while his mom and aunt checked customers out by the front of the store.



Tommy, Paul and Jimmy Lau -- Daryl's father and two uncles -- pooled their resources in 1992 and took over a former Tom Peterson furniture store on Southeast 82nd Avenue to open Oriental Food Value, a Chinese grocery store. Twenty-five years later, family members still run the store, and by next summer will open a second location near Happy Valley.



Asian grocery stores have served their communities across Portland for more than 100 years. Today, there are at least 50 stores across the area offering foods and ingredients from Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai and other Asian cuisines to the region's 2 million residents. As local Asian-American populations have grown, both major grocery chains and locally owned stores have targeted the Portland area as an ideal place to grow their business. Some are big-box superstores, like 99 Ranch, a California-based Taiwanese chain, and H-Mart, an American-owned Korean supermarket chain. Others, such as Oriental Food Value and its upcoming second location, are family run.

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Shoppers inside Oriental Food Value in Southeast Portland. Samantha Bakall/The Oregonian



While the Portland area's population has increased by 9 percent since 2010, its Asian-American populations (not including Pacific Islander) have grown by 25 percent, more than any other group, according to the 2016 American Community Survey, a yearly survey from the United States Census Bureau. In that same time period, many of the city's largest Asian grocery stores, including Beaverton's Asian Food Center and Southeast 82nd Avenue's Hong Phat Market, have opened.



Charles Rynerson, a research faculty member of Portland State University's Population Research Center, said that for most of Oregon's history, we've been growing, population-wise, but that in the past several years Asian-American populations have grown significantly.



"There's been more international migration from Asia than from Latin America and that's true nationally as well as locally," Rynerson said. In addition, more Asians have been moving to Oregon from other states.

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Daryl Lau carries a tray of roasted meats to the case. Photo by Samantha Bakall/The Oregonian



Lau has watched Asian populations grow and diversify along Southeast 82nd Avenue as he grew up working in his family's store with his cousins. Since the store opened, he said, the Laus have seen fewer Chinese customers and more Vietnamese, Pacific Islander, white and black shoppers. Next summer, the Laus plan to open a second store near Happy Valley to target the growing Asian populations in that area.



"There's more of a mixing pot here," Lau said about his family's original store. "Back then it was mainly, as far as the Asian community, Vietnamese, Chinese and that was it. Those were the main populations as far as Asians go and now if you look at it … it's more diversified, more than ever. Even our business has changed its course."

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Asian population and Asian grocery stores. Note: Census tracts shaded in gray have a high margin of error. Source: 2012-2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, 2006-2010 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Oregonian/OregonLive research



Since 2010, Southeast 82nd Avenue in particular has seen a decrease in Asian populations -- as much as 40 percent in some adjacent neighborhoods since 2010, according to comparisons of the 2010 and 2016 American Community Surveys. But neighborhoods further east and south of the area, and much of the western suburbs, have all seen dramatic growth in Asian populations.



The Laus' upcoming second store, Oriental Pearl, is aimed at the growing Asian populations moving away from 82nd Avenue toward deep Southeast Portland, Lau said. The store is expected to open in a 45,000-square-foot former Albertsons near Southeast 174th Avenue and Southeast Powell Boulevard likely before next summer and is nearly twice the size as the original 82nd Avenue location.



"There wasn't always a population (of Asians) out there," said Lau, 26, who grew up in Clackamas. "It's because of the recent housing markets and how Asian immigrants have come over. They've worked their way into being more prosperous that they could move out to those areas. … At the end of my high school (years), at least in Clackamas High School, Asians were probably the second largest population next to white."

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Inside Beaverton's 99 Ranch grocery store. Photo by Samantha Bakall/The Oregonian



The feather in the Portland area's Asian grocery store cap is the first Oregon location of 99 Ranch, a popular chain with 46 locations nationally. The company, which opened the store in August in another former Albertsons on Southwest Hall Boulevard, picked Beaverton for its business development, quality transit system and demographics, according to 99 Ranch Market's vice president of marketing, Teddy Chow.



The store, which draws shoppers from as far as Eugene, was so busy when it first opened that it was next to impossible to snag a parking space. For some shoppers, Asian grocery stores provide an opportunity to stay connected with their culture; for others, they offer ingredients that wouldn't be available at mainstream grocery stores.

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Inside H-Mart in Tigard. Photo by Samantha Bakall/The Oregonian



Beaverton and outer Southeast Portland aren't the only areas that will see new Asian grocery stores. By April, H-Mart is expected to open a second Portland-area location in the former Zupan's Markets space on Southeast Belmont Street. H-Mart, which has a major network of stores across the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, is the largest Asian brand to open a store within city limits.



H-Mart was originally looking for a small-footprint store in downtown Portland to cater to the growing number of Asian students, H-Mart office manager Marie Wang said. But when the 20-year-old Belmont Zupan's closed, H-Mart jumped at the location.



The store will offer not only Korean foodstuffs but also Japanese, Taiwanese and other Asian groceries that for most shoppers have been available only along 82nd Avenue or in Beaverton.



For shoppers familiar with H-Mart's Tigard location, Wang said to expect a smaller store. New additions to the Belmont space will include a large deli with new menus, expanded sake and Asian liquor selections, more specialty housewares and H-Mart-branded food items.

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Daryl Lau pushes a cart to the back of Oriental Food Value after loading a roasting pig into a customer's car. Photo by Samantha Bakall/The Oregonian



As Asian cuisines have become globalized, popularized and glamorized, more and more people shop at Asian grocery stores. In 2015, Asian food products generated $461.82 million in sales in supermarkets across the country, according to Statista, an online market research company. Global foods as a whole are estimated to reach $12.5 billion in sales by 2018.



"Asian grocery stores as a whole, it's no longer just for Asian people," Lau said. "Because we are veering towards a more diversified customer base, we're no longer just targeting a specific Asian group. If you look at my store, even though it's called Oriental Food Value, it's not based on Orientals' food anymore."



Lynne Palombo and Melissa Lewis contributed to this story.