Daniel B.
Yelp
City Farmers Market, a local Vietnamese-owned Asian and Hispanic grocery store chain, has been expanding in metro Atlanta. Currently, this location in Duluth and another one in Snellville are the company's two newest locations. There are now six total stores in the Atlanta area. They are numbered as follows:
1. Chamblee
2. Atlanta
3. Snellville
4. Norcross
5. Marietta
6. Duluth
I'm not sure how the stores were numbered, but it's not chronologically. The Norcross location, known as Hong Kong Supermarket (https://www.yelp.com/biz/hong-kong-supermarket-norcross-2), is the original. It was formerly located on Buford Highway before it moved to its current location in Norcross. Since that time, City Farmers Market has "returned" to the original BuHi location as store #2.
This location in Duluth replaced the old Assi Plaza on Pleasant Hill Road near I-85 (https://www.yelp.com/biz/assi-plaza-duluth). I was told by a City Farmers Market employee, who used to work at Assi, that Assi closed on July 15, 2018 and City Farmers Market opened the following day: July 16, 2018. A quick turnaround.
It's sad - the supermarket seems like a shell of its former self. While this is one of the newest locations of City Farmers Market, it certainly doesn't look like it. That's because it inherited an old space unlike store #1 in Chamblee (https://www.yelp.com/biz/city-farmers-market-chamblee) which was newly constructed about three years ago. I like the Chamblee location; this one, not so much.
This store, and the sizable shopping plaza it's contained in, have gone downhill. It's not as nice, clean, and in good condition as it used to be. When we visited this past weekend, trash was strewn about the plaza's parking lot and sidewalks. The shopping carts, which were a mixture of old Assi carts and used City Farmers Market carts, were beat up and in average shape at best.
Inside, the market had a vast array of smells, some of which were simply putrid. An example of this was in the rice section, one of the last places you'd expect to smell bad. I have no idea what made that section smell awful. I know it's not uncommon for Asian markets to have funky smells, but this one had smells that were particularly off-putting.
Unfortunately, I can see why Assi left. The only Assi Plaza that remains in the area is in Suwanee (https://www.yelp.com/biz/assi-plaza-suwanee); it's still decent. Along with the old Assi shopping carts, many remnants of the old Assi remain inside this store. Examples include aisle signage with the Assi logo, food picture banners that hang from the ceiling in the produce section with the Assi logo, and restaurants and vendors that were open in the old Assi.
Some of the restaurants have transitioned over to City Farmers Market like Kuya's Food Express, the food court's popular Filipino restaurant. Others have closed such as Mozart Bakery, yet Mozart's storefront signage remains. Generally, it appears somewhat like a hodgepodge of open and closed vendors.
Speaking of aisle signage, some of the aisles were incorrectly labeled. A good (bad?) example was aisle 10 for which the sign lists "Rice." There was no rice to be found. Instead, we found the rice in an unmarked corner of the store. They carried my favorite brand of jasmine rice, Three Ladies Brand. I picked up a couple five-pound bags for $6.29 each. (I remember they used to be $5 each several years ago.)
The produce section had a variety of leafy greens, bagged for easy grab-and-go like Great Wall Supermarket down the street (https://www.yelp.com/biz/great-wall-supermarket-duluth). My fiancee picked up a bag of snow pea tips ($5.99 per pound) and checked them. They were slightly yellow and smelled repulsive. They even made her fingers smell horrible. She wanted to wash her hands immediately, but unlike Buford Highway Farmers Market (https://www.yelp.com/biz/buford-highway-farmers-market-doraville), there was no sink in the produce section to wash her hands.
Sadly, this City Farmers Market reminds me of the H Mart in Riverdale (https://www.yelp.com/biz/hmart-riverdale). It's like the redheaded stepchild of the City Farmers Market family. Unlike the metro Atlanta H Marts, I haven't been to all of the City Farmers Market locations, but that's just the feeling I get. This store is dirty and seems to have lower quality produce and merchandise compared to the competition like H Mart (https://www.yelp.com/biz/hmart-duluth), Assi, Great Wall, Mega Mart (https://www.yelp.com/biz/mega-mart-duluth), Jusgo Supermarket (https://www.yelp.com/biz/jusgo-supermarket-duluth-6), Buford Highway Farmers Market, etc.
All that said, our experience at this store wasn't completely negative. We still picked up a handful of groceries (mangoes, Kadoya-brand sesame oil, fresh garlic, Thai basil, bananas). The selection of produce and groceries was really good; a nice mixture of Asian, Hispanic, and American products. Also, service was great. The staff was friendly, efficient, and helpful.