By Amy Westfeld/AP
A woman fingers a light-blue sari in a clothing store at the brand-new Mahatma Gandhi Plaza in Iselin, N.J. Two Indian video and music stores have opened in the past few weeks. A restaurant doles out Indian takeout food in what was recently a fried chicken establishment.
Anita Kaur, shopping for a dress to wear in India later this year, says there’s one sure way to tell that the heart of the Indian community’s business district is getting busier.
“You can’t find parking, that’s one thing,” she said.
The growth of a district that caters to roughly 170,000 people of Indian heritage in New Jersey has mirrored the growth of their numbers, community leaders say. U.S. Census Bureau figures released last month show the Indian American population more than doubled from 79,440 people in 1990.
During the same period, the number of businesses catering to people of Indian heritage has grown from five or 10 in 1990 to about 300 today, scattered around a one-mile radius in Middlesex County, says Pradip “Peter” Kothari, president of the Indian Business Association.
“The place is almost renting at the cost of Manhattan,” Kothari said.
Shoppers in the district, which mainly sits on Oaktree Road through Iselin and Edison, can choose from more than 20 jewelers, dozens of stores selling custom-made Indian clothing and food stores crammed with 20-pound sacks of rice, paratha bread, baby eggplant and 14-ounce bags of cumin and ginger.
“People like to purchase from here,” said Rashmi Jhaveri, manager of Natraj Jewelers in Iselin, “rather than go to India.”
Kaur, 40, of Edison, says “this is the only place” to buy the silk clothes she wants. Prices for the glittery, flowing robes are three times what they would sell for in India, but obviously cheaper than traveling to get them there, she said. Her local grocery store chain stocks some Indian groceries, she said, but she comes to the business district to shop for a special brand of tea she likes.
“In Pathmark, they’re going to have it, but they’re not going to have so many name brands there,” she said.
Merchants say their district has become popular enough that customers come from Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida to buy specialty items they can generally only find in their country.
Sarla Sajwan, an employee at Roopam, a clothing store that opened a few months ago at the Mahatma Gandhi Plaza, said the district sees a fair amount of residents who are not of Indian heritage, but who have married an Indian or just prefer to purchase the styles.
Indian restaurants are now plentiful enough in the area to have establishments that just focus on one region of the country, Kothari said. And the new shopping plaza, with a half dozen new stores, has benefited.
“People have been flowing in” since the new complex opened, said Jay Manek, who works with his brother at a store that sells international telephone cards. On weekends, the busiest time, customers have had to wait an hour to find a parking space, he said.
The growth of businesses serving new ethnic communities is not unique to the Indian community. In Palisades Park, which saw the largest increase of Korean Americans in the 1990s, Korean businesses have jumped from about 12 in 1990 to over 250 today, said Inchol Yon, past president of the Palisades Park Chamber of Commerce.
Residents can shop for Korean books and music, the colorful, traditional dress known as hanbok, or frequent a number of karaoke clubs to sing along in both English and Korean. Singing is a popular tradition in Korea associated with spring and autumn harvests, Yon said.
Lately, shoe stores have become very popular, Yon said. Korean Americans feel more comfortable buying shoes made in their country, he said. “They fit better.” |
