Sault’s Indian Mart helps international students feel at home
Sault’s Indian Mart helps international students feel at home
A taste of home can be difficult to find for many newcomers to Canada, but the new owners of the Indian Mart are doing their best to make it easier.
Neetu Neetu and husband Gaurav Khatri purchased the Sault’s only Indian grocery store in August.
Their goal, Neetu said, is ensuring everyone who steps through the doors finds something that reminds them of home.
“We have (an) influx of Indian students from different parts of India,” she said.
“Because India is a huge country, there is a huge multicultural and different religions. Everyone has their own taste so we were trying to build it under one roof.”
Khatri learned the business from the former owner as a store manager for a few months before the purchase was made.
Renovations came shortly after, allowing them to increase the number of items they sell and the variety.
In addition to the wide variety of Indian products, they sell items from Eastern Asia and Africa, as well.
Neetu said the reception to their changes has been great so far.
“Customers even tell us they see a huge difference when they used to come here earlier and then they come now, they’ll be like ‘oh wow you did an amazing job.’”
Monika Khandwal is a first-year student at Algoma University who was excited to hear about the store filled with items from her native country.
“It is really a joyful moment, you can say, to have something Indian which is not available in the city right now,” Khandwal said.
“And it’s our first semester -- we are not used to the things that are available here.”
The couple has even been known to take special order requests from customers, as they did for Riya Patel, another Algoma University student.
“Amul cheese is one of my favourites,” Patel said.
“I told Gaurav to bring the amul cheese for me, and he brought that product and it is over here… I was so excited to see it.”
Inflation has affected the Indian Mart like nearly all businesses.
The price of some items has increased, with others taking significantly longer to ship to the Sault -- as long as five months.
Rising costs came as a surprise to Khatri, but he said the strong customer base they have has helped.
“People are coming here,” he said.
“They are appreciating the business because they find everything that they need.”
The pair said they have fallen in love with the Sault and the residents.
Though adapting to winter is still an ongoing struggle for Neetu, she said they’re glad to be in the city and add to its multicultural fabric.
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived Thursday evening in Ottawa for a whirlwind 27-hour visit expected to focus on both the friendly and thorny aspects of the Canada-U.S. relationship, including protectionism and migration on both sides of the border.
Canada and the United States are negotiating a deal that could see asylum seekers turned back at irregular border crossings across the border, including Roxham Road in Quebec.
As the federal government looks to renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S., an eastern Ontario mayor says his city needs more help from Ottawa to deal with the influx of asylum seekers arriving through irregular crossings like Roxham Road.
Amid renewed questions over the pervasiveness of alleged interference by China in Canadian elections and affairs broadly, opposition MPs voted Thursday afternoon to affirm a parliamentary committee's call for the federal government to strike a public inquiry.
A majority of Canadians have seen a mistake on their grocery receipts in the last year, according to a new survey conducted by Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.
An asteroid discovered just last week will pass closer to the Earth than the orbit of the moon this weekend, an occurrence so rare it happens only once in a decade, according to NASA.
The number of Canadians receiving employment insurance benefits are at record lows and down 44 per cent from last year, new figures from Statistics Canada show.
Two Kanien'keha:ka (Mohawk) sisters from Montreal are on a mission that is close to their hearts: to save their ancestors' first language by developing video games young and old can play.
The quick thinking and immediate actions of two people are credited with possibly saving the life of a Midland councillor after he collapsed at a meeting Wednesday evening.
Investigators with York Regional Police issued Canada-wide warrants for two men who they say are involved in the Richmond Hill attack on Ontario woman Elnaz Hajtamiri weeks before she was allegedly abducted.
An Ontario man said he was shocked when his truck was stolen not once but twice, and the second time it was taken he was surprised to discover he was no longer covered for theft.
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived Thursday evening in Ottawa for a whirlwind 27-hour visit expected to focus on both the friendly and thorny aspects of the Canada-U.S. relationship, including protectionism and migration on both sides of the border.
Emergency crews responded to a call for a stabbing on Hartsmere Drive, off Stittsville Main Street, at approximately 7:45 p.m. Thursday. Two police cruisers guarded the parking lot of the Trustee M. Curry Park late Thursday evening.
The Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est has announced plans for a four-day school week pilot-project this fall, becoming the first school board in Ontario to offer families a shortened school week schedule.
The ‘Catch the Ace’ jackpot is still up for grabs in Hagersville. There was no winner Thursday night so the total prize money is now an estimated $1,526,067.
The resurrection of Zellers is officially underway with the Cambridge location opening its doors to eager shoppers who lined up ahead of the store's official reopening.
The new provincial budget features items specific to southwestern Ontario, including a new English public elementary school in London, Ont. that will serve 556 students and include 88 licensed childcare spaces.
A young Strathroy, Ont. man believes there's a promising way forward in the effort to fight his disease. But, he's being told, right now, that path isn't open to him. Friends and family are stepping up to try and make a case for Kyle McPhee to receive immunotherapy treatments.
After a year-and-a-half without, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) says it’s narrowing in on hiring a permanent chief medical officer of health.
When the permit to construct a replacement span for the Ambassador Bridge expired in the summer of 2022, many thought that would bring an end to a 20-year saga of boarded up homes in the city’s west end.
For the first time, the owner of a building in Old Montreal has responded to questions about the fire — through his lawyer — addressing allegations that the building was unsafe.
The political class at the National Assembly has condemned the 'violent' and 'hateful' remarks that columnist Gilles Proulx allegedly made about Quebec solidaire MNAs during Richard Martineau's show on Qub radio in recent weeks.
The Tim Houston PC government remains firm in their promise they'll fix the health-care system by spending more taxpayer money on health than any previous government before.
Potato farmers on Prince Edward Island are taking the federal government to court due to the decision to restrict the movement of P.E.I. seed potatoes.
Manitoba First Nation police have arrested a man connected with a shooting on March 19 on Long Plain First Nation that resulted in the community going on lockdown.
Manitoba’s labour force is growing at a rate to supply enough workers for available positions into 2026, according to the province’s labour market outlook.
The Alberta Energy Regulator has cited an energy company for causing a series of earthquakes, including the largest recorded tremblor in the province's history.
The Alberta Energy Regulator has cited an energy company for causing a series of earthquakes, including the largest recorded tremblor in the province's history.
Following a court appearance Thursday, a B.C. woman facing more than 20 charges – including manslaughter – in connection with alleged druggings of men who used escort services was remanded into custody.
The man killed in West Vancouver earlier this week was a retired urologist who was involved in several legal disputes over valuable real estate, CTV News has learned.
