Culture | March 21st, 2024
By Annie Prafcke
As an elementary school kid in the early 2000s, Kristy Tran didn’t start her day the way most kids do. Instead of rolling out of bed to go straight to school, Tran and her parents went grocery shopping.
Nearly every morning — or sometimes after school — the Tran family got in the car to drive to Asian and American Market. At the store, Tran’s dad waited in the driver’s seat with a cigarette or a cup of coffee, while her mom made the grocery run. Asian and American Market was one of the few Asian groceries in her hometown of Fargo, North Dakota, so it was an essential stop for the Tran family and many other Vietnamese-American families in the area.
Her mom searched the market’s densely packed aisles for eggroll wrappers, fish sauce, noodles and papaya, while Tran hunted for her favorite Japanese snacks: Calbee shrimp chips, Meiji YanYan biscuits with their sweet, creamy dips, and chocolate-filled Hello Panda cookies.
Tran’s descriptions of Asian and American Market evoke strong memories for me as well. As a Chinese adoptee raised by a white mother in the early 2000s and 2000-teens, few spaces existed in my small, heavily Norwegian-influenced city where my dark hair and almond shaped eyes didn’t make me stand out. Asian and American Market was one of those places.
Today, Asian and American Market (or A and A) looks different than it did during Tran’s and my school days. In January 2023, the grocery store rebranded to Asian and American Super Market, reopening at a new location that is less than half a mile away from the old store but about three times larger — nearly the size of an Olympic ice hockey rink. John Huynh, who owns the store with his sister Sarah Huynh, says customers drive in from across the state and even neighboring South Dakota to shop at his grocery. A and A’s success reflects…
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