Chai Market marks 40 years of business in Southside

Sam Pokhrel, co-owner of Chai Market on Southside, is proud of his store’s heritage.

“This store is very historical,” he said. “This was the first Oriental food store in Birmingham.”

The market — originally called Chai’s Oriental Food Store — was founded by Peter Chaiprakob, a Thai-born Chinese-American, and his wife, according to bhamwiki.com.

Chaiprakob — better known as “Mr. Chai” — started the market in 1973 and catered to the increasingly sophisticated food tastes of the burgeoning, multicultural community of UAB students and faculty members.

“Now we continue the same thing,” Pokhrel said.

With Chai Market now in its fifth decade, Pokhrel and his co-owner and wife, Rose, said they are excited about honoring its legacy.

For the couple, this means providing fresh produce, frozen delicacies and other grocery items from Asia, India and Africa while giving friendly customer service.

And they want to continue to supply the UAB community and the market’s established customers while attracting new ones — especially as UAB, Southside and downtown continue to attract new residents and businesses.

Originally from Nepal, the Pokhrels moved to Birmingham from Huntsville in January. Their son, Arya, is a pre-med student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The couple bought Chai from two Thai women — Golf Suchodayon and Kay Sathianphatthanakul — whom the Pokhrels say have served as advisers and supporters.

Suchodayon and Sathianphatthanakul, who owned Chai for about eight years, are credited with broadening its stock to include a wider variety of items, including Thai, African and Indian foods.

The store’s aisles contain fresh produce, including plantains, ginger, curry leaf, Japanese sweet potatoes and Taiwanese cabbage.

The frozen food cases include samosas, pot stickers and vegetable dumplings. There is a case of frozen fish, including red snapper and galunggong fish.

There’s a wide selection of Indian and Korean tea and Jamaican coffee, as well as big bags of rice and African flour. The market also carries pastries, soft drinks and incense.

In its stock of Asian foods, the market emphasizes Japan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and others rather than China, due to the numerous other outlets in Birmingham that stock Chinese items, according to Sam Pokhrel.

Peter Chai and his wife had a reputation for good customer service, and the Pokhrels say they’ve adopted that approach.

“We take care of our customers like family members,” Sam Pokhrel said. 

The store’s customers “are very, very good,” Rose Pokhrel said. “Many have come here for a long, long time — 15 years, 20 years. When they were a child, some came in here.”

The store is drawing some new customers from the internet, according to Sam Pokhrel.

“When you search for Indian grocery or Asian grocery in Birmingham, you find our store first,” he said. “It’s easy.”

Chai also draws “a bunch of customers who come from far outside of Birmingham,” including Mississippi and Florida, he said. “They come [to UAB] to see the doctor, and they come here, too,” Sam Pokhrel said.

Chai Market began stocking imported beer and wine in October, according to the couple. They plan to add a hair salon and beauty products in the future.

They also said they are not concerned about the potential impact on their business when the new Publix market opens in Midtown.

“We have some kinds of different food, different items, that the Publix is not selling,” said Sam Pokhrel.

Chai Market is at 2133 Seventh Ave. S. For hours and more information, call 324-4873 or go to the “Chai Market” Facebook page.