New Asian grocery stores are opening across the Bay Area and are positioned as retail 'saviors'.
Immigrant culture gets celebrated when it’s profitable — and villainized when it’s not. I wrote an essay about it, and about the mall that raised me: Pacific East Mall ❤️

What the ‘Asian Market Boom’ Is Missing: An Ode to Pacific East Mall
As shiny, new Asian grocery stores are hailed as retail "saviors," the decades-old Pacific East Mall in Richmond shows how immigrant cultural spaces matter beyond their economic benefits.