While the community support for Darshak Patel's specialty store was heartwarming, it wasn't enough to compete with big box stores.
North Grocers, which opened in 2020 to offer the city’s growing South Asian population food options not otherwise unavailable, closed its doors yesterday (Oct. 31).
“We have this one day today, and tomorrow, we hand over the place,” said Patel, one of the store owners. “We’ve had our friends come out to help us.”
The store offered a range of Indian snacks, spices and specialty food items, along with cigarettes and lottery tickets.
Hours before its doors closed for good, the store was full of boxes of dry goods, carts full of products, and freezers, still holding food as the team of four packed everything up. The shelves had been taken down, and a large moving truck was parked outside.
He said the out-of-the-way location at 685 Riverpark Dr., off Airport Road across from the Esso gas station, made growth challenging.
“We were waiting for the immigration and the international students, so we were waiting for this moment, but there are the big box stores, and they have a big aisle of international food,” said Patel. “So definitely we can not survive.”
The support from the surrounding community was heartwarming, said Patel.
“They still came here to buy their lottery tickets because they say they want to support us,” he said. “People just walking with their dogs, and they don’t know anything about Indian food, but they came here just to support us.”
Patel moved to Timmins in 2019 and is planning to stay.
“The first place I came was Timmins,” he said. “This is home.”
He said there are plans to open another business in the future.
“We are planning for it, hopefully, downtown,” Patel said. “But we are still in the initial stages.”
He and some friends spent the day tearing down the shop's interior.
“We are sending this all back to Toronto. We’ve rented a small place there, and we’ve contacted other grocery stores, so whatever they feel they need, they can get. All sorts of carts, trollies,” he said. “We have a big truck, we load it up, and we’re off.”
Patel credits the city and the community for the chance to open the store.
“The City of Timmins helped us from day one,” he said. “They helped us with all the steps because we were new, and we didn’t know how to get the licenses. They helped us with all of it.”
Patel said he is very grateful for all the people who helped over the last three years.
“I can’t thank them all enough,” he said. “Thank you for your help, thank you for supporting us.”
Another specialty grocery store is in the plans for Timmins.
In January, a lot in the west-end industrial park was sold to Fly Lake Estates to build a law office and East Indian grocery store.
