[14] Hot and ready-made food vendors sell a variety of dishes such as roast meats, boba tea, papaya salad, and bánh mì.

[17][18][19] It's easy to forget, when you're walking past the crowded indoor stalls or outdoor vegetable stands in Hmongtown Marketplace that you're in the American Midwest.

Xiong has since encouraged leaving "Marketplace" out of the name in order to emphasize Hmongtown as "[n]ot just a bazaar but a community unto itself.

The marketplace originally had many video stores that sold footage of and movies set in Laos and Thailand as part of that nostalgia.

Opened around 1996[36] with business loans, the grocery hosted an 80 stall farmers market in its parking lot, a ready-made hot food Thai and Hmong restaurant and buffet,[39] an event hall, and a Hmong sausage processing facility which sold 700 pounds of sausage daily.

[54] The Xiongs moved on to develop the multi-vendor International Marketplace with a goal to provide Hmong with more economic opportunity.

[43] The 6-acre[7] Hmongtown site was previously Shaw Stewart Lumber Co. on Como Avenue, north of the St. Paul Capitol building.

Toua Xiong didn't realize the obstacles to redeveloping the property for grocery and retail when he rented it from the lumber company, having only recently become a business owner and an English speaker.

[60] Most of the vendors speak only a Hmong dialect and not English, which Toua Xiong says has allowed them to maintain employment and start a business while still acclimating to America.

[31] Hmongtown was featured in an Emmy Award-winning episode of CNN's United Shades of America with owner Toua Xiong and local Hmong American chef Yia Vang in 2019.

[77] Embroidery thread, coins, beads, metals, and other materials for making Hmong textiles are available from multiple vendors.

[78] Some textiles are made by relatives abroad in countries such as Laos where labor is cheaper, and are later sold by family at Hmongtown.

As with the worldwide Hmong diaspora, cheaper traditional clothing using polyester is machine-made in China and imported for sale.

More expensive handmade textile art includes hemp skirts, batik, story cloth, and Paj Ntaub.

[86] Light boxes of photography from Hmong American artist Pao Houa Her, whose work was selected for the Whitney Biennial, decorate the West Building food court seating area.

[93][94][92] Hmongtown is noted for its prepared food and quality produce, with the Star Tribune calling it "one of the state's top culinary gems"[16] and Saveur enthusing it is a "destination" for cooks.

[56][102][103][104][105] Dishes popular among Hmong such as pho (or the Hmong version of pho called fawm[106][107]), khaub poob (red curry noodle soup),[108][109] larb (minced meat salad), nab vam (tapioca dessert), purple rice,[24] boba tea, mangonada,[110] and papaya salad are widely available from multiple restaurants.

[21][104] Produce includes rambutan,[122][56] Hmong yellow and red cucumbers,[56] bitter melon,[56][24] purple lemongrass,[56][24][21] sugar cane,[56] Thai chili,[56] pea eggplant,[56][24] dried imported bamboo,[56][21] winter melon,[56] radish greens,[56] bok choy[56] varieties such as Shanghai bok choy,[123] Chinese broccoli,[24] Thai basil,[21] longan,[21][104] lychee,[21] pomelo,[31] mangosteen,[31] persimmon,[104] okra,[124] and jackfruit.

[125] Hmongtown vendors sell traditional Hmong and Southeast Asian medicine such as herbs and imported over the counter drugs.

Hmongtown participates in outreach around testing for breast cancer and reducing consumption of heavy metals from skin lightening products and fish.

Cultural differences and language barriers were blamed, although Ramsey County Sheriff's office spokesperson Randy Gustafson said that vendors had been previously warned against selling the products confiscated.

"[132] The Minnesota Department of Health started an educational series with Hmongtown vendors to explain drug safety and American regulations in response.

[7] In 2018 a joint state grant was issued to Hmongtown and the Saint Paul Port Authority to investigate the rehabilitation potential of a contaminated lot for future residential and commercial mixed use.

[138][139] The 14 acre space would be developed into a marketplace and additional services aimed at younger customers than the original Hmongtown targets.

[141] According to a February 2025 interview with Ben Hamd, who is the managing director of Brookwood Capital Advisors, which owns the center parcel of Maplewood Mall, the opening is delayed by "financial hurdles".

A group of Hmong American entrepreneurs designed it to offer a similar experience, with a large warehouse renting individual stalls to vendors to sell goods and services.