Parshotam Singh always wanted to own a store. Upon leaving India over 20 years ago, Singh started on a long course that would find him working, then leasing and finally owning a busy neighborhood grocery. The proud shopkeeper now owns AK Food Mart, 2305 S. Howell Ave.
AK Food Mart is a bright, airy place with big windows that look out on the popular Bay View intersections of Howell, Lincoln and Kinnickinnic Avenues.
"The customers are very nice, the neighborhood is so nice, I like running the store," Singh says, beaming.
At the crossroads between the residential sections and the trendy commercial district of Bay View, AK Food Mart takes the convenience factor of a neighborhood grocery to the extreme. The cozy Guanajuato Mexican restaurant sits next to the mart on the corner and a big, gaping hole in the ground that will someday be an Alterra coffee is across the street.
Appealing to the growing demographic of Bay View, AK Food Mart carries a full line of groceries, from cereals, canned goods and many frozen foods, to fresh fruit, most sundries, and incidentals like pet food and cat litter. The mart has ATM, fax and copy machines, and also sells bus passes and lottery tickets.
Unlike some grocers, who don't accept WIC and food stamps, AK Food Mart recognizes the diversity that comes with operating a neighborhood grocery in the city. In addition to accepting Quest, the mart offers services like check cashing, utility bill payments and free money orders.
But the standout component to AK Food Mart is its deli. Singh says his deli sandwiches, made right in the mart, are his biggest sellers. There's an assortment of chips, fruit and salads to accompany the sandwiches.
And on Sundays, customers can get six free bread rolls with a pound of hot deli ham.
Although there's a lot of walk-in traffic, Singh says the mart is busiest in the afternoons, as people are coming from work and will pull up quick to get supplies on the way home.
Singh worked three years at AK Food Mart for Abdul Khaliq (the AK in the store name). Khaliq owned many different businesses, and had more than one food mart. Prior to his stint on Howell, Singh worked two years at another of Khaliq's stores, the AK Food Mart on South 13th Street (which is now Best Food Store, located next to Bombay Sweets).
Singh leased the Howell food mart from Khaliq for a few years before finally buying it outright.
Singh said he moved from India to provide a good future for his kids, a daughter, age 21 and a son, Indy, who is about to turn nine. Singh's daughter attended UW-Parkside and is headed to medical school.
Singh's spouse, Balwinder Kaur, works in the store, and they have one other paid employee.
Indy often joins his parents in the store during the summer. Indy says he has a good time, playing games with his father and interacting with the mart's customers.
"Although sometimes I don't come, you can often find me here in June, August, and sometimes in December," Indy says, jokingly suggesting that he's in charge of when he comes to the store and that it has nothing to do with his school's schedule. Indy goes to school in Oak Creek, where he lives with his parents.
Singh knows very little about Oak Creek. When asked about it all he can do is shrug. "I'm at the store from six in the morning until 10 or later at night, seven days a week. It's like living here. I only go home to sleep and shower; there's nothing else," says Singh.
Singh would like to build a new store in the empty lot adjacent to his current store. While he makes plans for this big step, Singh recently remodeled the current store.
"It's now worth about $1.3 million dollars. Or so I saw on the T.V. news," Indy says.
Singh says the new Alterra being constructed across the street, in the spot of a demolished Maritime Bank building, is good for the neighborhood, although he only remains cautiously optimistic about it bringing more customers to his store.
AK Food Mart has felt the crunch from the depressed economy, but Singh says he and his family have weathered tougher times in the neighborhood he loves.
"I was here when everybody moved out (of Bay View) and I'm still here now that everybody is looking to move back," Singh says.
Royal has taught courses in critical pedagogy, writing, rhetoric and cultural studies at several schools in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He is currently Adjunct Associate Professor of Humanities at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.
Royal lives in Walker’s Point with his family and uses the light of the Polish Moon to illuminate his way home.
