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Introduction e m e r g i n g d u r i n g t h e 1 9 3 0 s and securing a competitive market share for about the next four decades, Chinese American supermarkets were prominentoperationsinsmall,medium,andlargecitiesthroughoutNorthern California. Until recently, they were so well established that there were very few residents who did not shop in one of them or know about them. These supermarkets were located in nearly every community and were able to prosper and compete directly with national chains, local chains, and independent operations. In 1960, for example, Chinese Americans operated 91 of 223 supermarkets and grocery stores in the city of Sacramento.1 Their competitors were very aware of their presence. As one recalled, “It was hell to pay if you had Chinese grocery stores as competition.” Their prominence was also evident in their one- or two-page weekly advertisements in newspapers from the 1950s to 1970s, in which shoppers looked forward to comparing prices of featured sale items of competing supermarkets. Invariably, the Chinese American supermarkets offered the lowest prices. The businesses ranged from singlestoretomultiple -storeoperations,andwereownedbyChineseAmericanfamilies , partnerships, or corporations. It must be underscored that from the start, the stores did not sell ethnic foods and merchandise in ethnic enclaves, but sold American groceries, meat, and produce to mostly Euro-American customers who generally accepted the stores in their neighborhoods at a time when racial prejudice and segregation were prevalent. In due course, these stores, with their Chinese American personnel, helped erode social barriers. No other minority ethnic group since has achieved such prominence in the grocery business in Northern California. Somemultiple-storeoperationsbeganasasmallgrocerystorethatexpanded in size and number into a small chain of supermarkets. Many single-store supermarkets secured niches in local markets and did adequate business, althoughnotenoughtowarrantexpansionintochainoperations.Well-known 3 Chinese American supermarket chains included the forty Farmers Markets, four Giant Foods, nine Centr-O-Marts, eleven Jumbo Markets, eleven Dick’s Markets, seventeen Bel Air supermarkets, and the Famous Food Markets.2 None of these prominent chain supermarkets remain in operation under the original owners or partners. A small number of independent supermarkets are still in the hands of Chinese Americans, but they are not competing in large markets. Many of the factors that facilitated the rise and prosperity of the supermarkets also contributed to their decline and passing. Basically, most of the operators were unwilling or unable to adapt to the rapid changes of the retail food industry. Some operators tried to keep up with trends and to weather the vicissitudes of the business, but only a few succeeded. A combination of trends and changes caused most of the supermarkets to become insolvent,althoughnotbeforetheiroperatorshadsucceededinachievingwhat they set out to do, that is, to make money. Three phases of Chinese American supermarkets can be discerned: their modest beginnings, their proliferation and prosperity, and their decline and passing. The prominence of Chinese American supermarkets was exclusive to Northern California, notwithstanding numerous operations scattered in Central and Southern California and in Arizona and Texas.3 Even in San Francisco, the locale of many narratives of the Chinese American experience, the retail food business by Chinese Americans did not extend beyond “momand -pop” grocery stores. an overview Since the mid-nineteenth century various means of livelihood have existed for Chinese Americans, which for the convenience of this study refers to both foreign-born and American-born Chinese Americans. The businesses and occupations in which Chinese Americans engaged depended upon the circumstances and opportunities afforded to them by the larger community and by their own intergroup relationships. Essentially, Chinese Americans sold goods or services to the majority group or to members of their own group. Clearly, supplying goods or services to the majority group netted a greater economic reward because the needs of the majority group were more extensive than the smaller Chinese American population. In The Chinese in the United States of America, Rose Hum Lee listed eight categories of businesses and occupations undertaken by Chinese Americans during their first hundred years in America. One of these was “selling American goods, [with] Chinese service, [for an] American clientele.”4 This category included the 4 • Introduction operation of laundries, cafes and restaurants serving American dishes, truck farms and produce markets, and grocery stores in urban areas. For a short period, Chinese Americans also operated a small number of rooming houses, taverns, and nightclubs in the larger cities. Some of these enterprises, such as the laundries, began during the gold rush era, while others, such...

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