North America’s Largest Indian Grocery Store, Apna Bazar, Opens Thursday in Shrewsbury, Mass.

SHREWSBURY, Mass. — Apna Bazar, North America’s largest Indian grocery store, opens Thursday in Shrewsbury, Mass. The 70,000-square-foot store will bring Indian and South Asian groceries, an Indian restaurant, bakery, sweet shop, flower shop and meat department under one roof, alongside Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and American food products.

Located at 551 Boston Turnpike, the store represents a major expansion of the ethnic grocery format, combining a full-service grocery operation with an Indian restaurant, bakery, sweet shop, flower shop and meat department. Its offerings will also include Middle Eastern and Mediterranean dairy products and other foods, along with American grocery staples.

Romy Selhi, the store’s owner, told INDIA New England News that the Shrewsbury location is the largest Indian grocery store in North America.

The store’s scale and range of offerings set it apart from the smaller specialty markets that have traditionally served South Asian communities. By combining groceries, prepared meals and specialty departments, Apna Bazar aims to serve customers looking for culturally familiar ingredients as well as shoppers seeking a broader selection of international foods.

For Selhi, the opening marks another step in a retail career spanning major American chains and independent grocery operations. He also owns Apna Bazar stores in Woburn and Norwood, Mass.

Selhi immigrated to the United States in 1998. Before expanding his grocery business, he spent more than 11 years at CVS Health, working as a store manager in the Greater Boston area from January 2009 to April 2020. He then joined Target, where he served as an executive team leader in general merchandise from April 2020 through September 2025.

His experience includes managing retail operations, developing employees, overseeing merchandising and payroll, improving customer service and driving sales while managing operating costs and profitability. His professional background also encompasses inventory control, business planning and responding to changing customer preferences.

Those skills will be relevant to operating a store of Shrewsbury’s size, where the challenge extends beyond stocking a broad selection of products to coordinating multiple departments, maintaining service standards and attracting enough customers to support a large retail footprint.

Apna Bazar was founded in 1995 by Jaswinder Singh Johal and Desh Deepak Bhardwaj. The chain has grown to 32 stores across the United States, according to information provided for this article. The Shrewsbury opening expands its Massachusetts presence and adds a substantial new destination for South Asian food shopping in Central Massachusetts.

Selhi’s interest in retail has family roots. He has credited his uncles, Vijay K. Selhi and Ram Selhi, with inspiring his interest in the business. His parents are Charan Dass Selhi and Chander Kiran Selhi. He lives in Medford, Mass., with his wife, Divya Selhi, and their children, Bhavya Selhi and Saarika Selhi.

Beyond his business interests, Selhi supports charitable initiatives and community events intended to promote South Asian culture. His involvement reflects the role that ethnic grocery businesses can play as commercial destinations and gathering points for immigrant communities, helping sustain access to familiar foods and cultural traditions.

The Shrewsbury store’s mix of Indian and South Asian products with Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and American groceries also gives it a potential customer base beyond shoppers seeking ingredients from a single culinary tradition. Its restaurant, bakery and sweet shop add prepared-food options, while the flower and meat departments broaden the range of purchases available in one visit.

The format carries the operational demands of any large grocery business, including staffing, inventory management, operating expenses and the need to maintain consistent traffic across departments. Its performance will depend on how successfully the store converts its size and breadth of offerings into repeat business.

For Apna Bazar, the Shrewsbury opening is a significant addition to a chain that has expanded well beyond its founding three decades ago. For Selhi, it brings together his experience in corporate retail, his entrepreneurial ambitions and his longstanding interest in the South Asian grocery business.

The store opens Thursday at 551 Boston Turnpike in Shrewsbury, Mass. On the opening day, the store will remain open from 11:00 am to 9:00 PM. Regular hours will be from 9:00 am to 9:00 PM.