The day after the Indian festival Diwali began, hundreds of people showed up at the newly opened University Convenience Store to celebrate in feast.
The convenience store, located at 601 S. Kimbrough Ave., catered food from the Indian restaurant Taj Mahal and hosted “Indian students and American students alike” to celebrate the “Festival of Lights” for three hours, said co-owner Inderpal Bains. The Nov. 11 event acted as a grand opening for the store, Bains said.
University Convenience Store opened in November at the southwest corner of Kimbrough Avenue and Cherry Street, with Bains, his brother, Jaskaran, and his parents, Harvinder and Taranjit, at the helm of the business.
With its close proximity to Missouri State University, the family-run store will feature all the normal wares of a college station: Alcoholic spirits by the fifths, coolers of beers, all kinds of tobacco items, a mountain of chips, candies and other snacks, as well as a plethora of soft drinks and sodas.
An entire aisle of Indian foods
The store also features a more-unique aisle catered to the wants of the international student population, Bains said.
“Yeah, these are Indian brands,” Inderpal Bains said, motioning to the shelves stacked with Indian foods and snacks. “Like, if you went back to India, these are the brands that you would see.”
Having these products available to international students gives Bains great pride. The nearest store with similar wares is a 10-to-15-minute drive from the Missouri State campus, Bains said.
“In this case, a lot of them will appreciate the fact that they can really just walk from the door of their apartment” to the store, Bains said. “A lot of them don't have cars, because they're just here for their degrees.”
There are about 1,500 international students, faculty and staff at Missouri State University, according to the University's International Program website.
One of the advantages of being a family-run business is the store can open up to suggestions from customers, and Bains said that's exactly what University Convenience Store has done. Family members already collected about six pages of suggestions and are actively working to get some of those items in store, he said.
The family purchased the entire property
The Bains wanted to concretely implant themselves into the community, Bains said. That's why earlier this year they purchased the property that houses the convenience store and the Mexican restaurant next door, Tacos El Champu, which hosted a grand opening in September, he said.
Bains declined to disclose the purchase price of the property, located at 601 to 603 S. Kimbrough Ave. While a bill of sale was not disclosed, a deed of trust of $492,000 was recorded on June 1 for the property, according to records from the Greene County Recorder of Deeds.
The Bains family noticed that the property had been vacant for a couple years, so they reached out to the owners in May with an interest in renting, only to purchase the property a month later, Bains said. The family also own a gas station in Marshfield, which is run by a manager, he said.
The property was previously owned by THB Properties, LLC., according to Greene County Assessor's Office records, and formerly housed Bull's Trophy House.
The family will continue to give back
The Bains plan to host a community get-together about once a month, Bains said, in a plan to continue to foster engagement in the neighborhood.
“We'd like to cater, like free food for our customers from a local restaurant,” Bains said. “Something of that nature to kind of give back to the community.”
The Bains are working hard to cultivate a “family-operated-business atmosphere,” he said. The family plans to continue to work with its customers to serve their individualistic needs, he said.
The store aims to have the feel of a “corner-street bodega,” Bains said, as opposed to the corporate feel of a gas station/convenience store chain.
“Since we're family-owned, there's no corporate structure above us,” Bains said. That allows the store more freedom in getting items customers request, he said.
“Whatever it might be,” Bains said. “If that's something that they would like to see, and they would like to buy and have a hard time getting it somewhere else, then that's something we can get.”
