Commerce(d) Culture

Commerce(d) Culture, a study of the consumer culture displayed in various Vietnamese grocery stores across the United States, explores the intersection of consumption and cultural practices in Vietnamese diasporic communities. From Little Saigon in Southern California to Philadelphia and smaller towns in rural Illinois, these stores range from independent corner shops to larger multi-aisle supermarkets, attracting thousands to millions of shoppers of cultural nostalgia or global cuisine exploration. These stores exist not only as a place of transaction but also a celebration of intercultural communities and immigrants’ experience on display.

For many customers, shopping in these stores fulfills a craving for more than just items on the shelves. For members of Vietnamese diasporic communities, the goods and decorations carried in the stores portray a construct of nationhood and nostalgia of motherland. Unlike the ethnic section in other generic supermarkets, immigrant grocery stores are where people can shop for their everyday cooking ingredients and have the privilege of doing a quick grocery run without the constant reminder that they are aliens in the communal spaces they inhabit. By looking beyond the offered products, the photographs unveil the complex intersection of history and culture, placemaking and displacement, and the aftermath of globalization and mass-commercialization muffled under a party of attractive colors, sounds, and textures in the mundane subject of a grocery store.

I grew up in Vietnam behind a grocery store, well-acquainted with towers of cardboard boxes, friendly Saigonese banters, and an excessive amount of goods at the tip of my fingers. When I moved to Upstate New York, the nearest Vietnamese grocery store was an hour and a half plus a ferry ride away in Vermont, or two if I took the scenic route to the Canadian border. The piercing white Adirondacks called for a hot soup that cannot be made from the ingredients found in a neighborhood Walmart, so I took part in a monthly ritual, journeying across Lake Champlain to keep in touch with my cultural identity. For a special treat: familiarity. Once I moved to the Midwest, the stores became the few places where I could dust off my Vietnamese vocabularies as I read brand names on packages and “help wanted” signs on the community boards. The storekeepers recognized that I was a compatriot before I said a single word; all they had to do was look at the assortment of goods in my basket. It brings me great comfort to know that in these spaces, I am understood.