New owner at St. Peters Bay store helps keep shoppers close to home

The general store in St. Peters Bay has reopened — thanks to a man who moved to P.E.I. from a city of more than 2 million people.

Parth Patel is originally from Gujarat, India and moved to P.E.I. in 2016. He later started working full-time at a pharmaceutical company in Charlottetown, then decided he wanted to run a business as well.

"It's going pretty good," Patel said.

"Community supporting very good and everybody is happy to have a store back and open in St. Peters Bay, so they don't have to travel to Morell for small stuff."

The general store is on the corner of Route 2 near the fire department, and was closed for more than a year. Patel said when he saw it, he felt it looked promising.

"It's all a guessing game, but then I thought if I do my 100 per cent, there's no way it is going to go down," Patel said. "It will go good, if you treat the customer in a good way."

'Every single person asks for a gas station'

Patel is trying to transfer the gas licence from the former owner, get new gas tanks installed and be selling gas by the end of this year.

"I get 100 customers on an average [per day], 100 to 110, somewhere around there," he said. "Every single person asks for a gas station."

Patel has been working long hours, but said he doesn't mind working if it means getting things operating at the store.

He said his experience working in retail in Toronto taught him a lot.

"If you give good customer service, one will bring two and two will bring four," he said.

Patel said playing cricket with a group on the Island helped him make social and business connections since he moved to P.E.I. He is now vice-president of the P.E.I. Cricket Association.

He lives with his wife in Cornwall and plans to move to East Royalty in the summer, to cut down on the commuting time to St. Peters Bay.

He's hired a local person to help out at the store, and is also getting a hand from a friend who is also from Gujarat.