After 30 Years, Veteran Korean Grocer Shuts Doors By JAMES FERGUSSON
The grocery store was founded by Il Yun Kim, but since the early 1980s, his son, Tae Kim, had been in charge. Kim, 54, said that bringing the curtain down on something his father had created was tough. “It took me two years to do it,” he said in a telephone interview. In the end, however, Kim was left with no choice; business had fallen away alarmingly. “I couldn’t make a living anymore,” he said.
Those days are now a distant memory, and when Suzie’s closed, Kim breathed a sigh a relief. “I’m out of a headache,” he said. “I was working 16 hours a day. A couple of times I was burglarized. A lot of stealing … and I had to argue with [kids] every day." According to the 2000 Census, Bedford Park’s Korean population numbers more than a thousand, making it the largest Korean community in the Bronx. Reverend Christopher Ponnuraj of Bedford Park Congregational Church, which shares its space with a Korean congregation, believes it’s “still growing.” Kim, however, thinks it’s declining. “It’s getting smaller,” said Kim, adding that people are leaving the neighborhood to find careers for themselves and better schools for their kids. “This also hurt my business,” he said. Suzie’s last day of operation was Nov.15. Kim and his father then sold the property to Shin Yol Kim, a New Jersey-based businessman, for $675,000. He’s converted the building into three separate stores and is renting them out. One is occupied by a 99-cent store. Another, the store closest to Mosholu Parkway, is currently vacant. A piece of Suzie’s dark green awning still hangs above its window front. The new owner said he hopes to attract a deli or a restaurant. The middle store, however, has a distinctly Korean feel. A video rental store, Yung Hwa Saw Sang, specializing in Korean movies, has made its home here. Suzie’s used to do a sideline in Korean movies and, for locals with a penchant for such films, Yung Hwa Saw Sang must be a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Suzie’s demise has also led to activity on the opposite side of the street. “[With Suzie’s shut] we could not really buy any fresh produce… or spices and sauces,” said Jan Wejin, whose family runs Hae Korean and Japanese Restaurant. And with this in mind, the family opened a small Korean grocery store in one half of their restaurant, ensuring that Bedford Park’s Korean population, shrinking or not, still has access to a ready supply of old favorites. Features Index PageNews | Opinion | Schools | Features | Continuing Stories | Home |
Last
November, a well-known Korean supermarket on East 204th Street between
Mosholu Parkway and the Grand Concourse quietly closed its doors for good.
Suzie’s Oriental Food Market — or Suzie’s as it was commonly known — had
been in the neighborhood since 1974.
Kim blames Suzie’s plummeting sales on competition from other Korean stores
in Flushing, Queens, and elsewhere in New York and New Jersey. Once upon a
time, he said, Suzie’s was the only Korean grocery store in the city and
“you couldn’t even pass on 204th Street because of the cars … people would
come from all around.”