Asian Supermarket now open in Columbus with live seafood, specialty produce and more
A grocery store that specializes in Asian food and ingredients has opened a new location in Columbus.
Asian Supermarket, 5750 Milgen Road, celebrated its grand opening last week to packed crowds, owner Cherry Zou told the Ledger-Enquirer. The store specializes in selling Asian products, features a live seafood section and has plans to open a food court.
It’s the store’s second location; the other one is in Opelika, in the Saugahatchee Square Shopping Center, 3750 Pepperell Parkway.
“We are bringing a concept into the Columbus city,” Zou said. “It’s good for varieties, diversities. So we’re trying to do more Asian groceries here. And plus, we have an Asian food court.”
Moving into vacant space
Zou said she’d been working on the property since last year. The building, which formerly housed a Winn-Dixie, was purchased in September 2020. It came with no blueprints, records or information on the power supply.
“We tried to get this up running ASAP,” Zou said. “So that way, residents here can have groceries if they want to cook at home. And we have all the ingredients they need. If they don’t want to cook, they can come here, and we have a common sitting area, a food court.”
All of the lights were replaced with LEDs, Zou said. Everything in the store was repainted and to build out the food court, Zou and her team had to work with the city to make sure the power panel could support the five spaces in the food court.
“We built out a brand new power line for the five units,” she said.
Low prices and live seafood
If you see a dish at any of the Asian restaurants in town that you want to try making at home, Zou says to make note of the name, bring it by Asian Supermarket and ask an associate for help. Odds are, they’ll be able to help you find each ingredient, she said.
For example, a simple shrimp fried rice recipe would cost around $6, for the rice, seasoning and raw shrimp.
Zou said the store may hold food “expos” in the future, to allow the community to try dishes made with ingredients found in the store.
Asian Supermarket sells live seafood ranging from catfish, to tilapia, lobster and even blue crab. The produce section contains fruits and vegetables from various Asian countries. The teas and coffee mixes are customer favorites, Zou said.
The reception has been positive and the grand opening was “super busy,” she said. A Facebook post announcing the opening hit over 1,000 shares and nearly 1,000 comments.
The food court isn’t open yet. Zou didn’t yet have a target date, as the store must first secure tenants — but it has already signed one.
“Columbus is a big city,” Zou said. “This city means more opportunity. We’re pretty excited.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2021 at 1:54 PM.
