S. International Market opens specialty store in downtown Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — A second specialty market has opened in downtown Cedar Rapids.

S. International Market, a small grocery store with a wide variety of staples and ethnic offerings, opened on June 12 at 803 Third Ave. SE.

In addition to grocery basics, the market carries frozen food, meat and seafood, fresh produce and shelf staples representing ethnic cuisines across Central and South America, Asia and Africa. Customers can find a variety of rice types, hard to find produce, specialty meats, snacks, spices, convenience items, sundries and some cookware.

With 11,000 square feet, the renovation fills the void left by Jeff Jones Furniture, the building’s last occupant. The furniture store started to close in 2023, after 35 years in business.

The new opening is an expansion for S. International owner Sui Thawng and his family. Their first Waterloo location opened in 2019.

“We did a lot of work, (changing) from a furniture store to a grocery store,” Thawng said. “Wherever we go, we can fill the city’s and neighborhood’s needs. That’s the main reason we’ve come here.”

He was encouraged to open a second location in Cedar Rapids by customers that were driving to his Waterloo location. Thawng hopes the downtown opening will help encourage more growth in the area.

The Myanmar native first came to Iowa with his family in 2010. He got his start working at Tyson’s Waterloo meatpacking plant.

Nine years later, his family started small with their first store, which has steadily grown. Today, Thawng runs it with his wife and two children.

“The family enjoys doing this,” Thawng said. “We’re not making (as much as) other businesses, and we work more. But it’s good for what we can do.”

Thawng said his friend, who owns the Hornbill Asian Market that is also expanding from Waterloo, signed a lease for a Cedar Rapids location the very same week as S. International Market.

That market, opening soon at 1445 First Ave. SE, hopes to at least partially fill the void left by Hy-Vee’s departure from the Mound View and Wellington Heights neighborhoods, which created a food desert. The most recent estimates set the opening for this spring.

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.

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