H Mart Las Vegas — Local services in Spring Valley

There are clearly Pros & Cons in the new H Mart, I went last Sunday and here is the takeaway:

Pros: • I love the seafood department. It was exceptionally clean, without that farm raised rotting fish smell that is present in other grocery stores (especially in Chinatown) and the selection of wild caught fish and crustaceans is amazing. The specials were very reasonably priced. Live crab, lobster & mollusks were included in the specials and those prices were also great.

• The meats selection was pretty good. They don’t have a butcher department where you can speak to butchers and ask for things, but the fridge section with the meats looks amazing and the meats are packaged cleanly and thoughtfully. Red meat is pretty pricey (sliced hot pot/shabu shabu/stew style) and while I’d prefer they have a butcher, it’s good for people looking to make a quick dinner. Chicken is quite inexpensive and they have nice air chilled Cornish hens, and regular chicken. They also have a great organ selection, which I bought for my dogs. They do not clean the kidneys, so you have to do it yourself.

• I’m not sure if I came on the right day, or what, but the fruit was exceptional. The watermelons were perfectly ripe, with the rind exploding as soon as I cut it with a knife. They were so sweet and I basically ate a whole watermelon standing in the kitchen. It’s been a long while since I found them this good in Vegas. Perfection. The pineapples were the sweetest I’ve ever had in my life. They were so sweet, in fact, that I can’t eat more than a few bites at a time 😅. Again, perfectly ripe, and sweet juicy bites. Loved it. The strawberries weren’t expensive and smelled amazing but a lot of them were moldy so I peeled the seeds off and dried them for planting.

• They have a lot of red ginseng daily supplement vials which I love and use often. Some are very pricey but worth the money for a good, clean product, especially since the Chinese herb shop burned down a few years ago in Chinatown. They also have nice jarred tea jellies options, just make sure you look at ingredients as some have loads of corn syrup.

• The isles are packed with ramen/instant noodles options, seaweed options, and ton of snacks if you like that sort of a thing.

Cons:

• I understand the shop is still new but the parking is horrible. H Mart owns probably like 3-4 double sided rows right in front of the entrance but their customers take up the entire plaza’s parking lot. They don’t have anyone collecting carts constantly so you have the entire parking filled with random abandoned carts throughout the plaza, because the cart bays are in the rows by the entrance only.

• I initially came on opening day and there was a 2+hr line. I just had spinal surgery, which is very obvious as I have a 3 inch incision healing on my neck. I spoke with security at the door and she would not let my mom and me inside even though I said I am unable to stand too long because I just had my spine cut open not too long ago. She said “sorry, that’s what everyone says”. Really? Everyone in line is claiming to have had surgery and are wearing a massive neck brace? I know it wasn’t her, it’s the management - it was thoughtless & dismissive, & I noticed a lot of old people having to wait. There has to be a better way to do this.

• I didn’t find the store to have a lot of options. Even rice options were shockingly limited. When compared to Greenland, it’s just okay in terms of dry goods, spices, grain and tea.

• Prices are pretty high and for the most part, I’d probably go to Greenland to buy everything aside from seafood.

• Their in-house kimchi is **Disgusting”. I don’t think I’ve ever had worse Kimchi in my life. No flavor, no balance or savory umami. Awful.

The isles are very narrow and with so many people in there it was just a traffic jam after a traffic jam. It’s a challenge to pass people, to get by them & I felt rushed because everyone was mostly waiting around to look at what I’m looking at.

• Bathrooms are TOO FAR.

I look forward to improvements in goods &...

It's been a couple of weeks since the grand opening. There are no long lines to get in, but the place was still buzzing. They are still maintaining some of the lower prices.

The aisles are a bit narrow, and the size of the store is much smaller than the ones we used to go to in New York and Houston.

Despite the size, there is still a great variety of Asian goods that I haven't found in any other markets, including 168 and 99. While it is much cleaner than 168 and 99, it still falls shy of the cleanliness level of their locations in other states. I imagine they are still getting their processes in order.

There are still lots of clueless non-shoppers there in large groups to stand around, gawking at things, which makes navigating a bit of a pain.

The employees need more training. Some are outright rude. Two incidents in this trip - I walked into the area where they keep the tanks of live seafood. It was not roped off, and there were no signs saying no entry. The lady who was previously too busy arranging the shrimp on their ice freaked out and told me to "get out!" I think she realized how rude she was when I asked her to repeat what she said, and she sheepishly looked down and said I can't go in that area. It's literally a display area surrounded by tanks of live seafood. If I'm not allowed in, then the entrance should be blocked off, or she should look up and say, "Can I help you?" Before I walk in, instead of ignoring all customers. Needless to say, I didn't feel like buying seafood from her after that.

The second incident happened when checking out. There was an older lady assisting the cashier with bagging groceries. While I was placing my items from the cart onto the conveyer belt, I stopped because I ran out of space as the cashier had not begun to ring up any of the items yet. The bagger yelled, "Put everything up and give me cart." I pointed to the full belt. She rolled her eyes and looked away. When it came time to bag and load my cart, for some reason, she left out the watermelon I purchased on the counter. She had filled the cart up with everything else, leaving no room for the watermelon.

After paying, she pointed to the watermelon, telling me to put it into the cart. I had to rearrange the bags in order to make room for the watermelon since just pitting it on top would have crushed the veggies and dry goods she had placed first. Common sense would seem to say she should have put the watermelon in first, especially since it was one of the first things scanned?

I have no problem placing the watermelon in my cart myself, if it's too heavy for the bagger. But if that's the case, she really shouldn't be bagging groceries and needs to have another role.

Anyway, I am a big fan of Hmart. I've shopped with them when I lived in New York and Houston. I do hope it is just growing pains because of its recent opening. Good help is hard to find, but these two employees will cost you customers if they don't change their entitled attitudes. The staff in other locations have always been courteous and efficient. I'm not asking you to bend over backwards. Just do your...

I've been hearing about this business for over a year and based on what information I was receiving, I was actually getting excited for H-Mart's opening. But although I was excited on visiting this store, I wasn't too ecstatic to attend their grand opening because for one, I'm not one of those that has to be the first in experiencing something and/or first to own something. Also, considering how difficult it was to find parking even on the day/time I went (10 May 2025 @ ~7:10 pm), I couldn't imagine the hassle during the grand opening.

When my family and I walked in the store, I was amazed at how large the store was. To be honest, as soon as I walked in, it kind of had that IKEA feel to the entryway - I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But I will say that between the entrance and produce, it almost felt like a bottleneck because there were so many people in there with carts, it was difficult to walk around (even for people without carts). Not to mention, people love just stopping right in the middle of an aisle to talk, get on their phones, or just park their shopping carts...so it was frustrating at times. But once I got past produce, it was somewhat smooth sailing.

The options at this store were endless...I know I probably didn't notice several items on the shelves because there were just too many things to see during my first visit. I ended up purchasing some banchan, persimmons, and dessert items during this trip. I know I could've bought more items but I didn't feel like having my family and I hand-carry a bunch of items throughout the store and this initial trip was just to mainly look around.

The prices seemed pretty reasonable...I'm not the type of person who notices an item 3 cents cheaper or more expensive to determine if that's a good deal. But I will say that a lot of item prices weren't drastically different (+/- $1.00) compared to local grocery stores and/or other Asian markets across the valley. For that, I could see myself purchasing groceries here in the future. However, considering the location and proximity to my house, I can't see myself accomplishing everyday shopping here. Plus, there are a lot of stores in this city that sell top quality banchan so having only this store to rely on wouldn't be conducive to my everyday living.

Overall, I will say that I liked H-Mart, as depicted in my 4-star rating. I could definitely see myself returning for another experience but I'm hoping that the crowds will lessen by then because the parking lot area was annoying during my first trip. I'll update my review/rating, as applicable, after my next trip. Note: I didn't get to try the food court during the visit but man, even the dining area was crowded. Again, perhaps my next visit will be more pleasurable with respect to the crowd level so I can experience everything H-Mart has to offer. I highly recommend this store...