H Mart Coming to SE Portland – Confirmed

H Mart Asian Market is opening in SE Portland

[This story has been confirmed ]

Ever since Zupans Market closed their store on SE Belmont in Portland, there has been a lot of rumors floating around about what will replace it. One seems to be gaining some traction – H Mart.

H Mart is a huge Asian/Korean grocery store; think Uwajimaya on steroids, though the Belmont space is much smaller than some of their other branches. They opened a store on SW Pacific Highway in Tigard in June 2008, which I reviewed here. The chain consists of almost 60 stores spread across the United States. I go there 4-5 times a year to pick up ingredients I can’t get at local stores. In my experience, the service isn’t good, but other than that it’s a decent store, and is looking better than Uwajimaya, which seems to be slowly going downhill, with less stock and not as clean a feel as it used to have.