North Brunswick, New Jersey’s Patidar Supermarket is a vibrant neighborhood Indian supermarket. Open for a little over a decade, the small storefront in the corner of a strip mall offers the essentials for South Asian cooking along with some home goods and imported nonfood items in a few aisles. It’s unassuming, but an important community anchor.
Ten miles northwest, a Patidar of a very different type sits in a former Buy Buy Baby in Bridgewater. This is a big-box store, more than three times the size of the North Brunswick location, and complete with many of the offerings found in big-chain supermarkets: a pharmacy, a cafe, organic produce, and even an expanded array of mainstream American groceries alongside imported Indian ones.
A lot has changed in Indian-American food retailing in the last decade, and it’s not just Patidar. Patel Brothers, the largest Indian supermarket chain in the United States, has opened one of their largest stores in Hamilton, New Jersey, and is working on another in a former ShopRite unit in Piscataway. Unlike older Patel Brothers locations, these stores are large and include amenities like cafe seating areas and more upscale decor.
Apna Bazar, a fast-growing chain of Indian supermarkets, has recently announced plans to grow on Long Island and their upcoming newest – and largest – location in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. It’s a former Stop & Shop of 70,000 square feet, a far cry from the small neighborhood markets that used to be the face of Indian-American grocers. The chain lists 22 locations in the northeast currently.
The growth in store count and size closely mirrors a similar growth in Asian-American markets like H Mart and 99 Ranch Market. These new prototype stores from Indian food retailers are similar to those Asian supermarkets’ new stores around 15 years ago, and many Asian supermarkets are now mainstream enough to attract large numbers of customers beyond the core base of Asian-American shoppers. Similarly, offerings like ready-to-eat foods and in-store eateries helped drive that shift.
Almost 5.5 million Americans are of Indian descent, and over 700,000 of those Indian-Americans live in the New York metro area, including a large community in Central Jersey suburbs. It’s only logical, then, that retailers offering Indian cuisine would focus on that region for expansion plans. But similarly to the broader appeal of H Mart, new-format Indian supermarkets appear to be looking to expand the types of customers they cater to.
The effect of this shift can be felt well beyond the aisles of a Patel Brothers or Patidar. Other retailers have taken notice, too, and some mainstream retailers are looking for ways to incorporate international foods into their offerings in innovative ways. Simply having an international aisle is rarely sufficient, but integrating a variety of cultures’ food throughout the store better attracts a diverse customer range.
Some Central Jersey ShopRites owned by Saker ShopRites, for example, have added a line of freshly prepared Indian entrees to the heat-and-eat meal lineup. Customers at some area ShopRites can find Indian meals like dal makhani, vegetable biryani, and tandoori chicken alongside the more common items like sub sandwiches and fried chicken.
As grocery shopping habits continue to fragment among multiple stores, targeted and relevant options like these help mainstream markets like ShopRite retain customers just as innovative offerings bring new customers in to international grocers like Patidar.
