Patel Brothers
Asian-American supermarket chain
Patel Brothers, Inc. (doing business as Patel Brothers) is an Indian-American supermarket chain based in the United States. Patel Brothers is the world’s largest supermarket chain serving the Indian diaspora, with 52 locations in 20 U.S. states—primarily located in the Eastern United States, due to its large Indian population and geographical supply chain constraints, and with the East Windsor/Monroe Township, New Jersey location representing the world’s largest and busiest Indian grocery store outside India. As of 2024, Patel Brothers has six more stores planned in the next two years. The chain was founded in Chicago by brothers Mafat and Tulsi Patel and is operated by three generations of the family since its inception.
History
Mafat lived in Bhandu, a small village in Gujarat, along with his younger brother Tulsi and other family members before attending Youngstown State University for a Master's in Engineering in 1968. After finishing his engineering degree, he moved from Ohio to Chicago to work as an engineer at Jefferson Electrical Co. Mafat found that Indian groceries were very expensive and scarce in Chicago, which inspired him to start a grocery store. The first Patel Brothers store opened on Devon Avenue in 1974, and was operated jointly by Mafat, Tulsi and his wife Aruna, the latter two of which had immigrated from India to help with the store.
As of 2022, the store on Devon Avenue in Chicago, has been remodeled and operating as their original flagship store.
“Patel Brothers” enters the record as asian-American supermarket chain. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Patel, Brothers and Asian-American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Patel Brothers” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Patel, Brothers and Asian-American provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q55641396. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2024, 1968, 1974 and 2022.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Patel Brothers”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Patel Brothers primary sources, Patel Brothers archive and Patel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Patel Brothers”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Patel Brothers” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.