Visiting BCD Tofu House, I found it rather interesting the demographic of customers they had. Iris, the hostess, had said that the majority of their customers were Chinese and that the second largest group was Korean people. Everyone else was mixed. I didn’t understand why this restaurant had more Chinese customers than Koreans considering it was in the middle of K-Town. Hence, I decided to investigate the population on Social Explorer and expanded my research from there.
K-Town is located on Tract 76. That particular area has a total population of 1,912 people. Remembering from our interviews that many of the workers were immigrants, I looked at the number of non-native born people. According to a 2015 map, 976 foreign born people live in the tract that contains Koreatown. Of those 976 people, 695 of them are from an Asian based country. This equates to 71.209% of the foreign born population and to 36.349% of the total population. Not only did this support Iris’s answer as to why BCD Tofu House had attracted so many Asian customers, but it also helped answer other questions. About every one out of three people in that census tract were foreign born Asians. It makes sense as to why there are Asian immigrant workers in storefronts around this area including BCD Tofu House and many immigrant customers.
I then looked further into the Asian population as a whole living on Census Tract 76. The total population of Chinese, except Taiwanese, amounted to 352 people or 39.506% of the whole Asian population in that area. Meanwhile, the total population of Koreans is 325 people or 36.476% of the Asian population there. In other words, there are a majority of Chinese people out of all Asian people around and in Koreatown while Korean people are slightly less than the majority, providing evidence as to why their customer is first Chinese based and then Korean based.
I also wondered as to why BCD Tofu House decided to move their business there. It is a franchise after all that originally sprang up in the 1990s in California. Looking at the census 2015 map of different races, I discovered that the biggest group of people there were white alone: 921 people or 48.169%. The second largest and the only other one with a percentage greater than ten is obvious: Asian alone totaled to 891 or 46.6%. Curious as to how much income average families have there, I gathered the data: 638 households or 63.106% have an income of less than $150,00. Considering that the area’s population is divided between white people and only one minority group, that it’s a very dense part of Manhattan, that Koreatown is surrounded by more franchises and conglomerates, that almost 40% of households there are making above typical middle class money, it’s safe to say Koreatown is located in an expensive, gentrified area. It’s reasonable to understand why BCD Tofu House owners chose that particular location. The restaurant has a much larger economic advantage over other mom and pop stores and restaurants because of these groups of people in this area. Affluent caucasian people will flock to the restaurant because Koreatown is known for its authentic Korean food, different food than from their own background while Asian people will go there because they are in the area already and it’s centered in a Korean ethnic enclave. This also answers my question about why people would pay for BCD Tofu House’s highly priced soups. People there can afford it. And if not, they go a lot because it serves food from their culture.
Lastly, I wanted to know the age group of people on Tract 76 considering that Iris from BCD Tofu House along with other employees around K-Town believed people were attracted to the enclave because of K-Pop. Seeing as how K-Pop is intended for younger groups of people, I looked over the census 2015 map of age groups and discovered that 1,296 people or 67,782% of people there were under 35 years old. I guess K-Pop really is a big reason why storefronts in K-Town are making a greater profit than ever before.
