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Tastes From Home
Juddy Jung, left, and her friend Shearom Chung shop at Lotte Plaza, a market operated by Rhee Bros., in Ellicott City, Md.
(Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
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In the Washington area, Korean Americans in particular have flourished as entrepreneurs. A Census Bureau report shows that between 1997 and 2002, the number of Korean-owned businesses grew 21 percent to 9,406, the largest among Asian groups.
Rhee's business quickly grew beyond selling dried squid. His family began sending him other Korean foods, including dried anchovies and relish. Then he landed a job with distributor JFC International Inc., which imports Japanese food, while continuing to supply products to Korean customers. The position provided him important connections in the wholesale industry, and in 1976 Rhee founded his namesake company.
Today Rhee Bros. imports more than 10,000 different products from Asia for more than 1,500 retailers and wholesalers, the company says.
The start-up was initially financed entirely by Rhee and his brothers. But two years later, he took out his first loan of $20,000 from a local bank, slowly building his credit and his business. By the time the first retail store opened in 1989 in Rockville, the wholesale business was thriving, importing food from across Asia.
Rhee named his store Lotte Plaza and opened a sister store in Fairfax in 1990.
Howard County resident Young Chan Han recalled the weekend that Lotte Plaza opened in Ellicott City seven years ago.
"I went, and I just drove away," she said. "It was too busy."
But she came back a few days later and has been a regular since. The store has become a hub for the Korean community that has congregated along Route 40 in the fast-growing Maryland suburb. Han and a friend recently bought an extra-large $60 container of kimchi and ordered 60 pounds of beef to make bulgogi , the Korean barbecue dish, for a church lunch.
"I hit two places, one American grocery store like Giant or Safeway and one Korean grocery store," Han said of her shopping habits. "We just have to have both."
But success breeds competition. Though Rhee Bros. was the first to establish itself in the Washington area, two other Asian grocers are making major plays for shoppers. Grand Mart also started as a wholesale business and opened its first retail store in the Washington area four years ago in Germantown. And well-known H Mart, which started in New York and was formerly known as Hanahreum, has opened three stores in the region in the past decade.
All three grocers have rooted themselves in the community. Each sponsored a booth at the first KORUS festival in Annandale on Oct. 6, which and commemorates the National Foundation Day of Korea. Kim of the Korean American Association said Koreans are not brand-loyal -- they search only for the best quality food at the lowest prices. But he thinks the Asian community is large enough to support all three chains and is friends with the owners of each.
"Business is business, and friendship is friendship," he said.
