Lavina Melwani, who seems to write three-quarters of the articles in the monthly Little India, has an informative piece on desis in the convenience store industry in the current issue. It’s the first focused treatment I’ve seen of the South Asian presence in that business that provides numbers, even if some are estimates, along with anecdotal information and personal stories. A few of the facts:
According to trade associations, 50,000 to 70,000 of the 140,000 convenience stores in the United States are owned by South Asians. South Asian owned stores do an estimated $100bn annual business.
Over 50 percent of US 7-Elevens are owned by South Asians.
60 percent of South Asian owned stores are independent properties, as opposed to chain franchises – a similar pattern to the motel business, where desis began with independent properties before gradually acquiring brand-name franchises.
In addition to the National Association of Convenience Stores, several desi trade groups have sprung up: the Asian American Convenience Store Association, the Asian American Retailers Association, and the National Alliance of Trade Associations, which is based in the Ismaili community. The AACSA held its second convention in December and a third is scheduled for late May in Florida.
The article profiles a number of desi convenience store owners. It is pretty much the basic immigrant hard-work-make-good story. The risks of the profession are alluded to in passing. One point that stands out is that the convenience store business isn’t just an intermediate stop on the way up to more lucrative or prestigious activities:
[A profiled c-store owner] says the strength of the industry is in its ability to withstand economic downturns. He recalls, “When my son graduated from the University of Texas in 2000 the computer industry was booming. The first job was very good, but then in 2003 he was laid off. So he joined me in the business. The convenience store business is recession proof, because everyone needs bread and beer and lottery tickets. I always felt safe in the convenience store industry.”
Apu from The Simpsons earns a mention, and it’s a positive one:
For long, the only South Asian on TV was Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the owner of the Quik-E-Mart in the TV show The Simpsons. He is known for having worked for 96 hours straight, taken so many bullets that bullets ricochet off the bullets already lodged in his body! He is savvy, brainy and a one-man dynamo of energy. And a Ph.D to boot.
The stereotype has a sliver of truth, as hard work, family solidarity and resourcefulness are at the root of South Asian success in the C-store business. Many owners have professional degrees and include some physicians.
As a side note, the convenience store industry has at least once tried to embrace Apu. Here’s a straight-faced press release from the NACS in 2003. It’s entertaining to see how they twist and turn to explain why Apu may be good for industry image (“Apu encapsulates a number of positive traits found in the convenience store industry”) while never referring to Apu’s ethnicity.
there is also a Asian American Hotel Owners Association.
although for the most part ‘apu’ was used to tease me (i’m guessing other desis, too) as a kid, i do think that embracing of the the character is not such a bad idea.
i didn’t know the statistic mentioned at the top of the post were so high. i’m curious to see whic other sector desis dominate in. probably contributing to why desi immigrant sharpen US’ competetive edge.
Jeez!!! 100 billion ??? Thats awesome. See… This is the reason when “Joe Biden” said something about “Indian accent in a dough-nut store” or something to that effect, I was not offended. There are a 100 billion reasons not to !!
Thanks for doing this post!! You need someone to sponsor those Bollywood concert shows, dont you?? The Desi Doctors and Lawyers are not going to do it 🙂
I found the above in the article. I say it a bunch of Bull. In India, Retail is not regarded in highest esteem. Far from it. You got to be kidding me.
I salute entrepreneurialism in general and that of the motel and store owners in particular. However, I worry when second generation Georgia Tech grads are going into this, even granting that their family is already in it. Is this family pressure or lack of other opportunities? Also, the market domination by a particular religious sect, even if it is Ismailis, bothers me – a hopeful store owner who is not part of this community – or not even Gujarati – would seem to be at some disadvantage in entering the business. Also, I know that intermediaries and retailers rarely worry about what they sell – but the blase, ethics-free attitude about selling things like lottery tickets and beer – and chemicals that are methamphetamine precursors, or even items that can be used as drug paraphernalia – bothers me.
That’s a great insight. According to organizational ecology, the most reliable and accountable organizations survive … while others scramble to change. In fact, the corner store that relies on ‘location’ in the downtown has a captive audience that keeps coming back, regardless of boom or bust. Money may be fungible (economists say that; i have doubts), but land isn’t. Location matters.
Notice that in their ’embrace’, the association largely sanitized the character, emphasizing only his ‘positive’ attributes. I would actually have hoped that these guys, working through their associations, would have used some of their market power to influence the character-attributes of Apu in the series itself, if not actually bought out the outfit that produces it, and run a more positive character in his place. I can fully see other groups doing something like this if subjected to the same kind of stereotyping. I speak as someone who could never bring himself to watch a single episode of the Simpsons – all because of the Apu caricature. I do not deny that some of these store-owners look and sound like ‘Apu’ – I’ve seen one or two myself – but also many who do not – however, a character so full of all the worst stereotypes you can think of – especially when there are few other portrayals of South Asians in mainstream media – cannot and should not be ’embraced’.
Assuming that these figures are correct (desis are notorious exaggerators, so I wonder), that makes convenience store owners/workers the most disproportionately desi occupation in America, and 7-11s and quickmarts the place where the average american is most likely to interact with a south asian. Cheap motel ownership (around 25,000) is the next most disproportionately desi occupation, probably followed by taxi drivers and software coders. The 30,000 or so desi doctors and ~7000 academics are a much lower fraction of their respective professions. This is out of a >1 million desi-american workforce.
For my part, I was always glad that Apu was around. He was the only person I “knew” whose last name was longer and harder to say than mine! 😉
Noticing it slightly late, but nice title, Siddhartha. Takes us right back to his BB-SR-esque origins. (not to spoil it for anyone). I’d have gone more for ‘A world of Apus’ myself, though! 🙂
It appears that your spelling lavina as lavinia is a novelty..
thank you!
no, it’s a typo, and it’s now fixed.
speaking of convenience store owners/operators, i just finished watching a dateline special (‘to catch a predator’, i think it was a re-run) featuring sajjad mohammad–a 43-year-old desi convenience store clerk who tried to solicit a 14-year-old girl for sex while his kids waited in the car.
Here is a link for you. Don’t create your own statistic.
…so why has no one started packaging samosas to sell at my n’hood 7-11 in L.A.?
Also, the market domination by a particular religious sect, even if it is Ismailis, bothers me – a hopeful store owner who is not part of this community – or not even Gujarati – would seem to be at some disadvantage in entering the business.
Kurean greengrocers? Greek diners? Dominican bodegas? Vietnamese donut shops? Thats the American way, at least in the part of America I grew up in. Amd yes, there are advantages to belonging to these communities.
How does your link change anything I wrote? There were 2.6 million IT jobs in the US in 2006. The desi proportion of this IT work force is far less than the desi proportion of convenience store and cheap motel owners/operators.
Secondly, the average american is far less likely to interact with a desi IT worker than with a desi grocery store clerk/owner, or a desi taxi driver. Right or wrong?
If by “average American” you mean a person like me, well… I interact with a number of South Asians of different professions on a day-to-day (or at least week-to-week) basis. Yes, one of them runs the convenience store across the street. I may be an unfair sample because I live in a place with a large desi population, and because I am posting on a desi blog, but — at least where I live — Team Desi is not solely limited to standing behind C-store counters.
Yes my dear multi hued, multi headed desi american girl you sure are the average american
Doordarshan,
You snivelling idiot.What the heck makes an IT worker better than a convenience store owner? Is the fact that desis own the majority of businesses in this category supposed to be a negative?
In your effort to put desis down, you fail to realize that the average convenience store owner is significantly wealthier than you are, a nondescript corporate hack.A vastly disproportionate number of South Asian asset millionaires are “cheap” (you aren’t event subtle in your denigration) motel owners and store owners.
You’ve grown up with a Brahminized model of prestige, and believe putting on a tie and fiddling with excel sheets makes you superior. No wonder India is such a poor wretched place.
“Average American” means… what? A white person, probably living in the middle of the country somewhere. I qualify on both counts.
I grew up in a town so small it didn’t have stoplights. Yet I also grew up playing Super Nintendo alongside a desi kid — whose parents did not work in the convenience-store business. I’ve seen The Simpsons since it’s inauguration and it took me until college to realize that Apu’s occupation was a stereotype because I never associated being desi with running a C-store.
As I’ve mentioned above, I am an unfair sample. However, it’s worth considering that all of the other “average” people in the places I’ve lived should have at least a similar rate of interaction.
It’s also well worth considering that since there’s a very strong feeling on this board in the other direction — that “average” types do associate desis solely with c-stores — that this reality can be equally valid. Possibly more so.
I just wanted to speak up for my pocket of Middle America.
The irony of the entire flow is, Matt Groening chose the name out of a deep respect for Satyajit Ray’s film. In an interview, Groening says:
“MG: I guess I like Apu a lot because he’s probably the most optimistic character on the show other than Ralph Wiggum. And he’s named after Apu from the Satyajit Ray trilogy — great classic movies which I am a huge, huge fan of. No one ever asks, no one ever notices, but that’s where that comes from. I hope it didn’t kill Satyajit Ray when he saw it.”
This to me is the ultimate in irony.
Groening creates a character that’s been inadvertently used to ridicule us (irrespective of whether we should embrace him or not, other people use him as a tool of ridicule) from a set of films he originally had much respect for. And even more ironic, I’d bet 500 years from now, Apu will be known as “that guy from the Simpsons” rather than “that guy from the Satyajit Ray trilogy” Groening’s love for the films and characters may be the very thing that kills it in history’s eyes.
The convenience store convergence is a really hilarious example of groupthink to me. It’s the same idea that says “X is a doctor and he is rich, so medical school is THE. ONLY. WAY. TO. MAKE. A LIVING.” I have had many professional people in my family suddenly get the “convenience store” bug at some point in their lives. I don’t get it. I know these stores offer some advantages, particularly to recent immigrants, but I don’t understand why they still exert a hold on our collective psyche (or at least the Gujarati one 🙂 ).
Why does nobody talk about the postive side of Apu. Apu is desi immigrant who has become part of the community. In the last few years Apu and wife have become one of Homer and Marge closet couple friends.
Apu is great example of immigrant who has intergrated into American society.
I knew this would prompt a response from the Apu Defense League.
My point was, Groening’s choice of name was ironic given he did it out of homage to the Apu trilogy, and he pretty much sealed the trilogy’s fate in terms of mainstream American association with the name “Apu.”
I’m sure he didn’t choose the name to give the trilogy free press, or teach America about it’s existence, but it’s still ironic in light of his personal opinion of Ray’s films.
This is idiotic, and I’m more idiotic for responding to it. The entire city is one big f#($@)(#ing cartoon bearing next to no resemblence to reality. Again the point was missed, it’s not your opinion of Apu that’s relevant, it’s the fact that he’s used as a point of ridicule.
In the early days, Matt and Trey used to live in the same apartment row as yours truly. Wonder which grocery store owner they based Apu on. The one store that existed then was owned by a desi and was busted for selling alcool to underage folks. And the cauliflower sucked!
Are you talking about Matt Stone and Trey Parker? They did South Park, do they have a convenience store character too? Or are you saying Matt Groening and Trey Parker were friends?? That’d be hard because they are about 16 years apart.
I was just about to say this. And then add d’oh!
Apu was once the hottest bachelor in Springfield because he owned his own business, had a PhD, and wasn’t much of a talker, but a great listener. Yes, I do love The Simpsons and statements like
bring tears to my eyes, out of sadness and a little laughter, because it is a ridiculous opinion.
I myself was asked recently (by a total stranger) if my family owned a grocery store, based merely on the fact that I am brown and that I know where several DC-area stores are. It made my jaw drop at first, and then it just really made me laugh, because it was so stupid. I don’t find this to be a “dangerous” stereotype, but I do understand the annoyance and frustration it causes to people that are proud of their background, upbringing and educational accomplishments. People are ridiculous and that will never change.
Well, he’s not just a simple immigrant-bashing stereotype HMF (ok, at least he wasn’t when I still watched The Simpsons, so I can’t speak to anything past 2001 or so). He was a complicated character that the show’s writers often used to comment on American attitudes towards immigration, multiculturalism, and religion. He was a smart guy, often portrayed as smarter and better-adjusted than most of the adults in Springfield. He was about the only character that Lisa (the show’s other real intelligent outcast) could turn to for advice. And his work ethic was portrayed as FAR stronger than any of the -white- yellow characters.
Some of my most favorite episodes of the Simpsons involved Apu, particularly the one about his arranged marriage.
Again, this all reflects what the Simpsons was prior to it becoming “Homer fall down! FUNNY!!!!!!”
Perhaps the real question is “in a show like the Simpsons, which contains characters of a multiplicity of nationalities, histories, and stereotypes, why is it that our society has allowed Apu has become a negative generalization of desis while a character like Groundskeeper Willie doesn’t seem to have any recriminating effect on people of Scottish descent?”
For heaven’s sake, Bumblebee Man is a lot more broadly drawn and can be viewed as much more offensive than Apu.
So is it because of the way Groening et al have portrayed Apu, or because Team Average Racist American would have found any available insult to hurl at the feared other, and Apu, being the only desi on television, was closest at hand?
There you people go throwing your personal views of Apu up there, which are fine and dandy, and respectable, but totally irrelevent. Your average white viewer isn’t thinking to himself “Wow, he’s such a respectable immigrant for setting up a successful business in a middle-American town, a real pillar for the American Dream!”
This is an excellent point. I think it has to do with a lack of counterbalancing force. US Pop culture has Willie from the Simpsons, but it also has
This actually reminds of story, when I was in middle school, some kids started calling me “Gandhi.” I once had a substitute teacher call me “Mahatna”
I was more surprised at their stupidity to use him as an insult. But they did exactly what you said – pilfered their shallow, white-American brains for whatever desi/brown/Indian connection they could think of, and force it into an insult.
Those “insults” really had no effect on me, because I knew who Gandhi really was, and what was more offensive was their lack of knowledge, rather than their attempts to dehumanize me.
But there’s no way I can get behind Apu in same way, regardless of how many times Lisa goes to him for advice.
Thanks, HMF. I just realized what was wrong with my above logic and wrote, I don’t know, 500 words about it. See the trackback above. (Snow days are good for blogs, yes?)
The gist of the argument is “Who am I to try to combat the experiences of a group of people with my single personal experience?”
HMF Good catch. It was the South Park guys i was referring to.
Dont get your knickers in a twist over imaginary insults you thin-skinned “snivelling idiot”. No one is putting you or yours down for making an honest living running a small convenience store or a cheap motel. But you seem to have a real issue dealing with the fact that these businesses which are disproportionately desi-owned are at the low end of the hospitality and grocery businesses in America. Why this problem dealing with facts??
You obviously are new around here. I happen to agree to a large extent with your blaming brahminism for India’s wretchedness.
running low-end or cheap business’ (like wal-mart, 7-11, mobil gas) is not exactly looked down upon in the capitalist world, as you imply. i know you’re trying to bust the model minority myth, as you were here, but by pointing out that desi’s are disprportionately represented in these businesses, you’re just adding to it.
Store owners are also proud of their backgrounds, upbringing and educational accomplishments.
In fact, if someone assumed I was successful enough to own a store, I would feel very proud of myself and take it as a great compliment.
Of course they are. I would never seek to undermine them and think they were uneducated, because as the lesson of Apu(!!!) has taught us, store owners sometimes have PhDs too. And I don’t. And I don’t own a store either. So in a way, I would be proud to be an Apu too.