IN THE MARKET FOR SOMETHING NEW ETHNIC GROCERS EAT AWAY AT MAINSTREAM'S EDGE.

Byline: JULIA M. SCOTT

Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - Andre Akil, a personal chef from San Fernando, has plenty of choices when it comes to buying groceries. Like many shoppers who discovered new markets during the grocery strike three years ago, he became a regular at ethnic grocery stores.

One of his favorite spots is Greenland Market, a Korean grocery store in Van Nuys.

"I was wondering if I would be treated as an outsider," said Akil, 35, of his first visit. Now "they recognize me. I know a few words of Korean."

In a hyper-competitive industry where consumers can buy milk practically anywhere -- Target, Costco, or the nearest gas station, let alone any grocery store -- many mainstream customers are turning to ethnic grocers such as Greenland, Vallarta and India Sweets and Spices.

"What draws them is either products they can't find in the normal supermarkets or our price points are better than the majors," Vallarta General Manager John Marquis said.

At Vallarta, which caters to Latinos, one in three of its customers are not Latino. In the past year, it has opened five new locations, including one in Valencia and one in Winnetka currently having its grand opening.

Mainstream chains have taken note of shoppers buying ethnic products, if the items on their shelves are any indication. Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons all carry items that speak to the local neighborhood, be it infused with Asians, Latinos or Indians.

Mainstream stores branching out

At Albertsons, stores that don't already carry ethnic items are getting them, spokeswoman Stephanie Martin said.

"The most important thing is to stock what our customers want in any specific area," Martin said. Albertsons' main competitors are other chains, but "ethnic grocery stores are also filling a need for milk and bread."

One reason ethnic grocery stores are popular is that they offer something the mainstream chains can only put on their shopping list.

"I think the ethnic markets are doing well because there's a real sense of authenticity for the shoppers," said Jenny McTaggart, senior editor of the trade publication Progressive Grocer.

At India Sweets and Spices on Sherman Way in Canoga Park, it is difficult to find rice, hair-care products or spices sold under an American brand.

Items stamped with the Chandi, Appu or Nirmal brands line the shelves and are used to prepare meals in the adjoining restaurant.

Non-Indian customers have been steadily increasing as people flock to the Topanga Mall and Warner Center, said founder Kumar Jawa. As many as half of their customers are not Indian.

"It is increasing every year because some people are eating vegetarian food, which is our specialty," Jawa said. The chain has eight locations, including the one he runs in Glendale.

Shobha Chauhan started shopping at India Sweets and Spices after she left India for Los Angeles more than 20 years ago. Chauhan, 51, lives in Thousand Oaks and shops at the store after she gets her long brown hair done at an Indian salon down the street. On a recent afternoon, she bought ingredients to make rava dosa, a thin rice crepe filled with potatoes.

For many transplants like her, the small restaurant at India Sweets and Spices is the place to get home-cooked meals.

"The kitchen burned down and people were starving," she said of a fire years ago. "In the San Fernando Valley, this is really an anchor."

Chauhan sees many non-Indian customers mixed in with Indians like herself.

Mike Mekjian, a longtime resident of Woodland Hills who was born in Armenia, shops at India Sweets and Spices once a week for lentils, herbs and tortilla-like chapatis. He likes the quality of the groceries and their $4 lunches.

"It's good," said Mekjian, 83. "It's always good. I've never had a bad meal here."

From boiled squid to pollack entrails 

Greenland Market anchors a cluster of Asian businesses in a strip mall on Sherman Way. Inside the store, shoppers can buy boiled squid, braised pork feet and brown burdock roots, which resemble three-foot-long candlesticks. Greenland is perhaps the only grocer that shelves Totino's Party Pizza between salted pollack entrails and frozen threadfin bream.

On a recent morning, David Chung pushed an empty cart toward the sliding glass door entrance. He and his wife were shopping for items to cook Korean meals in their Reseda home.

"A lot of foreigners come here," said Chung, 65. "Most of them for the vegetable section, and the kimchi is fresh."

julia.scott(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Andre Akil, a personal chef, shops at Korean grocer the Greenland Market in Van Nuys. Akil says he goes there so often that market employees recognize him and he has even learned a few words of Korean.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

(2) Traditional regional foods are offered at the meat counter in the Vallarta supermarket in Valencia that caters to Hispanics.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer