TOUR: Kam Man Foods - Quincy, MA

Kam Man Foods
Opened: 2003

Owner: Wan Wu

Previous Tenants: unknown

Cooperative: none

Location: 219 Quincy Ave, Quincy, MA

Photographed: August 4, 2019

Quincy now has several large Asian supermarkets, but the first one was this Kam Man Foods, which opened in 2003. The store is nearly 85,000 square feet, and although there are some smaller shops inside that take up some space, it's still the largest Asian supermarket in New England. Kam Man also claims to be the oldest Chinese supermarket on the east coast, having been founded in New York City's Chinatown in 1972.

Here's an archived article about the store from 2005. You enter through an indoor mall walkway -- in fact, I believe the space was previously a department store before becoming home to Kam Man -- and you can see the entrance to the supermarket below under the Market Entrance sign. As we'll see, Kam Man is closer to a Chinese American Walmart than a regular Asian supermarket. There's a lot here beyond the groceries.

In the grand aisle on the right side of the store, we enter to the bakery and produce departments. Prepared foods are behind the bakery on the right-side wall, with meat and seafood on the back wall. Frozen foods then divide the store, extending out from the seafood counter at the back of the supermarket. The grocery store is on the right side, and on the left side is a large department for nonfoods, kitchenwares, home goods, and paper/cleaning.

The store is enormous and feels even larger because of the separated departments, so you keep encountering new sections as you wander around the store.

There's a seating area for the prepared foods department on the right side, too.

We can tell the store is older, but it also appears to be extremely high-volume. I don't know what effect, if any, some of the newer Asian supermarkets in Quincy have had on this store, including H Mart (which specializes in Korean foods, not Chinese, like Kam Man) or 99 Ranch, which has opened in the northern end of town. There are also numerous smaller grocers, some of which we'll see, too.

We've actually seen Kam Man's other locations in East Hanover (which has been recently renovated -- I'll post those pictures soon) and Edison, New Jersey. There was previously a large store in Boston, too, only open from 2012 to 2014.

The grocery aisles are cramped and stacked almost to the ceiling with merchandise, but as we can see, the store is very clean despite being older.

The interior has been lightly renovated -- mostly cosmetic, with new decor -- since its opening, but the bones look the same. You can read more about the store, and see some older pictures of the interior, here.

Here you can see the frozen foods department, with the main supermarket area to the right and the nonfoods to the left.

As you can see, it looks like the store ends at the frozen foods aisle, but it actually goes on for quite a bit. See the picture below...

...and this area has bulk packs of food items, along with assorted nonfoods and home goods.

The building was constructed in the 1960s, and I don't believe any supermarkets occupied the space before Kam Man.

The goal, of course, is for this store to become a one-stop shop for anything the Chinese American community in Quincy might need. There's also a Walmart in Quincy next to the H Mart, but here, you'd be able to get all your housewares along with your whole grocery order for the week.

And, of course, most of the items sold here at Kam Man aren't available at Walmart.

But this has become its own form of a supercenter, even selling some furniture and clothing.

And, while Kam Man isn't a member of any cooperative, I did spot some Krasdale paper goods in the nonfoods aisles!

This is an expansive supercenter and it was fun to wander around the store. But it competes with a much smaller Chinese supermarket directly across the street. That's where we're off to tomorrow!