Young couples holding hands while perusing imported snacks, old friends sharing stories over piping hot bowls of noodles, and families shopping for produce with their small children — all while the steady, soft beeping of barcodes being scanned rings throughout a massive yet deeply personal grocery store. This is the scene on a bustling Saturday afternoon at 168 Asian Mart, Michigan’s largest Asian grocery and a gathering space designed by one of Detroit’s most influential couples.
168 (the shorthand for regulars in the know) is a huge, 80,000-square-foot store featuring thousands of products from East Asia. The produce section is extensive and wondrous to the Western eye, but, more importantly, it has exactly what Asian families in Michigan need to recreate familiar, comforting dishes at home: tiers of Korean radishes, kabocha squash, fresh coconuts, Chinese nagaimo (yams), lychee, Taiwanese melons, and multiple varieties of Korean pears; boxes of king oyster mushrooms, bok choy, purple eggplants, and so much more. For Asian people in metro Detroit, having access to such ingredients is necessary.
“So many people come in with recipes,” says 168 Group President Cindy Wang with delight. “They bring the recipes — ‘Where do I find these?’”
The answer? One of the vast aisles of 168 Mart. Have an online recipe for pad Thai? Want to make your grandmother’s fried rice or cold noodle soup? You’d best get shopping at 168.
The Romance That Started It All
Wang and her late husband, Ricky Dong, opened 168 Asian Mart in 2015, though they had a great interest in running an Asian grocery store long before that. As teenagers, the pair separately immigrated to America from the Fujian province in China.
They met in New York City in the ’90s, fell in love, and moved to Detroit soon after, eventually marrying in 2002. Upon arriving in the city, Wang was disheartened by the lack of Asian products in the area. “How come there’s no good grocery stores here?” she recalls saying. “I cannot find stuff I want. At that time, 26 or 27 years ago, there was nothing.”
Then, as Wang tells it, her husband said, “What about we build one?” At first, the couple owned and operated Fuji Market (which used to sit across the street from 168). The store was there for around 20 years before the couple bought it. Wang says the woman running the store was getting older and needed someone to take it over. Eventually, however, the couple needed a store massive enough to support their equally big dreams. They needed 30,000 square feet, and they found it across the street.
168 Times Two
The store eventually expanded into the former Big Lots space next door and nearly doubled in size, now an estimated 80,000 square feet. With the expansion came plans for a brand-new food court and a focus on street food. Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean street food delicacies are all featured in the food hall, which spotlights small, established local businesses (many of which are women-owned) that reflect 168’s commitment to excellence and community. Wang says that other vendors who missed out on a residency at the food court will have a chance to sell prepackaged goods in a grab-and-go section.
“We are not just a retail store,” insists Wang. “We’re actually trying to build bridges.” Those bridges connect many different cultures. For proof, just look around 168.
On a particular Saturday visit, families of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Southeast Asian heritage abound, but also plenty of metro Detroiters both white and Black, all gleefully meandering about the store, mingling as they unearth the treasures housed within the cavernous grocery.
Between The Aisles
Thousands of products lie within 168 Mart, each ready to be discovered and claimed. Savvy home cooks may initially dart toward powerful flavor enhancers like gochujang, chili crisp, vinegars, sesame oil, and multiple soy sauce varieties. Stacks of rice and beans are plentiful, and a downright impressive freezer section contains dumplings of all kinds, from Filipino lumpia to Chinese shumai. Meanwhile, a robust seafood area with stacks of aquariums features hard-to-get items like conch and razor clams.
For those in need of immediate nourishment, the bakery section highlights plenty of freshly prepared sweet and savory buns filled with pork, chicken curry, seaweed, and more. However, I find myself returning most to the pineapple custard bun, which, as of this writing, remains $1.89. It’s a monster bun, an entire breakfast for under $2, and is subtly sweet and crumbly, with creamy edges and a hollow center.
Afterward, I sit at the food court for nearly an hour, intently focused on a shimmering, volcanic red bowl of extra spicy oxtail soup as families and friends catch up in the small section next to me — not a lick of English being spoken in the area, only the familiar sounds of slurping and laughter.
A Meaningful Market
Though 168 Mart has a certain appeal to curious food adventurers like me, it was always meant to be a staple for the Asian community.
“That’s what I work so hard for,” Wang says as she remembers her late husband, who passed away three years ago. “We were building this together. So many Asian people remember him. I really think that the day you die is when people forget about you, so we leave the legacy here.”
“Everything started from helping people,” she says. From humble beginnings, 168 Group now owns several Madison Heights restaurants — Lao Pot, Fuji Buffet, and 168 Crab & Karaoke — plus Tabe in Ann Arbor, a nail supply store, and a gaming store. In addition, Wang started the Ricky Dong Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps families acquire food assistance. Though deceased, Dong’s impact is still felt all around southeast Michigan.
“If people remember him, honor him,” Wang says, “it’s like he’s still alive.”
This story originally appeared in the January 2026 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our digital edition.
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