Chinese American Mini Market

834 Park Ave, Cranston, RI 02910
History of the Store
Situated by the bustling Park Avenue in Cranston, Chinese American Mini Market is always pretty busy over the weekend. If you decide to walk into the store on a random Saturday, you could usually expect a vibrant atmosphere made up of amiable Cantonese chatting in the background, elder people pushing a shopping cart with their pets inside, and mother-daughter pairs navigating their Asian food journeys.

Introduced by the lovely lady from the family behind this long-established Chinese grocery store, we get to know that it has been operating in the area for over 35 years. The predecessor of this grocery store was a record shop, but with the rise of online music streaming, the record business gradually declined. Therefore, when this Hong Kong family was seeking a business opportunity in the Providence area, they took over this shop and changed it to a grocery store. The lady said that the family was originally also doing supermarket businesses when they were back in Hong Kong, so it was natural for them to start an ethnic grocery store.

In its early years before the popularization of the internet, the store functioned as an important physical space for the spread of local information, as we can still see its heritage from the piece of billboard in front of the check out area. Information about local Filipino parties or church activities would be put up on the billboard for the regular customers. Nowadays, there is not many posters there since information can be easily accessed from the online social media. However, the store still has a Chinese Newspaper section right next to the entrance with newspaper like the Epoch Times (大纪元时报) and the Sing Tao Daily (星岛日报).
Product Categories
Owned by this family of sisters from Hong Kong, the store has all kinds of products from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, and even some Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines. According to her, the store branched out from mainly Cantonese products that they were familiar with to Asian products from other cultures as demanded by the increasing college student customers and Filipino customers in the area. The store is a must visit if you are from the Cantonese speaking area of China and would like to find some of the great childhood snacks like the pineapple cake or just have a nice conversation with the cashier in Cantonese. However, the store does have most East Asian and Southeast Asian ingredients to make any dishes that are not Hong Kong specific.

Although the store does not have a enormous storage space like large supermarkets, it is still divided into multiple sections with boxes piled from the group to the ceiling. It is worth noticing that the arrangement is a little messy with very narrow aisles as the store is slightly crammed. However, it could be a really fun experience treasure-hunting with families or friends if you have enough time, and the amount of goods guarantees that you can most probably find anything that you are looking for that is Cantonese or Filipino. The “beauty of Chaos” also generates a very authentic and cosy feeling unique of an Asian family store which could be something that some consumers look for outside of large supermarkets.

Spicy sauces and hotpot ingredients were specifically mentioned during the interview to accommodate Chinese students from northern parts of China. If you are looking for snacks from mainland China, there is a chance to be disappointed as most snacks are Cantonese based on the shop owners’ experience of Chinese snacks. One unique category of their product is the freshly baked old-fashioned Cantonese/Chinese desserts like the paper wrapped sponge cakes (纸包蛋糕) and meat floss buns (肉松面包) sold by the counter.
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Photographs taken
in Dec 2023

Produce

Dried Goods

Snacks and Drinks

Refrigerated

Frozen

Seasoning

Household Supply

Store View/ Others