Saraga Is the International Grocery Store of My Dreams | Bon Appétit

"A massive international supermarket on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio, housed in a former Toys “R” Us, this megastore was founded by two Korean brothers who set out to create one large grocery that serves many immigrant communities. After launching locations in Bloomington and Indianapolis (a 62,000-square-foot store opened in 2005), the Columbus branch opened in 2012 and feels intentionally designed to encourage long, joyful detours: expansive aisles, a distant checkout, space to linger near the entrance, and a perimeter lined with food stalls. Shoppers find a dizzying, cross-cultural selection—parathas appearing in Malaysian and Caribbean sections, frozen-aisle curiosities like North African-style merguez, and grocery terms preserved in immigrant English (for example, beanies labeled “monkey caps” and an aisle cheekily marked “American food”). Beyond groceries, the store functions as a community hub—hosting cellphone shops, eyebrow-threading services, a multilingual bulletin board, and other amenities that help newly arrived residents navigate life in the U.S.—and it has become a familiar, comforting public space for Columbus’s many immigrant groups." - ByZahir Janmohamed