Born in East L.A.

IN NEIGHBORHOODS LIKE BALDWIN PARK, PICO Rivera, el Monte and Rosemead in East Los Angeles, small taco stands sell Michoacanstyle carnitas every Sunday and other Mexican dishes throughout the week. Last Cinco de Mayo, though, Mexican supermarket chain Grupo Gigante went for the whole enchilada, opening its first store outside of Mexico.

The investment is small-a mere US$3 million-but if all goes well in East L.A., the company has big plans for Los Angeles. The city is home to more than 14 million people, including 4.8 million Hispanics, most of whom are Mexican. "Demographically, it is a heavy Hispanic market and the name recognition factor is very important for us," says Justo Frias, director of the Baja California division of Grupo Gigante. Store shelves will carry mostly U.S. products, but as much as 15% of the space will be set aside for products imported directly from Mexico. They also teamed up with La of the nation's largest Spanish-language Pinion, one newspapers, allowing them to lease space in the store to sell everything from classified ads to pre-paid phone cards.

Bringing goods from the "old country" won't give Gigante much of an edge in Southern California. Conchas y Piedras, a local chain with eight stores and $250 million in annual sales, has been doing it for years. Another store, Hollywood-based supermarket chain Jones, devotes an entire aisle to everything from cilantro to mole poblano, soap, cooking oil-all "the best of Mexican products:' And, of course, there's Superior, a Korean-owned supermarket chain that stocks such delicacies as the sweet pastry known as Orejas de Elefante (Elephant Ears).