The one thing that binds Kiwi-Indians across New Zealand has to be food. Indian migrants are always looking for stores to buy authentic Indian groceries like Indian spices, herbs, namkeens and vegetables, among others.
Keeping this in mind, entrepreneurs Ravi Singh Luther and Ashu Vermani have recently opened an Indian grocery store in Papakura. Named Indian Spice Bazaar, the store aims to tap the Indian community in the southern suburb of Auckland, where there is a substantial Indian population.
Luther says, “There was no Indian grocery store in Papakura, and we saw that there was an increasing demand for the same. The people in Papakura would mostly travel to Takanini to buy Indian groceries. Since I have been staying in Papakura for years, I thought we should bridge this gap and hence decided to open this store."
Located at 27A East Street Papakura, the shop has more than 10000-15000 products to cater to the everyday needs of Indian customers, be it a wide range of pickles, herbs, spices, fresh vegetables or even things used in puja and even jewellery.
"We want our store to be a one-stop-shop for all the grocery needs for our Indian community. We want people to come to our store, look at the wide range that we have on offer and provide their feedback to help us improve. We are happy with the response to our so far and hope to have more stores in the future," says Vermani.
The store is currently offering many inaugural specials on a wide range of products. “We believe in providing value for money to our customers and are at present offering a lot of specials. We would urge people across Auckland to visit our store and see what we have on offer,” adds Vermani.
Papakura residents are also quite happy about the new addition to their neighbourhood.
Expressing her views, Gurpreet Kaur says, “I am so happy that we have an Indian store in Papakura that has such huge variety. The shop is well organised and has everything one would probably need for any Indian families' grocery needs."
Another Papakura resident, Divya Kumar, says, "It is great to have such a store in Papakura itself. It will save us from travelling. Also, the store is quite spacious and has ample parking, which is a great thing when one goes out for grocery shopping."