In the late 1970s, a farmer's son named Il Yeon Kwon left the war-impoverished countryside of South Korea, arriving in New York when only 1.5 percent of the American population was of Asian descent, according to The New York Times. In Woodside, Queens, he opened a grocery store called Han Ah Reum, which roughly translates from Korean to "one arm full of groceries," but also has a warm, affectionate connotation, explains The New York Times.

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