A-mart entrepreneur satisfying local taste for premium Asian food
The sudden closure of five Planet Organic stores in March came as a shock to many, but Certus Development, the owners of the leased property in Royal Oak Park shopping centre off Country Hills Boulevard N.E., had heard rumours of financial difficulties and had already started to search for a replacement tenant.
A-mart opened a week ago in the space and is doing a roaring trade with its Asian specialties in a northwest area that has been underserved in offerings of quality oriental foods.
The Royal Oak store is the third location in the city and the largest — at 12,800 square feet — giving lots of space to show off its more than 5,000 labels amounting to some 30,000 items on display.
A-mart is owned by Don Choi, who came to Calgary via Winnipeg from Seoul, Korea. He ran a clothing company in Seoul but this is his first venture into retail grocery. But the big change in careers was from his 12 years at sea.
After university, Choi joined a shipping line and sailed up to the position of captain of ocean-going tankers, steering them through the China Sea to Australia and New Zealand, and in 1979 made his first voyage into Vancouver.
In 2003, Choi emigrated with his wife and two children to Winnipeg — after graduating from the University of Toronto their son is a web designer in that city, and their daughter is a fashion designer based in New York City. He decided in 2017 to move to Calgary and quickly became a friend of Mr. Min, who owned the Korean shopping centre just east of 14th Street on 10th Avenue S.W., and was invited to become a 50-per-cent shareholder in its Arirang International Grocery Store.
The following year, Choi became sole owner, took over the rest of the centre and began to look for new locations to expand. His second location, a 4,500-square-foot store, opened on Macleod Trail S.W. under the new company name of A-mart, and since then he has opened an Express small store in Red Deer and is in partnership with an
A-mart store in Edmonton.
The new Calgary grocery is three times the size of his other stores, and besides carrying a much larger inventory, will also offer shoppers items from an in-store Corbeaux Bakery, Fratello Coffee and Jusfruit Bubble Tea, as soon as café seating is resumed.
Pre-packaged meals are already available and there are plans to open a Korean Street Food section as well as whole sweet potatoes from the grill.
Counters of a variety of Alberta beef, chicken and pork are a specialty, but the adventurous can sample a wonderful selection of oriental fresh fruits, vegetables — Kimchee and Perilla leaves have to be sampled — and packaged food. For tea lovers, a whole section offers Korean, Japanese and Chinese brands of loose leaf or tea bags.
With three busy locations there was need for his own warehouse, and Choi also runs a 10,000-square-foot facility on 48th Avenue S.E.
Choi and his current staff of 50 are serving a growing market in premium Asian food in this city, and his new northwest location has sparked interest among other ethnic retailers and restaurants in considering the Royal Oak Park centre.
Notes: Beer lovers will know the name Courage, a brewery founded in 1787 on the south side of the River Thames adjacent to Tower Bridge in London.
The name has now surfaced here for a specialty cider; a meaningful name based on the belief that during these challenging times we are called to be courageous together.
Courage is a collaboration between Sunnycider, Balzac Craft Brewing Co., and Field and Forge Brewing Co., releasing a cherry vanilla cider that is being sold at more than 50 liquor stores across southern Alberta in support of The Alex Community Health Centre. Several other creative Alberta businesses joined in “The heart of community is Courage” campaign. Tim Kitchen, owner of Sunnycider, says: “We are all in this storm together. We wanted to collaborate with all businesses in our supply chain and this is the best way we felt we could contribute to a part of our community that is most vulnerable.”