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GREENSBORO - Banana leaves. Napa cabbage. Aloe vera leaves. Yucca root. Cactus leaves.

Those aren't the kind of foods you normally find in the produce section of your neighborhood grocery.

But Super G Mart isn't your everyday grocery. The 76,000-square-foot international grocer is opening its first location today, filling the anchor spot in Greensboro's FantaCity International Shopping Center.

Large international groceries are common in New York, Chicago, and Washington. But Stephen Kim, president of Super G Mart, said his store is the first large international grocery of its kind in the area.

He believes that Guilford County - where close to 10 percent of the population speaks a language other than English at home, according to the 2000 Census data - has the diversity to support the eclectic store.

About half of the store's space, 36,000 square feet, houses the grocery store, with rows and rows of spices, produce, canned goods and household items popular at points around the globe.

Looking for roasted eel? Super G has it. Green coconuts? They're there.

Lila Yautia? Frozen sea squirts? Canned whelk?

Put checks by them all.

People from different cultures eat many of the same foods, Kim said. They're just cooked differently. "If you have the right selection of food, you can target the majority of the international market," he said.

The store also carries items familiar to American audiences, from apples, grapes and oranges in the produce section to Pantene shampoo on the beauty aisle. But the selection isn't as varied as it is at a Target or Wal-Mart, where it'd be difficult for Kim to compete.

"Our emphasis is on the international side," he said. That also includes selling household items popular in other countries, but difficult to find locally. Super G Mart stocks a variety of rice cookers, mortar and pestles for grinding spices, metal chopsticks and bath supplies popular in Asian countries, Kim said.

The other half of the store's space is set aside for "retail condos," alcoves entrepreneurs can buy to set up their own shops. Six of those spaces have been claimed for a cell phone shop, an electronics store, a florist, a cosmetics shop and two eateries scheduled to open in the next few months.

Vendors in FantaCity have high hopes that the new anchor store will lure more foot traffic to the center's halls.

"The whole place was marketed that there would be an anchor store," said Jeff Bates, who co-owns Tia's Soul Food Express and Letia's Bridal in the mall with his wife, Letia. "It was done in reverse. It had tenants before the anchor store."

The opening of an anchor store was delayed after the first option, GrandMart International Foods, didn't open as agreed.

Without the lure from an anchor store to draw customers, many businesses in the start-up center faltered and shut down. Occupancy is below 50 percent, FantaCity President John Kim estimated, down from a high of about 80 percent. Many shops have "for lease" signs in the windows.

But there's hope on the horizon. Dream Tours bus routes, which travels along the East Coast, started running a few months ago, Bates said. And by the end of the month Genova's Pizzeria will open in the food court.

John Kim, who isn't related to Stephen Kim, is negotiating with about six more stores.

"It's a year late, but I hope what I envisioned can come true," he said.

Contact Lanita Withers at 373-7071 or lanita.withers@news-record.com