A supermarket chain catering to Filipino customers plans to open a store on Oahu next year, breaking into a market where the trend in recent years has been consolidation and expansion by existing Hawaii grocery retailers.
Seafood City Supermarket, a California-based chain with 20 stores in three states, plans to open a supermarket at Waipahu Town Center after New Hope Leeward church vacates the anchor space at the retail center in February.
The space was once occupied by a Safeway store and is 38,564 square feet. Mall management confirmed the plan, but representatives of Seafood City did not return calls seeking comment.
Seafood City was established more than 20 years ago with a first store in San Diego, according to its website. Of its 20 stores, 17 are in California, two are in Las Vegas and one is near Seattle.
The company is affiliated with Pomona, Calif.-based Foremost Foods Corp. and calls itself the "home away from home" for Filipino and Asian populations in the United States.
Foremost Foods offers Filipino and Asian goods that aren’t commonly available in the U.S., importing products mainly from the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Foremost Foods also supplies ChowKing and Max’s of Manila restaurants. There are two Max’s restaurants on Oahu, one in Waipahu and one in the Dillingham area.
The move by Seafood City is targeting the highest and biggest concentration of Filipino residents on Oahu based on 2010 census data.
Census figures indicate that a little more than 60 percent of Waipahu’s population is Filipino, representing about 16,000 people. Nearby areas including Kunia and Ewa Villages are home to another roughly 11,000 Filipino residents.
David J. Livingston, a Wisconsin-based supermarket industry analyst, said there isn’t a big trend of ethnic food grocery retailers expanding their chains. Typically, he said, most major supermarkets concentrating on ethnic niches have a wider focus, such as Asian or Hispanic foods.
Hawaii, with its diverse population tracing back to plantation agriculture, has a history of ethnic food retailers mostly with small stores. The big players today are Don Quijote with a focus on Japanese foods, and Palama Supermarket focused on Korean foods.
Don Quijote, based in Japan, entered the Hawaii market with the acquisition of Daiei stores in 2006, and today operates stores in Pearl City, Waipahu and on Kaheka Street.
Palama Supermarket began as a Korean convenience store in the McCully area in 1977 that grew into a 14,000-square-foot store in Kalihi. A second store opened in 2005 near Don Quijote’s Kaheka store.
Oahu’s mainstream grocery store chains are Foodland, Safeway and Times supermarkets.
Foodland and Safeway have been developing new stores in recent years, while Times acquired smaller chains: Star Market in 2009 and Kauai chain Big Save Value Centers in 2011.
