South Asian grocery store opens in East Hartford

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — A new grocery store opened in East Hartford on Friday, bringing food from South Asia.

New York-based Apna Bazar Farmers Market offers thousands of products from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The 23,000 square foot space used to be a Big Y in the School Street Square plaza on Ellington Road.

“The response has been great — we heard there was a big need for it in this community,” Karun Vhardwaj, who works there, said. “There’s no other big grocery store. I’m not saying we’re huge, but we do our best and we want to help local communities, we want to help people, and that’s what brought us here.”

In addition to grocery items, the store’s manager said they will also offer fresh halal meat, dairy products and produce.

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