History of the Store
Located on the east side of the Seekonk River by itself, Asiana Market is physically separately from the cluster of Asian stores west in Cranston, serving convenience and Asian tastes for the East Providence neighborhoods. However, accommodated by the RIPTA bus stop sitting right next to the store, residents and college students from Providence still come to the store regularly even without a car.
Established in the 1990s, Asiana was the only “real” Asian market until the large chain supermarkets like Good Fortune came to Providence in the 2000s. Having been owning the store for over 20 years, the Korean family still sells a majority of Korean groceries ranging from gallon size kimchi to instant noodles. With its name incorporating “Japanese & Korean Specialty Food”, the current shop owner Chris admits that Asiana is still the go to store for Japanese goods specifically right now with all the markets in relative area. Despite this specific focus on Korean and Japanese products, they have also branched out a little bit to include some Chinese, Filipino and Thai food as the consumer base expands to wider non-Korean population.
