Amarjit Singh said he came to Boise in 2003 with $10 in his pocket. After coming from Punjab, India, by way of California, he started working in Boise convenience stores. Then, two months ago, he opened an Indian grocery store with his wife, Hardeep Kaur Sidhu.
Singh’s friends had been saying, “Why don’t you try your own business?” So the couple went for it, with savings and some seed money from a friend.
India Fashion and Grocery is in a small leased building on the corner of Latah Street and Overland Road. The location is good for catching a passing driver’s eye, Singh said, though many of his customers take the bus.
The store is the second Indian grocery in Boise. Across the Bench, on Fairview Avenue, is India Foods, which has grown steadily since it opened almost a decade ago.
The number of Indian immigrants in Idaho more than doubled between 2000 and 2008, rising from 845 to 2,269 in that time, according to the Migration Policy Institute. About 340 children from Asia, including 30 from India, enrolled in Boise public schools this year.
As that population has grown, so has India Foods. The store has gone from an 1,800-square-foot space on Orchard Street to its current home, 7,000 square feet including the unused basement.
Hasmukh Patel, who owns India Foods with his wife, Ragini Patel, said India Foods has from 1,800 to 2,000 shoppers a month, on average. About one-fourth are native-born Americans.
Patel said the Indian population might now be enough to sustain the new store on Overland, too.
Last week, India Fashion and Grocery’s inventory was still a work in progress. Singh and Sidhu were in the middle of pulling up old carpet to replace it themselves.
Singh said he’s learning as he goes — basics, like which foods to stock, and trade practices, like getting hooked up with truck shipments instead of driving all the way to California to pick up imported goods.
“Every customer (is) coming in saying, ‘You need this, you need this,’ ” Singh said.
Singh and his wife haven’t stopped working for Jacksons Food Stores, either. With their new project, Singh is working 14-hour days, he said.
The couple are also parents to young children — something they share with the Patels.
Hasmukh Patel came to Boise in 1997. He met Indians who were working for Micron and Hewlett Packard.
“People (were) telling me they were going to California” to buy groceries, he said. So he opened his store in 2003.
Crystal Banka, who is not Indian, shopped at India Foods last week. She moved here from Montana, lives in the North End with her husband, and makes a trip to the store about twice a month.
“Their selection far surpasses (local supermarkets),” she said, picking up a bag of whole nutmegs.
The shelves are packed with spices — need about a pound of turmeric, fenugreek or coriander? — and boxed mixes for faster and easier Indian dishes.
The mixes help “if you’re not as confident” attempting Indian cuisine, Banka said.
There’s pomegranate powder, black sesame seeds, green cardamom and chicory coffee.
The India Foods store is tough competition for Singh and Sidhu. India Foods “has everything” when it comes to food, Singh said.
It helped to add “fashion” to the Overland store’s purview, because clothing sales have helped with revenue. They provided a bright spot last month, when the couple sold about 30 wedding saris, at $60 each, in a week.
The business is breaking even so far, Singh said. Four customers buying just a few things can “make my day,” he said.
Audrey Dutton: 377-6448
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