{"id":172249,"date":"2026-02-28T00:33:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/172249\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T00:33:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:33:06","slug":"orlandos-new-ebisu-life-seeks-good-fortune-amid-growing-asian-lifestyle-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/172249\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando\u2019s new Ebisu Life seeks good fortune amid growing Asian lifestyle market"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 In Japanese mythology, Ebisu is one of the Seven Gods of Fortune. The god of fishermen and tradesmen, he is often depicted with a fishing rod and a fish.<\/p>\n

It makes sense then that the mascot for Ebisu Life, the Asian lifestyle store that opened its latest location in Orlando on Friday, is a man carrying a fishing pole and a big fish. <\/p>\n

After all, you need a little good fortune when picking blind box toys or trying your luck at the store\u2019s capsule and claw machines.<\/p>\n

Owners of the store at the corner of Orange Blossom Trail and Sand Lake Road are taking an educated chance by bringing Ebisu Life to the Orlando market, where Asian lifestyle and grocery stores are spreading throughout the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe store is aimed for everybody,\u201d said Yi Lui, the store\u2019s manager. \u201cFor the people who love the Asian cultures and who love K-pop cultures and Japanese cultures at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ebisu Life opens in Orlando, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

About half an hour before the store opened Friday, a line had formed and stretched around to the back of the building. People of all ages and ethnicities waited patiently.<\/p>\n

People of Asian descent have called Central Florida home for decades. The population of Asian residents in Orlando grew 33% from 2010 to 2020 alone, according to the U.S. Census. <\/a><\/p>\n

But Asian lifestyle trends and pop culture are not confined to that community anymore. <\/p>\n

Ebisu Life opens in Orlando, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a big part of it really is the adoption of Asian cultural things such as anime and Korean pop music,\u201d said Ricky Ly, whose food and lifestyle blog Tasty Chomps keeps track of the most popular trends in the area. \u201cOne of the biggest movies this past year was \u2018K-pop Demon Hunters,\u2019 right? And so that really opened the market, really, and the interest a lot more into all the different Asian cultural things from beauty supplies too, because they have a lot of skincare products and things like that too at these stores.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ly also points to TikTok and other social media platforms as well, showing popular products and trends in Asia that spread to the U.S. almost immediately.<\/p>\n

Stores like Ebisu Life bring many of those products to a wider American audience. In addition to a large section for blind box toys featuring Disney, Pokemon, anime, and other popular characters, and a large section for beauty products, Ebisu Life also carries kitchen and other housewares, stationery and snacks like Lays and Doritos with exotic flavors and the viral ice creams shaped like fruit. <\/p>\n

Ebisu Life opens in Orlando, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Yi Liu noted that the store was more Japanese forward, with several products that are difficult to find outside of Japan, like makeup line MilleFee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one special we have is anime figures,\u201d Liu said. \u201cThey are from Bandai company from Japan, which I knew is like, we are the only store carry those kind of products. And as you can see in the back, they have some of those capsule toy machines that, so far as I know, we are the only one carrying them and we have 100 in total.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ebisu Life joins Teso Life, an Asian lifestyle store on West Colonial Drive in Orlando, and MiniSo, a Chinese chain with stores in Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Kissimmee, Melbourne and Ocala.<\/p>\n

The heavily stylized Ebisu Life is the largest in the world, though, at 15,000 square feet. Another still-popular Asian grocery and housewares store in the Orlando area, H Mart, also has an outsized footprint for the company\u2019s portfolio<\/a>, and was the first in Florida. That store opened last year. <\/p>\n

[WATCH: H Mart opens in Orlando, thrilling Asian cuisine lovers]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still very packed, and it kind of shows you, when you go there, it\u2019s very diverse,\u201d Ly said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just Asians going there. It\u2019s, you know, all sorts of backgrounds from all over central Florida coming. Probably all over Florida traveling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ly notes that\u2019s nothing new, especially for people looking for a little piece of home. While growing up in South Florida, his family would come to Orlando to get bahn mi sandwiches while visiting Disney World.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we\u2019re very lucky,\u201d Ly said. \u201cWe\u2019re very blessed to live in Orlando, very diverse and very welcoming and open to all sorts of cultures and experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ebisu Life is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. most days of the week. <\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 In Japanese mythology, Ebisu is one of the Seven Gods of Fortune. The god of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[47424,54876,558,104,14043,81894,1335,139,141,140],"class_list":{"0":"post-172249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-anime","9":"tag-asian-american","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-japan","13":"tag-k-pop","14":"tag-orange-county","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-orlando-headlines","17":"tag-orlando-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}