For three years, Hanna Video Shop, stocked with 10,000 Korean dramas, comedies and television talk shows, had a corner on the Glen Burnie market for Korean movie rentals.
But things have changed. Today, a two-mile stretch of Crain Highway has three Korean video stores, part of a growing number of Korean-owned businesses that have cropped up in the heart of Glen Burnie.
"Two years ago was good. But two years later, they open video stores. Business is down," lamented Hung S. Cho, 35, who runs the store with her husband, Chang H. Cho. In the past five years, about 20 Korean-owned businesses have moved into Glen Burnie, which had only one Korean grocery store eight years ago.
Nearly all the stores, which range from hair salons to karaoke lounges, cater to Korean customers. The signs are almost exclusively in Korean characters and the owners speak little English, often referring English-speaking customers to their sons daughters.
Community leaders say they believe that Anne Arundel is home to 10,000 Koreans, the largest such concentration in the metropolitan area. U.S. Census figures indicate that Koreans number 2,885 in Anne Arundel County, half as many as in Baltimore County. "That's the census count. But a lot of people refuse to report," said Franklin Lee, a former president of the Korean Society of Maryland and a 21-year resident of Glen Burnie.
Mr. Lee and others in the community say Korean businessehave been moving to the suburbs to escape increasing crime in the city. The Korean Businessmen's League of Greater Baltimore estimates that 20 Korean merchants have been slain in their businesses since the 1970s.
Other Korean businessmen say they've moved out of the city sthey could serve a growing Korean community in the suburbs.
Census figures show that 1,775 Koreans live in Baltimore, while more than 10,000 live in Anne Arundel, Howard and Baltimore counties.
"We've always had small businesses dealing with Americans," said Un Ha Park, whose parents own Goong Joen Restaurant in the 200 block of Crain Highway. "We decided we needed a different pace with Korean clientele." Her parents, Sung Dae and Kwi Sun Park, ran a string of carryouts and delis in the city, but moved to Glen Burnie four years ago, where they knew there was a burgeoning Korean community. "You can't sell Korean items without Korean people," said Ms. Park, 22.
The new enclave also represents a second Korean population center in Anne Arundel County.
Earlier, many Koreans settled near Fort Meade in Odenton, which led to the development of Korean businesses along Route 175. Now entrepreneurs are finding well-traveled Crain Highway to be a good location for stores.
"Once a Korean business comes in and they feel accepted and comfortable in the community and are doing well, others seem to follow, which is a natural trend," said Patricia Barland, manager of the Glen Burnie Urban Renewal District.
Nowhere is this trend more evident than in the 200 block of Crain Highway. Four years ago, Goong Jeon Restaurant opened. A year later, Hanna Video opened in a business park two stores rTC away. Now the park has only two non-Korean tenants, said James Sutherland, the building's owner.
The three-story building in the business park has an acupuncture and herbal medicine shop, a hair salon, a travel agency, a math school and a 10-room karaoke lounge. In the Chos' video store, tapes are encased in plain, white covers rather than the glossy, full-color jackets of American videos. Customers rent videos by the half-dozen because they can be rented for a week at a time for $1 a tape.
As do the other Korean video store operators in Glen Burnie, the Chos provide more than a wall-to-wall selection of videos. They also sell Korean compact discs, makeup and many items usually found in a gift shop. Mr. Cho has expanded his operation to manufacture and distribute videos to 40 other Korean-owned stores.
Many Korean immigrants become entrepreneurs out of necessity, community leaders said.
"We come from immigration with language barriers. It's not easy to get a job," said Doo Hwan Killian, president of the Korean Businessmen's League of Maryland. "It's easier to get into business for yourself."
Mrs. Killian said about 7,000 Korean-owned businesses are in the metropolitan area.
Recent immigrants get the money to start their businesses from a "kae" -- a group of about 20 businessmen who put a set amount into a loan pool every month to help one another. Everyone contributes money until all have been repaid.
While the number of Korean businesses has grown, some ventures haven't worked out. In the past two years, two Korean )) bakeries have come and gone in Glen Burnie.
Jay Shim bought Mom's Bakery a year ago and tried to sell rice cakes and other favorite Korean sweets.
When customers didn't flock to buy his baked goods, he converted the store back to an American sweet shop.
"Business was bad," Mr. Shim said. Koreans bought his baked goods only "for celebrations like birthdays."
What he sells now is too sweet for Koreans, "but Americans like," he said.