The reasons why Big Asia Supermarket expanded into Townsville

The owner of a new Asian-specialty supermarket in Townsville said she has been helping customers crack the local restaurants’ “secret recipes”, as best as she can.

Big Asia Supermarket found and director Anna Kang at her new Big Asia Supermarket at the Willows Shopping Centre. Picture: Leighton Smith.

It made sense for the founder of a Cairns based wholesale Asian food business to expand its supermarket chain into Townsville.

It was only a matter of time, according to company director Anna Kang, who wanted to take to expand the business properly, because to her, Asian food was about connecting to the culture of North Queensland.

Big Asia Supermarket has opened its third store at the Willows Shopping Centre, providing groceries from most Asian countries including China, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore, and aims to bring fresh produce from the Atherton Tablelands picked and accessible to the customer within a day.

Since its opening on the weekend Ms Kang has noticed the majority of customers were Eurocentric Australian, with several seeking her advice to learn the secret recipes of their local favourite Asian restaurants.

She would help as best as she could, with the disclaimer that these restaurants could have their own spin to the standard recipes.

Big Asia Supermarket found and director Anna Kang at her new Big Asia Supermarket at the Willows Shopping Centre. Picture: Leighton Smith.

“I find now that the food habits are changing, it looks like … but they don’t have the knowledge about how to cook the food,” Ms Kang said.

“I feel that food makes them feel the joy.

“Asian food can connect them, so it makes me very happy that they came to me so that I can help.”

A wide selection of Asian products are available at Big Asia Supermarket at the Willows Shopping Centre. Picture: Leighton Smith.

Six staff were working at the Townsville store who had transferred from Cairns because they already had the knowledge and experience of the Asian products that were stocked, but Ms Kang was looking for retail assistants and a manager.

Ms Kang said the wholesale business has had a warehouse in Mount St John for the last five years, and was a strategic waypoint between Mackay and Cairns.

And she noticed there was a larger population in Cairns with fewer Asian supermarkets.

“We have actually many customers from Townsville shopping in our grocery store, and they kept asking us, ‘do you want to open a new shop in Townsville?’” she said.

“So we kept thinking, thinking, thinking for the past few years because we want to give you the best things, so when I’m ready, I’m coming.

“So we were slowly thinking, ‘okay, I think it’s ready now, so, we come.’”

Originally published as The reasons why Big Asia Supermarket expanded into Townsville