Biz Beat: Loyal clientele keeps Asia’s Best plugging in tough times

Oolong tea. Refrigerated rice balls. Preserved duck eggs. Plantain bananas. If it's a familiar Asian product, particularly a Filipino one, chances are you can find it at Asia's Best, the only specialty store of its kind in Hanford. It's also one of the surviving stores in what used to be the bustling commercial hub of Centennial Plaza at the intersection of 12th Avenue and Lacey Boulevard.

Wal-Mart is gone, its boarded-up front a reminder of the shopping center's glory days a few years ago.

Asia's Best is one of the stores that hangs on in the face of declining foot traffic and a struggling economy.

Owner Frank Remotigue says he's just keeping the business afloat.

"It's the economy altogether. Everybody that I know who owns a store, they have been affected," he said.

Remotigue said the store essentially pays for itself. His "bread and butter," he said, remains his position as a correctional officer at California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison at Corcoran.

He's not sure what the future holds for Asia's Best.

But he remains confident that there is enough of an Asian population in Hanford to keep the business alive -- whether it stays in Centennial Plaza or not.

About 80 percent of his clientele is Filipino, Remotigue said.

Wednesday morning, Remotigue sat outside the store greeting people, frequently switching between Filipino and English.

Other customers include Vietnamese, Laotian and Thai, with a few non-Asians coming in as well, Remotigue said.

Some utilize the store's wire transfer services to send money to relatives overseas.

Remotigue, who has lived in third-world environments, can understand.

"If the U.S. is hurting, other countries are hurting three to four times worse than us," he said.

Observers agree that Lemoore Naval Air Station provides some of the store's clientele. Some are enlisted Filipinos stationed at the base who bring their families with them. Others are non-Filipinos who met a spouse overseas and brought them to the States.

Steve Smith, who is black, was shopping Wednesday in the store. The Navy chief said he met his wife in the Philippines.

"There's a large Asian population here to support the store," Smith said.

Hanford resident Dennis Fausone, owner of Dennis Salon in Hanford, said he is a frequent customer.

Like Smith, he is married to a Filipino.

"We love that little store," Fausone said. "We'd hate to see it go."

A billboard in front of the store advertises it as a "sari-sari," a Filipino expression for "variety."

Many of the products have a Spanish flavor.

Pinatas hang from the ceiling near the cash register.

In the refrigerated section, there's a Filipino version of chorizo, the spicy sausage popular in Mexico.

The Hispanic influence is no surprise to Remotigue, who noted that the Philippines were controlled by Spain for a very long time.

His lease at the Centennial Plaza space is up next year, and Remotigue is debating whether he'll renew it.

One option is to move to a bigger space so he can sell more product.

Sitting on a bench Wednesday outside his store front, Remotigue said that he has no plans to shut down.

"Basically, this is me and my wife (Catherine's) venture. You know, you got to take chances in life, see how it goes," he said.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2432

(Aug. 15, 2008)