I get the H Mart strategy. What I don’t quite understand is the feeling of “cultural intrusion”.

Ok I can feel cramped. Where or how does cultural intrusion enter the picture?

Is that like trying to sit with the jocks at the lunch table in high school and they look at you weird like you’re intruding their culture?

I don’t like the phrase either, but I wonder if it wasn’t meant to be more benign.. as in, you go to a grocery store catering to locals of another culture, and you walk up and down the aisle, you don’t understand any of the packaging, and you can get the sense that if you laugh or have a “thats weird food” reaction to any of it, that’d be rude, so you hold it in.

I grew up as the child of east European immigrants, and growing up we’d always had our own stores to buy food from the homeland. They’re gone, for the most part, but I can walk into most Russian grocery stores and get what I want, but I don’t understand most of the Russian options. Asking about some of the foods can lead to a strained or confusing conversation.

I am an Asian and I feel the cultural intrusion if I go to a different kind of Asian store.

They don't look at you weird. You just feel it.

My analogy would be wearing shoes inside a house when they typically don't wear.