Downtown’s Costco, With a Thai Twist
Asian-Themed Mega-Market Caters to Restaurants and Residents
by Ryan Vaillancourt
The Los Angeles Downtown News
Published: Friday, May 1, 2009 4:01 PM PDT
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Downtown has a grocery store so big it could store airplanes, or at least it feels that way. And it’s not Ralphs.
East of Chinatown, at 1100 N. Main St., LAX-C is a mega-store stocked with tons (literally) of produce, fresh fish, frozen meats and other foodstuffs. Described by many as a sort-of Thai Costco because of its vast selection of Thai and other Asian products, it primarily caters to small restaurants looking to save by buying in bulk.
But amidst the 50-pound bags of yellow onions, 45-pound boxes of butchered lamb and 25-pound bags of rice, there is an array of foods and household items that make LAX-C a viable, one-stop grocery option for Downtown residents.
“The average new person walking in a place like that, they’ll be overwhelmed, but I do know that especially in the Chinese community you have many brothers and sisters, families, who are still close and they’ll buy in bulk and share,” said George Yu, executive director of the Chinatown Business Improvement District.
LAX-C started as a small market in Chinatown and, according to its website, has expanded into the largest Thai-owned company in the United States. Company owners did not return multiple calls requesting an interview.
The LAX-C kitchen and grocery emporium is about a block east of the Metro Gold Line Chinatown station and a half-mile north of Philippe The Original. Also included on the sprawling property are a Thai language bookstore and the headquarters of a Thai newspaper.
On the weekends, a food stand in the parking lot sells sweet coconut cakes and succulent pork or beef satay.
But the focus is definitely LAX-C, a common stop for many Los Angeles restaurateurs and a smaller, knowing clientele of individuals looking for bargains on groceries.
“It’s just like when we go to Costco, we figure out how to buy in bulk and save, but just not with as fancy packaging,” Yu said.
Grocery List
LAX-C is a gold mine for anyone who knows how to prepare Asian or southeast Asian cuisine. Aisles with ceiling-high racks stock dozens, if not hundreds, of different kinds of noodles.
One section sells dozens of specialty Asian flours (there’s all-purpose white and wheat flour too), and bags of tempura batter. Soy sauce, fish sauce and plum sauce are among a litany of bottles of flavoring. Most of the produce, including lemon grass, Japanese eggplants, zucchinis, snow peas and green onions, comes stuffed in plastic bags.
The meat section may disappoint a shopper looking to pick up a couple of steaks, but customers planning a barbecue are in the right place.
A 44-pound box of boneless pork “butts” (it’s actually the shoulder), which is most commonly used to slow roast and turn into pulled pork, costs $50.60, or $1.15 per pound (at Ralphs, it goes for $2.49 per pound). A 40-pound box of frozen Australian lamb costs $63.75, or $1.59 per pound. A 15-pound box of oxtails goes for $2.25 per pound; mainstream supermarkets commonly charge more than $4 per pound.
About 70% of the store’s customer base is Los Angeles-area restaurants, said Arturo Chia, a store manager. The inventory, which Chia estimated is 85% Asian food, is mostly imported from China, Thailand and Taiwan.
One of the most practical sections in LAX-C for household shoppers is the seafood area, where Maine lobsters go for $11.99 per pound ($14.99 per pound at Raphs) and dozens of whole, fresh fish including rock cod, tilapia and catfish are on ice. It’s also next to a mini-restaurant that sells plates of noodles, meat and papaya salad.
The store’s toiletries section has all the regulars: toothpaste, shaving necessities and nail polish. It also has an aisle devoted to Thai healing remedies that require some fluency of Thai, or a bold curiosity to try foreign, over-the-counter pharmaceuticals.
Then there is the decor section that probably satisfies the designers of the city’s Asian eateries. A warehouse-sized showroom is full of imported furniture, southeast Asian musical instruments and sculptures.
A four-foot elephant statue carved out of wood is $2,495, and there is also a wide selection of five-foot-tall gongs, man-sized Buddhas and a half-dozen mannequins modeling exquisite, silk Thai dresses.
“I think people would be very interested to find out about these places,” Yu said.
LAX-C is at 1100 N. Main St., (323) 343-0030 or lax-c.com.