There’s a bit of a trendy Asian retail boom happening in San Antonio as of late. Beloved chains are making their first forays into the Alamo City, expanding into South and Central Texas after years of love in other major metros. Though, there’s one name notably missing from this ballooning roster of blind bag, K-beauty and Asian snack meccas – H Mart. And San Antonio has big feelings about it.
Several chain stores carrying hard to find products from the other side of the globe have opened doors here. Teso Life sparked a frenzy and sent lines wrapping a quarter mile on opening day, Daiso store announcements left folks relieved they’d no longer have to trek to Austin for the Japanese dollar store and Miniso’s expansion in town has repeatedly given residents all the cutesy feels anxious to dive into an abundance of cutesy options from the Chinese brand known for major collaborations.
While lines were long, quick cashiers and customer service kept the pace quick at Teso Life’s opening day for its San Antonio location. (Zachary-Taylor Wright/MySA)
But mixed in, and sometimes taking over, every wave of anticipation for a new store opening, one less positive anthem continued to be sung: When will they build an H Mart in San Antonio? Or will they ever?
“The real news is why won’t the Asian Grocery giant, [H Mart] open in San Antonio? I have to drive two hours for fresh meats and produce! They are all in the big cities in TX? No plans for SA,” Shelia Pruitt-Cox wrote impassioned on an Instagram post from MySA about Teso Life opening to mass excitement.
Pruitt-Cox isn’t wrong. H Mart just recently announced it’ll be opening its second Austin location, a point of contention for Alamo City dwellers eager for the largest Asian supermarket chain in the U.S. to open a San Antonio location. Currently, there are seven H Mart locations operating across Texas, but they’re isolated to three major cities, Austin, Dallas and Houston.
Why exactly San Antonio is seemingly so low on the priority list for H Mart remains a mystery. Clearly there’s a strong desire for specialty Asian retailers in the city. Lines have wrapped around competitors with origins rooted in other Asian countries, and H Mart would offer something unique – it’s rooted in Korean cuisine while still offering goods from several other countries.
A line around the brand new Teso Life location in San Antonio stretched over a quarter mile around the building on opening day. (Zachary-Taylor Wright/MySA)
“Bringing everything to the city but an H-Mart,” another Instagram user commented, echoing sentiments shared by flustered social media users and eager H Mart shoppers.
MySA reached out to H Mart for comment, particularly about whether San Antonio has been considered for a store.
“At this time, we don’t have any definitive updates to share regarding a potential San Antonio location. We do receive a high volume of inquiries and enthusiasm from the San Antonio community, and it’s certainly an area we would love to be in at some point. There are many contributing factors and often long wait times involved in securing the right location for a new store, and these variables can influence our timeline. Unfortunately, for now, we don’t have any additional insights on our end,” the store said.
This article originally published at San Antonio keeps asking for this major grocer – now the company responds.