Asian Invasion: Enson Market

It’s hard to believe that since I moved to Jacksonville, that suddenly there are all these Asian Supermarkets popping up in the city! I’ve previously documented them here. While we wait for the 800lb H Mart (they are still looking around for a location), we currently have RD International (Feb 2024), Lotte (Sep 2025), and now Enson Market (Apr 2026).

Giant Asian grocery store Enson Market just had a soft launch last week. The official grand opening is probably a month away, but right now they are open for business. Reading reports, not all their products are ready or available, but the soft launch should give us a good indication of the prices and products that they offer.

While Lotte enjoys very heavy foot traffic and is just more popular, RD International suffers from its location (it’s right off the freeway and makes it very hard to get to the parking lot due to changing three or four lanes in a short distance). The two are practically the same, both markets offers a variety of restaurants inside the building. It’s too early to tell how well Enson will do, but they are located near a Trader Joe’s (and that place is hopping on the weekends). On the Saturday afternoon that we were shopping, foot traffic was pretty good. There were a lot of interested shoppers, probably hearing about the soft opening by second hand or via the internet.

As with soft openings, they don’t have all their inventory ready (as evident by the restaurant part of store is not set up – but their chairs and tables were ready). Also, about 20% of the shelves were not populated. Based on my own observation of smaller Asian stores, these bigger stores just have way more stock and more choices. On smaller stores, they may only carry one or two fish sauces – but Enson will have ten (like all the major Asian manufacturers). Same with rice, because they have the floor space, the massive bags of rice are laid out and organized with easy access. The latest crops, from all the countries. I love Thailand’s Jasmine rice, but we have so many other alternatives like Japanese or Vietnamese rice.

I also like noodles, and it’s kind of cool to see so many Korean noodles available. There are also “self-heating” noodles, which I think is fascinating, but have yet to try out a bowl. I personally would rather just microwave or boil water for my noodles… so paying extra for a self-heating bowl isn’t worth it to me. However, I can also see the need for them if you’re at work and on your lunch break and don’t have access to a microwave.

Most people were drawn to the fresh meats and fruits and vegetables. Sure, they have a lot of that. I was impressed with the sugar canes for $4 a stick. It’s not everyday you see those in a store. You might ask, who is buying them? I guess if you have a machine, you can crush the stick and produce a sugar cane drink. I did just look it up, and you can buy Sugar Cane Juicer for about $200 for a manual crank.

According to Action News Jax, they mentioned the latest census data shows that only 5% of Jacksonville are Asian, roughly about 52k people. While the number is impressive, I don’t really see that for myself and I wonder if there are enough Asians here to support four Asian supermarkets?

They also interview a shop owner to said that about 30% are American customers… but from my own experience, people watching at Lotte and RD International, that it’s more like 70% are Americans. I think generally shoppers likes good value and deals, and these Asian markets have great low prices.

Personally speaking, Enson isn’t really located near me, so I might only go every once in a while. I live about five minutes from Aldi, and just due to laziness, I would just rather go down the street to get groceries (even though Aldi only offers one or two options).

Japanese fashion and lifestyle department store Teso Life will be coming to Jacksonville next month.

I don’t really know what it’ll look like or what they’ll offer, but I generally like Japanese stuff. I’m a big fan of Daiso (I got a ton of items under $5 at the store in New Hope, Minnesota)… so I am hoping Teso Life will offers that kind of pricing and product.

All the details are taken from jaxdailyrecord.com:

The same article also mentioned Indian marketplace Patel Brothers plan on opening a new store at Racetrack Rd in St. Johns County. They already have a location South Jacksonville, but I guess business must be booming that they want to open a second location.

Read more Asian Invasion and Jacksonville.

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