Viengchan Oriental Market Opens In Former Cooper’s Site
The long-awaited return of a neighborhood grocery store to West 7th finally came when Viengchan Oriental Market opened its doors on December 18 at the site of the former Cooper’s Foods, 633 West 7th St.
“We are excited to officially open Viengchan’s doors to the community,” said Herder Her, who along with his siblings Pader Her-Vang and Papeng Her-Yang, own the market. “We look forward to becoming part of this neighborhood.”
The new store features traditional Asian foods alongside more American fare.
“Next to your Sara Lee bread, you might find some flavored bread from Korea. Next to your Campbell’s chicken noodle soup, you might find some curry,” said Viengchan employee Mua Xiong. “You might find a whole wall of rice, which is probably not the same as Cooper’s or maybe what you are used to.”
Her-Yang said that choice was intentional. “We want people to come in, in one stop, and feel and experience our culture, and experience other cultures when coming here. Maybe you can experience your home country,” she said.
The market offers a full deli, with freshly prepared dishes and meats.
“We are trying to provide a core service to the community,” said Her-Yang.
In addition, Viengchan offers a loyalty program offering 5% cashback on your purchases.
This is the second location for Viengchan. The first opened in Brooklyn Park in 2016.
“We started with 2,500 square feet, then expanded to 4500 square feet. Then purchased the whole strip mall in 2022 with 7,000 square feet,” said Her-Vang. “Now we are 19,000 square feet, triple what we had. It is a big jump for us and we are proud to be there today.”
She said that the business started as a way that the siblings could all work together while still remaining full-time students after their immigration to the United States.
Her-Vang said that working with your siblings can have its challenges, but overall the business has brought them all closer together.
“We are siblings and we are doing business together, sometimes we do run into some problems,” she said. “But we are happy that the relationship as brothers and sisters is so strong we can overcome all that struggle. We are very, very happy that we get to come to America and also have that opportunity to do business together.”
Her-Yang said, the learning curve in starting a business was steep, especially as new immigrants.
“It was really challenging at the beginning to start a business with language barriers and was really hard for us to learn,” she said.
With that said, they are very excited to be in the West 7th Community.
“When we wanted to expand our business, St. Paul was one of the locations we wanted to expand,” Her-Yang said. “We want to get to know other communities and other cultures. That is how we decided to purchase the building here.”
If you go
Viengchan Oriental Market
633 West 7th St.
Hours 9:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Monday – Saturday; 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Sunday.
