Shopping at Giant Foods: Chinese American Supermarkets in Northern California

215 Pages·2013·1.059 MB·English

by  Alfred Yee

the scott and laurie oki series
in asian american studies
the scott and laurie oki series
in asian american studies
From a Three-Cornered World: New and Selected Poems
by James Masao Mitsui
Imprisoned Apart: The World War II Correspondence
ofan Issei Couple by Louis Fiset
Storied Lives: Japanese American Students
and World War II by Gary Y. Okihiro
Phoenix Eyes and Other Stories
by Russell Charles Leong
Paper Bullets: A Fictional Autobiography
by Kip Fulbeck
Born in Seattle: The Campaign for Japanese American Redress
by Robert Sadamu Shimabukuro
Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview ofWorld War II
Japanese American Relocation Sites
by Jeffery F. Burton, Mary M. Farrell,
Florence B. Lord, and Richard W. Lord
Judgment without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment
during World War II by Tetsuden Kashima
Shopping at Giant Foods: Chinese American Supermarkets
in Northern California by Alfred Yee
SHOPPING AT
GIANT FOODS
Chinese American Supermarkets
in Northern California
ALFRED YEE
university of washington press
Seattle and London
This book is published with the assistance ofa grant
from the Scott and Laurie Oki Endowed Fund
for the publication ofAsian American Studies,
established through the generosity ofScott and Laurie Oki.
Copyright © 2003 by the University ofWashington Press
First paperback edition, 2013
Printed in United States ofAmerica
Design by Pamela Canell
All rights reserved. No portion ofthis publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yee, Alfred.
Shopping at Giant Foods :Chinese American supermarkets
in Northern California / Alfred Yee.
p. cm.—(The Scott and Laurie Oki series in Asian American studies)
isbn978-0-295-99294-5 (alk. paper)
1. Supermarkets—California, Northern.
2. Chinese Americans—California, Northern.
i. Title. ii. Series.
hf5469.23.u63c29 2003 381'.148'0899510794—dc21 2003040288
The paper used in this publication is acid free and recycled from 10 percent
post-consumer and at least 50 percent pre-consumer waste. It meets the
minimum requirements ofthe American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence ofPaper for Printed Library Materials,
ansi z39.48–1984. 8A
contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 3
1 / Supermarkets 16
2 / Community, Employment, and Enterprise 32
3 / Beginnings 47
4 / Golden Times 70
5 / Decline and Passing 96
6 / Employees and Salesmen 117
7 / Chinese Management and Labor Unions 132
8 / Stop-N-Shop 147
Conclusion 153
Appendix 163
Notes 167
Bibliography 183
Index 189
v

preface
writing about what one knows best helps to make an in-
teresting and engaging topic. For over twenty years I was solidly involved in
the Chinese American grocery and supermarket business. After graduating
from college with a bachelor of science degree in 1973, I went to work for a
Chinese American supermarket chain in the Sacramento area. This was meant
to be a temporary job while I searched for a professional career that was con-
gruous with my education. In reality, the job provided a welcome suspen-
sion in decision-making about the direction of my life. Getting a job in a
supermarket was not difficult, because I had many years ofexperience work-
ing in a grocery store. This “temporary” job lasted fifteen years. I was employed
at Jumbo Markets from 1975 to 1989 as a courtesy clerk, cashier, stock clerk,
warehouseman, and head clerk (third person in charge under the manager
and assistant manager). While at Jumbo, I was also a shop steward for the
Retail Clerks Union Local 588 for a short period.
The job provided a solid middle-class income and outstanding health and
welfare benefits, which were won by the hard negotiating of the local retail
clerks union. Life was comfortable, to say the least, for a full-time clerk with
union wages and benefits. It was easy to drudge on for years, leaving work
behind each day when quitting time arrived. For a young person, the rou-
tine physical work was not very challenging, but it could be stupefying. On
the other hand, the rapport between clerks and customers and the camaraderie
among the clerks helped mitigate much of the mental monotony. I knew I
would not remain a lifetime grocery clerk, but I procrastinated for a long time
before I made the break, returning to college to pursue additional degrees
for a career as a college instructor.
During those years as a clerk, I learned much about the supermarket busi-
ness, in particular the Chinese American operations. I met countless people
who talked and gossiped about who did what recently or in the past. Among
vii
viii • Preface
them were store employees, managers, owners, salesmen, deliverymen, ven-
dors, and so forth—people who were in the business for decades and people
who owned or worked for competing stores. There were always plenty ofanec-
dotes and stories, the veracity of which ranged from factual to exaggerated
to fabricated. But carefully scrutinized and cross-checked, they contributed
to a fairly accurate account ofthe workings and histories ofthe various Chinese
American operations.
Prior to my employment at Jumbo Markets, my family and I had already
been involved in the grocery store and supermarket business. My late father
worked in the Sacramento area as a “butcher” (nowadays called a meatcut-
ter) for a few years in General Food Market before becoming a minor part-
ner in Fine Food Market from 1956 to 1964. Established in 1939, Fine Food
Market was one ofthe earlier Chinese American supermarkets and a member
of Famous Food Markets, a cooperative providing purchasing, advertising,
and promotional services. While a young teenager, I worked part-time at Fine
Food Market for two summers, my first undertaking in the grocery business.
From 1967 to 1975, my father operated a small supermarket, Florin Market.
I worked in Florin Market during my high school and early college years—
after classes, on weekends, and during summers. Later, while I was at Jumbo,
my two brothers and other partners operated a four-supermarket chain dur-
ing the early 1980s. Although my brothers had over thirty years ofexperience
between them, the stores were not successful for reasons similar to those
detailed in this study. My older brother then ran two other small supermar-
kets until he retired in the mid-1990s. For a few years I worked weekends and
summers in one of them while attending graduate school. My younger
brother has since become a vendor for a national snack food company. Most
ofthe people I socialized with and knew before I reentered college were people
in the grocery store and supermarket business. It was from this background
that I thus began research for this study. I knew as much or more about the
details and nuances ofnearly every aspect ofthe grocery business as the people
I interviewed. Hence, they were comfortable recounting their experiences,
feeling that I understood their sentiments. Their anecdotes and stories pro-
vided material to construct histories that heretofore have not been recorded.
I have met many people who exclaimed after learning about my family’s
business background that Chinese American supermarket operators were well-
to-do. There is some truth to this common perception, but the reality is much
more mixed. Some did become very successful, but many others made mod-
est or meager profits or failed altogether. The stories ofthe few who became
Preface • ix
wealthy were the ones that were the loudest and most remembered. In all
cases, the grocers worked long, hard hours that were weighted with a never-
ending series ofproblems and ongoing concerns. Ask any past or present gro-
cer and he or she will say that there is no such thing as easy money in the
grocery and supermarket business. It was thus no surprise that nostalgia was
not prevalent in the oral interviews that were used to construct this history
ofChinese American supermarkets.