Owner of Asian Market in Columbia, Missouri Sees Future in New Immigrants

This Asian market has added a section catering to the large number of African immigrants in their community.    - - Donna Poisl

BY ANNA BOIKO-WEYRAUCH

In Columbia, Missouri, the city’s shifting ethnic landscape is changing the city’s culture, including its food culture. And some entrepreneurs, including the owner of the city’s oldest Asian grocery store, see the opportunity to reinvent themselves to cater to the cooking needs of the city’s new immigrant customers.

At Chong’s Oriental Market, in downtown Columbia, Missouri, food shipments arrive from Chicago, about a seven-hour drive away.

The store’s owner is Daewun Sin, whose parents migrated from Korea to Chicago, and finally to Columbia in 1990. Sin’s parents spotted the chance to take over a small grocery store and run the city’s only Asian market at the time, specializing in Korean and Japanese food.
Click on the HEADLINE above to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.