Matador Network, March 24, 2020: You Should Be Shopping At Asian Groceries During the Coronavirus Crisis — and Long After
With business slow everywhere, it becomes doubly important to shop at independent stores like these. With the racist scrutiny many Asian people are facing during the coronavirus crisis, it’s triply important to support these stores that are being entirely overlooked.
While I’m certainly a great cheerleader for Publix (as every Floridian is required to be) I also recognize that it is a large company whose profitability is fairly guaranteed. Small Asian markets, on the other hand, are typically run by families who might be hardest-hit when the economy goes south. And buying your groceries there will do a lot more to help the local economy than shopping at a chain.
I returned home with some tea, a new set of forks (Asian groceries have every kitchen item you can imagine), three jars of pickled veggies, an armload of noodles, bagged lettuce, and a bottle of pork liver sauce that I’m looking forward to figuring out how to use.
Though I never did find the exact onions I was looking for, I was able to grab some scallions. More importantly, I used this time to open my own worldview to a realm of delicious ingredients, and shelf-stable food, that has always existed and will exist long after the current crisis has resolved. Shopping at Asian grocery stores may not replace my daily walks to Publix, but they will be at the forefront of my mind when I’m looking to mix it up, support local, independent businesses, and — for the foreseeable future — stock up while social distancing.
