Hmongtown Marketplace (2004)
Hmong refugees opened Hmongtown Marketplace in a former big-box store on Saint Paul's Como Avenue, creating a commercial anchor for a community resettling from Southeast Asia.
The market drew shoppers and vendors, becoming a regional destination for Southeast Asian groceries.
It remains open today, though vendors have turned over steadily — evidence that refugee-built markets can outlast individual tenants.
Kyaw Karen Market sits in the same city where earlier refugee groups built lasting market institutions, showing what's at stake when a single ethnic grocery falters.
