Look Inside: Ha Tien Market - Worcester, MA

Ha Tien Market

Owner: Minnie Nguyen

Opened: 1989

Cooperative: none

Location: 892 Main St, Main South, Worcester, MA

Photographed: August 24, 2018; May 3, 2021; September 3, 2021; and September 24, 2022

If you've ever bought a pie from a major supermarket and it looks something like this or perhaps this, it was made by Table Talk Pies. They have two large facilities in Worcester, and they're both in the Main South/South Worcester area. Their larger facility is just three blocks off of Main Street -- basically straight across from this little grocery store and keep walking a couple minutes. You can't miss it. Worcester is also home to Polar Seltzer, which is made another mile or so south near College Hill at the Auburn border. But enough about pies and seltzer, let's take a look at Ha Tien Market!

I've mentioned that Main South and southern downtown Worcester is home to a Vietnamese immigrant community, and one of the Vietnamese grocers in the area is Ha Tien at Main and Norwood. The store is slightly smaller than Plaza a few blocks away at around 6100 square feet. (Here's also a little bit of a before and after: while it wasn't renovated as much as Plaza was, the exterior was painted and got a new sign.)

There's a small produce department in the front left corner, then a seafood department taking up the back left corner. Meat and some more refrigerated produce are on the back wall, with frozen and refrigerated items in the last aisle. In the front right corner, there's a counter for sandwiches (banh mi, specifically) and boba tea and a few other things like that. (If you go to the counter, the food menu has one item on it: sandwich. If you order the sandwich, you will be asked beef or pork. You will then pay I think $6 for the best banh mi you've ever had.)

Or at least it's very, very good and made to order. I don't know if I'd say it's the best I've ever had, but it certainly is cheap, big, and delicious.

I don't love the rest of the store as much as I love the banh mi you can get there. Ha Tien is a bit rundown, but it's also a very busy store and the people are very nice.

Here's a look at the first aisle, with produce and seafood.

It looks like Ha Tien has been here since 1989. Before that, we know there was a First National Stores location at this address in 1927, but I'm not sure whether it was the same building, or what was here in between.

Here's a look at the back wall of the store.

The grocery aisles are mostly angled towards Vietnamese foods, but there are a few basic American pantry staples too.

Frozen and dairy in the last aisle.

That's all for Ha Tien, but we'll see another Vietnamese grocer as we get towards downtown. In the meantime, let's head diagonally across the street for another small independent grocer!