Every weekend, thousands of people gather in front of Asian Garden Mall in Westminster, California, to attend its summer night market, where dozens of vendors hawk grilled razor clams, balut and fresh-squeezed sugar cane juice. The event is a main attraction at the historic mall that boasts more than 300 largely family-owned shops. Kieu Hue Ly’s general store has been in operation since the center opened in 1987, providing essential services to immigrant elders who speak little or no English. Most of her customers, Ly said, are Vietnamese refugees who have been shopping at her store for decades. When Asian Garden Mall was forced to close during the pandemic, the families who ran it looked out for one another, Ly said. “Other business owners bought from me when customers stopped visiting the mall,” Ly said. “We’re all friends and love each other very much.” While e-commerce and the pandemic have, in recent years, decimated brick-and-mortar retail, Asian-themed shopping plazas ha...