At the time, the Patels were recent immigrants from India, and had trouble finding the ingredients they craved from back home. They purchased a dilapidated shop on Devon Avenue, Chicago and sold the kinds of items you couldn’t get at your average grocery store, like fre...
Gursharan Bhalla
Updated on Jul 21, 2022, 14:16 IST- 4 min read
Dozens of jars of colourful spices lined up, big bags of Basmati waiting at the entrance while a group of women go in formathri, a buttery fenugreek crisp in a corner.Welcome to Patel Brothers, the most popular Indian grocery store in America. And, this scene is just one afternoon at one of the 50 stores across the US.
How and when did it begin?
Patel Brothers is by far the largest Indian grocer in the US. The business started as a storefront in Chicago, opened by two brothers, Mafat and Tulsi Patel, in 1974.
patel brothers
At the time, the Patels were recent immigrants from India, and had trouble finding the ingredients they craved from back home. They purchased a dilapidated shop on Devon Avenue, Chicago and sold the kinds of items you couldn’t get at your average grocery store, like fresh spices, mangoes, lentils, and chickpea flour — all imported from India.
How did it become so big?
It started as the story of two brothers trying to feed their homesickness and young families. But, how did it became so big? Started in the 70s, today, the storescontinue as a saga that feeds a growing Indian community, at home in this country, but still hungry for their home culture, wherever they were born.
The small store turned into a multi-million-dollar brand that now also includes a separate food label, SWAD.That’s the brand name you see on the wide array of snacks that Patel Brothers offers, including cult favorites like frozen samosas that somehow taste freshly fried, deeply flavorful chana masala you can make in a microwave, and murukku, a spicy, crunchy spiral-shaped cracker.
patel brothers
After SWAD, in 1991, Patel Brothers started another brand, Raja Foods, to supply its to stores and others labor-intensive Indian meals likepalak paneer, chicken tikka masala, chana masalaand more.
The brand quickly became popular with second-generation Indians who had moved out of their parents’ homes and young Americans who wanted to try exotic entrees. Today, this brand had shelves dedicated to it even in non-specialty supermarkets like Jewel and Whole Foods.
Today, Patel Brothers has splintered into an $140-million emporium. On that stretch of Devon Avenue in Chicago alone, there is now Patel Air Tours, a travel agency; Sahil, a clothing boutique meant for Indian weddings; Patel Handicrafts and Utensils, which sells religious memorabilia and trinkets; and Patel Café, an eatery. Today, the stores are managed by a rotating cast of family members that stretches over three generations. The establishments are patronized by a motley of ethnic groups beyond the South Asian diaspora.
patel brothers
Opened at 50 locations, most concentrated along the East Coast, some stores are even stretching to Texas and the American South, and one in California. The franchise has proven resilient throughout the ebbs and flows of the American economy.
Why is it a hit among Indian diaspora?
The most novel aspect of Patel Brothers, though, is how accessible it has made Indian ingredients for non-Indian customers. On top of the stores being laid out similarly to an American grocer, each item is clearly labelled and described in both English and an Indian language (usually Hindi), and there are employees on-hand who are literally trained to take your shopping list and pull everything you might need.
In addition to the variety, there are other innovations that Patel Brothers has made over the years to accommodate the particular needs of the Indian consumer — like the aforementioned chapatti machine, eliminating the diaspora's frustrating search for bulk, freshly made breads.
patel brothers
The saga continues...why?
Patel Brothers is a store that exists at the juncture of pragmatism and fantasy; the store has realized a possibility for pluralist cultural exchange without sacrificing its Indian DNA. Patel Brothers has spawned a subgenre of Indian grocery stores, from Subzi Mandi to Patidar Supermarket, yet it towers over this ecosystem like a citadel of the Indian-American grocery chain.
The brothers' narrative is what we call American Dream, that story of the hard-working, industrious immigrant who proves his worth through serving others, defying preordained odds and obliterating those obstacles for others who follow. I contacted the Patel family multiple times for the purposes of this story, and was met, effectively, with the same response each time: They were just too busy to field my questions. Running an empire takes work.
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