Chopsticks shop draws all kinds

Chopsticks on display at the Yunhong Chopsticks store in Manhattan's Chinatown. The six-year-old store primarily gets US shoppers visiting from out of state or those from Europe. AMY HE / CHINA DAILY

The customers who do know how to wield chopsticks are the Chinese, of course, though that customer base has shrunk over the last few years, according to Zoe.

Yunhong Chopsticks' shoppers used to be evenly split between Western tourists and Chinese from other boroughs visiting Chinatown, but now it's mostly tourists.

"Chinese these days are coming less and less because they can go to Chinatown in Brooklyn or they can go to Flushing," Zoe said.

Flushing has the fastest-growing Chinese population in New York City and more and more Chinese are living in Brooklyn because of the cheaper cost of living there.

"They don't like coming in because it's such a hassle to park here," Zoe said.

Parking may be part of the reason why the company shut down its second location on Canal Street in Chinatown two years ago, though Zoe declined to speculate, just saying that the storefront on Canal Street was much smaller and couldn't accommodate as many goods.

For the Chinese who do still shop for chopsticks at the store, they tend to be the heavy spenders, buying both the most expensive chopsticks and the least expensive ones, compared to the Western shoppers who tend to buy mid-range products.

"Chinese tend to either buy chopsticks on opposite sides of the price spectrum," she said.

"Those who don't need anything fancy will know to just purchase the cheapest ones. Those who know chopsticks, know the kinds of materials and how long they last, those people buy the most expensive ones."

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com