A new Asian department store in Duluth has become a social-media-fueled sensation, attracting customers from across metro Atlanta and creating waiting lines just to get inside.
Thousands of people visited Teso Life on Pleasant Hill Road on Saturday afternoon after it gained attention on TikTok and Instagram. By mid-afternoon, 170 people still were lined up outside, waiting to buy snacks, hair care products and other items they said are hard to find. Others just wanted to know what the fuss was about.
Diana Washington drove from Hall County and waited in line for more than 25 minutes.
“I’m curious about what the excitement is,” Washington said.
Teso Life is a department store chain based in Queens, New York. It specializes in Japanese products, but also carries Korean, Chinese and other goods. Joanne Liu, manager of the Duluth store, likened it to an Asian Target.
The Duluth store carries a variety of personal care products, toys, snacks, household goods, even pet food. That variety has made it something of a sensation on social media since it opened last weekend.
That renown sparked a big crowd Saturday. Liu estimated the store had welcomed 3,000 customers by early afternoon. Cars jammed the shopping center parking lot, and people lined the sidewalks waiting to get in.
Eric Trinh of Kennesaw and Danny Kim of Lawrenceville waited more than 20 minutes outside the store. They waited another 20 minutes to check out in a line that snaked around the store.
Kim said Duluth is a melting pot of Asian cultures, but it’s hard to find products from all of them in one spot.
Credit: David Wickert, AJC
Credit: David Wickert, AJC
“I definitely would come again,” Trinh said. “I’ll probably do it on a weekday, though.”
Tory Manis drove an hour from Acworth to visit the store. As a child, she spent six years in Guam, where her father was stationed in the military. She came looking for the candy she loved as a kid and was delighted to find it.
“There was definitely some nostalgia,” Manis said. “I definitely got too much candy.”
Credit: David Wickert, AJC
Credit: David Wickert, AJC
Credit: David Wickert, AJC
Credit: David Wickert, AJC
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