Quincy marketplace has become a magnet for Asian-American businesses
QUINCY - Stroll through Kam Man Food and you'll find gallon jugs of kimchee, the incendiary Korean pickled cabbage. Beside the pints of chocolate ice cream are boxes of coconut-, mango- and red bean-flavored Popsicles. One grocery aisle features more than 20 kinds of soy sauce.
Next door, the deli Ba Le sells made-to-order Vietnamese sandwiches for less than $3. Across the corridor, Pearl Shop Radio and Books carries videos ranging from Daryl Hannah's "Attack of the 50-Foot Woman," dubbed in Chinese, to "Slam Dunk," a popular anime series about a Japanese high school basketball team.
Two years after its grand opening on Quincy Avenue, the Kam Man Marketplace hosts more than 40 shops. While some businesses have taken off faster than others, store owners say the plaza has become a destination for shoppers of all races. It has also drawn attention to the opportunities for Asian-owned businesses beyond Boston's Chinatown.
Skeptics "could not see how a 90,000-square-foot Asian market can survive anywhere in Massachusetts, never mind in Quincy," said Kai Lau, owner of Cantonese World, the Boston-based real estate firm that helped Kam Man Food find the space.
Now the marketplace is so successful, Asian-owned businesses are opening outside of their longstanding enclave in North Quincy and closer to the Kam Man plaza just south of the city's downtown—a shift Lau calls the "Kam Man Effect." Two Japanese restaurants have opened in nearby Quincy Center in the past two years, he said, and an Asian-themed food court will open at Quincy Fair, a downtown retail building, this fall.
The new restaurants in Quincy Center are helping revitalize some of the long-empty spaces in the area. "There is over 12,000 square feet vacant in Quincy Fair," said Lau, who is representing the food court operators. "We're taking 9,000 of it. That's pretty good, right?"
Kam Man Food, the 40,000-square-foot supermarket that is the anchor of the marketplace, opened in January 2003, seven months before the rest of the shops.
Wan Wu, 58, the general manager, holds a doctorate in chemical engineering from Lehigh University and took an early retirement from Bayer to open the location. He was recruited by his brother, who works for an affiliated Kam Man Food store in New York.
"Among the Asian community, we have a brand name," because so many Asian Americans live in Massachusetts and shop in New York, Wu said.
"We thought if we could bring the New York store to Boston, we'd be successful—which turned out to be the case," he said.
When the owners of New York's Kam Man Food decided to open a store in Massachusetts, they opted for Quincy instead of Boston following the success of their supermarket in Edison, N.J. The New Jersey store has the wide aisles and free parking that couldn't be offered in an urban Chinatown. "A lot of Asian people initially live in the city, and then they move to the suburbs," Wu said. "We follow the population where they go."
Since Kam Man Food opened in Quincy, it has been very well-received, he said. It generates $1 million to $1.4 million a month in revenues, and sales have grown about 10 percent each year. It employs about 60 full-time and 20 part-time workers.
During the week, shoppers are mostly from nearby neighborhoods. But on weekends, Wu said, people travel from Cape Cod, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Saturdays and Sundays account for about half of the store's weekly sales.
Other companies in the shopping center have also noticed the increased business.
Asian American Bank hired Man Ying Moy as branch manager when the Boston bank opened a location in Kam Man two years ago. Many non-Asians didn't know what to make of the marketplace initially, she said, and through her glass-walled office she could see shoppers peering through windows and hesitating in store entrances.
Now they walk right in to buy the Hong Kong-imported toys their kids are asking for, she said, or come to her to find out about loans and international banking services.
But while some stores are thriving, others have found business, especially in the summer, slow and unpredictable.
