Shopping at Giant Foods: Chinese American Supermarkets in Northern California

2 / Community, Employment, and Enterprise

2 / Community, Employment, and Enterprise c h i n e s e a m e r i c a n s i n s a c r a m e n t o and other Northern California communities lived fairly quiet lives from the 1930s to the mid-1960s. Their population increased slowly because of disproportionate gender ratios and restrictive immigration laws, and then rose quickly in the years following World War II, primarily because of changes to these social and statutory checks. Other than political activities in support of the Chinese’s effort to fight the Japanese invasion of China during the 1930s and 1940s, Chinese Americans may be noted for their initiatives and efforts to achieve economic advancement , seizing business opportunities and building upon them. The economic foundationsuponwhichfuturegenerationswould support themselvesin their climb up the socioeconomic ladder were laid by immigrants who settled and invested for a future in America rather than by sojourners who clung to their homeland ways. The disposition of the latter may be explained in part by their wariness of anti-immigration statutes that could be used to deport them and their cognizance of the naturalization laws that kept them outside of mainstream society. These laws reminded them daily of the need to maintain ethnic solidarity and traditions, which had helped them endure the hostilities of the past. Later immigrants and their families also utilized old-world practices , however, from which they benefited. Later generations of Chinese Americans would seek assimilation into the greater community, but prior to the mid-1960s, the dominant population generally did not want them in their neighborhoods and workplaces. Yet there were exceptions. Most Chinese Americans in Sacramento lived within a defined area where they eked out a livelihood in the few occupations and businesses available to them. Their coworkers, employers, or clientele were usually other Chinese Americans. But others in the city and throughout Northern California’s rural communities resided in neighborhoods where they established family businesses catering to non-Chinese clienteles. While laundries 32 and restaurants were common, some families operated small grocery stores, which they would later expand into supermarkets and chain operations. Usuallythequartersbehindorabovetheirbusinessesservedastheirresidences. Their children attended nearby schools, and they seldom left their businesses or households except to travel within their community or to another community to socialize with others like themselves. In other words, these families did not live and work in homogeneous ethnic enclaves. While many Chinese Americansenduredprejudice,discrimination,andsegregation,othersdidnot. SomeelderlyChineseAmericansrecalledthateveryonegotalongintheircommunities or neighborhoods, but that venturing beyond familiar territory was sometimes an ordeal. Basically, the socioeconomic experiences of Chinese Americans depended largely on where they lived. Thus, it is only safe to say that their experiences were mixed. After the passage of anti-immigration laws that restricted their immigration and reduced their population, Chinese Americans gradually ceased being primary scapegoats for politicians, labor unions, and competing businessmen . Japanese American immigrants supplanted them as Asian targets of political and economic campaigns in California. Aside from some biographies, very little has been written about the socioeconomic institutions of Chinese Americans in Sacramento and other Northern California communities from the 1930s to the mid-1960s. A summary about the people and their communities , employment, and enterprises during this period is in order to understand the circumstances in which Chinese American supermarkets developed and prospered. statistical profile According to U.S. Census reports, the Chinese American population in California, including native- and foreign-born, increased from 37,361 in 1930 to 58,324 in 1950. The 1960 census recorded a population of 95,600, a large gain that can be attributed primarily to the increased immigration of Chinese females allowed under an amendment to the 1945 War Brides Act, which consequently increased the number of families and birth of children. The effect of internal migration into the state was minimal, accounting for less than 10 percent of the total population.1 The population in Sacramento County was 2,792 in 1930, 3,852 in 1950, and 6,457 in 1960, following the trend in the state.2 At best, these figures show statistical “snapshots” without describing the dynamics of the population. Additional data helps explain the development of the Chinese American Community, Employment, and Enterprise • 33 community, revealing their gender ratio, places of residency, and occupational and economic characteristics. As the population rose, the ratio of males to females became increasingly balanced due to an increase in the immigration of females and birth of female infants. The number of males per one hundred females in...