Why the beloved Asian supermarket is closing and why that might not mean the end of quality Asian products for customers
by Manon Patouillet, Rita Zeefal, and Syontoni Hattori-Chatterjee
6 September 2024
As the second-year cohort of Sciences Po’s Le Havre campus came back to its campus city to get a second helping of la vie havraise, many a food enthusiast was dismayed to find out that Hoa Soung, the community’s favourite Asian supermarket, was on the cusp of shutting down permanently.
The news of the supermarket’s closure reached the campus community at large on the 19th of August. Much speculation about this seemingly sudden closure circulated in the few weeks that followed. The first version of the story that was told was that the roof of the store had fallen in and that its owners were being forced to sell out their last stock. Later, it was reported that the couple that had owned and managed the store since 1992 was simply retiring and leaving Le Havre. A team of reporters from Le Dragon Déchaîné visited the premises of Hoa Soung on the 1st of September to get to the heart of the matter and bring a halt to the rumour mill once and for all.
On the 8th of July 2024 the owners of Hoa Soung, who wish to retain their anonymity, received a notice from the mayor’s office of Le Havre. This notice declared that the premises in which Hoa Soung’s owners carried out their activities were dilapidated and thus posed a threat to public security, given the fact that the structure of the building could cave in whilst customers were inside it. In light of these findings, the tenant and occupiers of properties 214 to 226 Rue Aristide Briand were to cease operations and evict the premises by the 1st of October 2024.
The notice, pasted a few doors away from the entrance of Hoa Soung for the public to behold, informs the reader that:
Mr. Jean-Marc METZGER, expert at the Rouen Court of Appeal, the expert report rendered on August 12, 2024 appointed by order of the President of the Administrative Court of Rouen dated August 5, 2024;
CONSIDERING that it appears from the aforementioned reports that the state of the building located in Le Havre, 214 to 226 rue Aristide Briand, 76600 Le Havre, registered in DB section n°41, 42, 43, 44 and 440, including SCI PICOTO , domiciled at 97 boulevard Dufayel, 76310 Sainte-Adresse, is the owner, threatens public safety, in particular the safety of the occupants, it is necessary to order the essential measures to put an effective and lasting end to the danger.
The definitive ban on habitation or use of the building, except for the commercial unit occupied by the Caisse d’Epargne, is pronounced, in the absence of an overall rehabilitation project, and will take effect from the date from October 1, 2024.
The owners of Hoa Soung confirmed in an interview with Le Dragon Déchaîné that the building in which they operated was old, and that they were not in a position to remedy the structure themselves, and so had to leave Le Havre. Regarding their clientele: “We are receiving many more student customers now than before,” stated one of the store managers, “we receive many kinds of clients: Vietnamese, Thai – they change a lot […] Le Havre is better than Paris.” The supermarket’s management confirmed that it will close definitively on the 9th of September 2024.
Despite the loss to Le Havre that the closure of Hoa Soung represents, regulars at the supermarket will be pleased to know that the management of the Le Monde des Saveurs supermarket intends to acquire Hoa Soung’s suppliers and continue selling the bulk of the products that have been sold by Hoa Soung up until the present. Members of staff at Le Monde des Saveurs confirmed in an interview with Le Dragon Déchaîné that the enterprise would continue the services previously offered by Hoa Soung. “We are taking over everything – on reprend tout.”
Le Dragon Déchaîné 