Fourth Avenue fixture keeps South Asian staples close

For more than four decades, Patel Grocery Retail & Wholesale, at 5303 Fourth Ave., has provided the Sunset Park community with Indian groceries and ingredients. Although the neighborhood has changed significantly since the store opened in 1983, the family-owned business has remained, serving longtime customers and introducing others to foods from across South Asia.

The store carries a wide range of products, including atta flour, Indian spice blends, pickles, dosa and idli mixes, Indian snacks and other specialty items that can be difficult to find at other grocery stores.

Patel Grocery was founded by Ishwarlal Patel, the father of current owner Vipul Patel. Ishwarlal Patel immigrated from India, where he had run a similar business. He opened the family-owned store in Sunset Park, then home to a growing South Asian community.

Vipul Patel took over the business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My father came from India,” Vipul Patel said. “He used to do the same type of business back home. This is what he knew how to do.”

According to Patel, Sunset Park was home to many Indian nurses and families when the store first opened, along with Pakistani and Bangladeshi residents. Seeing a need for familiar ingredients and products, his father opened what Patel said remains the neighborhood’s only Indian grocery store.

Over the years, however, the South Asian community in Sunset Park has changed.

“It’s not a huge population anymore as it used to be,” Vipul Patel said.

Many South Asian families have moved to New Jersey, Staten Island and other areas with larger South Asian communities, he explained. The store has adapted by offering Instacart delivery, giving customers another way to order groceries without visiting in person.

Despite these changes, Patel Grocery continues to serve nearby residents as well as customers who travel from other neighborhoods.

“There are families around here that shop in New Jersey or Jackson Heights, where there’s a huge Indian market,” he said. “But we’re here for the people who don’t have time to go to those places.”

While roughly 70% of the store’s customers are South Asian, Patel said people from many backgrounds also stop in to shop.

“Everybody’s glad that we’re here,” he added.

Like many small businesses, Patel Grocery has faced new challenges in recent years. Most of the store’s products are imported from India, making the business vulnerable to rising shipping and transportation costs.

“As oil prices go up, shipping containers go up, and that means the prices of the products go up,” Patel said. He also noted that fewer international students are coming to the United States than in previous years, affecting one group of regular customers.

Over the decades, Patel has also watched Sunset Park change.

“When my father started this, you couldn’t even go down Third Avenue,” he said. “It was a dangerous neighborhood. It’s gotten much better.”

Patel Grocery continues to provide South Asian groceries while maintaining its place in a neighborhood that has changed around it. Despite demographic shifts and the challenges of running an independent grocery store, the Patel family hopes the business will continue serving Sunset Park for years to come.

“We’ve been here for 43 years almost,” Patel said. “Hopefully we stay for another 43.”