Filipino supermarket chain Seafood City has opened a 50,000-square-foot store in the Houston suburb of Sugarland, the California-based company’s first location in Texas.
The new store features an expansive assortment of traditional Filipino foods, an in-store Filipino barbecue restaurant, and a Filipino bakery.
According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Texas is home to the third-largest population of Filipino-Americans, behind California and Hawaii. The store seeks to appeal to these consumers, as well as others who may be seeking out Filipino ingredients to use at home, or ready-to-eat prepared foods, said the store’s manager, Megan Austria, in an interview with local TV station KPRC.
“It’s a place where they can find hard-to-find ingredients and products for Filipino dishes,” she said.
One Filipino-American shopper interviewed in the broadcast said the store is a “one-stop shop” for all of the products that she needs, saving her from having to make multiple trips to smaller stores.
In a video tour of the store posted on YouTube, the store’s fresh seafood assortment is perhaps the most striking aspect of its merchandising, with several freestanding cases of whole fish on ice, as well as tanks containing live lobsters, mussels, and clams. Nearby are various packages of shelf-stable dried fish, along with bottles of Filipino fish sauces such as bagoong.
Shelf-stable grab-and-go snacks are merchandised throughout the grocery department, on shelves atop display cases as well as on endcaps under signage promoting “The Filipino Food Gallery.”
The Pamana Foods brand, which is based in Southern California, is featured prominently in the dry grocery assortment, and also in the wall of freezer doors, where Pamana-brand ice cream is promoted with a large sign touting its “authentic Filipino recipe.” Flavors include ube and mango, among others.
The Pamana brand is also featured on spice mixes for traditional Filipino dishes such as sisig and adobo, and on a line of instant dishes in a cup, including arroz caldo (rice soup) and champarado (chocolate rice porridge).
The store also features spice mixes from Mama Sita’s, another brand popular with Filipino consumers, according to a video posted on YouTube by a user called The Surfside Jetty.
The video also highlighted another popular Filipino brand carried at Seafood City called Lucky Me, which offers pancit noodles in instant-ramen-style packages, on sale at two for $1 at the time the video was made. Pancit is a popular Filipino noodle dish in which the noodles are first boiled and then stir-fried with vegetables and other mix-ins, such as seafood, chicken, or pork, along with Filipino seasonings.
Other Filipino favorites on display include UFC Tomato Sauce – Filipino Style, available in a few different varieties, merchandised in tear-open pouches alongside boxes of traditional pasta brands such as Barilla.
Perhaps the store’s main attraction, however, is the Grill City restaurant inside the store, which offers traditional Filipino barbecue items such as inihaw na liempo (grilled pork belly), along with other pork, chicken, and seafood items. Dishes are available in combo meals with side dishes, including two-item value meals, or barbecued meats can be purchased by weight or by the piece. The store includes an expansive indoor seating area for restaurant customers.
The store also includes an in-store bakery called Bakers Avenue that offers various breads, rolls, biscuits, and cakes along with traditional Filipino baked goods, such as pan de sal (a salted bread roll often enjoyed for breakfast), ensaymada (a fluffy, brioche-style sweet bread), and biscocho (sometimes described as a Filipino version of biscotti).
Based in Pomona, California, Seafood City opened its first store in 1980 and has since expanded to more than 30 locations, mostly along the West Coast. It also has a store in Hawaii, one in Chicago, and a handful across Canada.
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