H Mart — Local services in New York

UPDATE: Edited to add that the response I received from H Mart is not true, as they have not looked into the issue any further and have yet to address the issue. I did email.

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I see a review below by another customer 10 months ago who experienced the same issue as my parents did on their recent visit to this location. I usually only leave positive reviews but need to share their experience as they are unable to.

The new security guard who is employed at this location was extremely rude to my parents. He treated them with severe disrespect. When they entered the store, my dad had his backpack on his shoulders. The security guard called them over with his index finger as if he were calling a child or a dog. He then pointed to the small, tiny sign at the entrance and told my dad to leave his backpack.

While my parents understood that the new policy was in place due to shoplifting, they were greatly offended by the way he called them over. My dad decided to leave because he was frustrated. To his dismay, the security guard muttered "You can't read?" and accused him of being illiterate. That is very offensive, and again, extremely disrespectful. The security guard did not even apologize.

H-Mart is supposedly a place that represents all Korean-Americans - and founded by hardworking immigrants. Furthermore, what if the customer he spoke to actually was illiterate? What kind of damage would have he caused?

My mom called the location herself to complain. They refuse to do nothing. Your so-called “customer service” rep was also RUDE and dismissive. She also did nothing on the phone and told my mom to email. Does your company focus on just the concerns of those who are tech savvy? And just to those who can use email? Do the concerns of older people not matter? This is highly embarrassing for a company with such a large presence in this country.

By the way, if you’re going to leave a generic comment to email your customer service, save it. We did and no one responded.

DO...

Usually I have a pretty easy and nice shopping experience whenever I go to h mart. However, when it comes to h mart’s pre-made foods…it’s a different story. I’d definitely recommend going for their frozen counterparts. Bought a set of pre-made assorted korean pancakes from h mart 09/19/2021. The next day on 09/20/2021 I decided to heat up one half of the pack of pre-made assorted korean pancakes with my son. I quartered each pancake so it’s easier for my son to eat. I took the first bite of the chive pancake and I felt a very hard substance within the first chew. I took the substance out of my mouth thinking maybe it was a shell from a piece of shellfish or something. To my dismay, it was a pretty decently sized piece of hard grey/silver plastic. Had a sharp edge on one side too. I took a picture of the piece of plastic immediately and sent it to my husband. He called the h mart from where we purchased it quickly and they replied; “Well what do you want us to do about it?” Now, this isn’t the first incident we’ve (specifically me) had with this particular h mart location when it came to their pre-made food. The last time I ate their stir-fried tofu and got food poisoning and their reply was pretty much the same and nothing was really done about it. I doubt anything will be done about this incident either, they just seem to not really care. Lesson learned again, let’s not buy pre-made food from h mart, at the very least this location. Just putting this out there for others that shop at this h mart location, to be aware whenever you do purchase pre-made food/side...

I usually go to the H-Mart in Astoria, but decided to come to this one to do my weekly groceries as it is closer to home and it was snowing.

I came to shop on 01/19/25 at around 6:30 PM.

I have to say the shopping experience here was terrible. I felt like I was being profiled the entire time I was shopping. I came with my friend and we were watched by their security guy the ENTIRE time like we were going to steal something. Very uncomfortable. To the point that we were in the noodles aisle and while we were there, their security stood at the end of the aisle watching me and my friend decide on instant noodles.

It wasn’t only their security. Every aisle we went to after us would come an employee “aligning / fixing” product on the shelves. At one point I asked an employee to help me locate the bulgogi sauce and he tells me “it’s in aisle two”. Of course I heard him and then was looking at other stuff in a separate aisle. I kid you not, this dude grabs my hand and takes me to aisle two sort of rushing me to finish my shopping and pay. Then stands there while me and my friend decide on bulgogi or teriyaki sauce.

In the end, we paid at 7:20 PM for our $182 cart and left. Almost one whole hour of being profiled while doing groceries. The only person that was helpful in this visit was the cashier.

Awful experience. If you have a shoplifting problem learn how to handle it differently, but don’t make your paying customers feel uncomfortable as they are the reason you are in business.

Definitely do not recommend, will not be...