Kiran Indian Grocery — Treating New Tampa Like Family For 20 Years

Kiran’s son Satvik (left) is a clinical psychiatrist; her younger son Sahit is in medical school.

Kiran Indian Grocery, located on Cross Creek Blvd. in the Cross Creek Center plaza, has been a mainstay at this constantly-changing plaza since 2014. Before that, owner Kiran Vanthenapalli owned a store (from 2003-06; and an Indian restaurant, too) on E. Fowler Ave. and, from 2006-10, her store was in the Pebble Creek Collection on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.

That means that some of her beloved customers have known and trusted Kiran and her family and staff to provide their (predominantly) Indian and Pakistani spices, coffees and teas, frozen foods, meats, snacks, sweets and even hair care and other cosmetic products (and so much more) for almost 20 years. 

And of course, Kiran is perhaps best known for her amazing selection of fresh produce, with so many Indian specialty items I’ve never tasted (or even seen) before at prices that she says she knows, “no one can beat. I do my research — and no one beats my prices on produce.”

For example, she can describe the difference between coconuts used for Indian prayers and those that are meant for eating, and of course, stocks both in the store.

But actually, saying that Kiran is best known for her produce isn’t 100-percent accurate. Kiran Indian Grocery is actually best-known for Kiran herself, something that no other store of any kind can boast.

Not only can Kiran tell you where each and every one of her thousands of available items are located, she also can tell you the prices for each — all off the top of her head. That’s kind of amazing because she has so many different items and many different brands of the same types of products — e.g., she has as many different “masala” seasonings and brands as most grocery stores have beers — crammed into a store that somehow seems both much bigger and much smaller than it actually is because it offers such an amazing variety of products. 

“I can’t do my own inventory on a computer,” Kiran says. “My computer is right here (pointing to her head).”

But, Kiran’s staffers also are knowledgeable. It’s just pretty much impossible for anyone else to have memorized the prices, sizes and exact location within the store of so many different items — many of which aren’t even marked with prices.

But, if Kiran tells you what the price is on any item, rest assured that when that item is rung up at the check-out counter, the exact price she quoted will pop up.

Also stored in Kiran’s computer brain are the favorite items of every one of her regular customers. She re-orders many items based on when she knows the customers who regularly purchase those items will be back in to buy them.

“I don’t like disappointing anyone,” she says with her usual sweet smile. “If I am running low on an item you always get, I’ll hold enough of that item for you,” so you can stay stocked until she gets her next shipment of it. And, “If I only have three left, and I don’t know how soon I’ll get more, I’ll tell you to buy two of them.”

And, if Kiran does somehow run out of one of your favorites, she’ll suggest an alternative that you can try that you might end up liking better. 

A Love Of Animals

Kiran and her husband Sudeer have always also served not only their community, but people — and even animals — in need around the world. 

She has been involved — at least since opening her store in Cross Creek — with the Tampa Bay chapter of the SPCA (the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and she has donated fresh produce, rice and really anything the local chapter has needed because she is such a strong believer that people need pets and that so many of the pets in shelters can and do help individuals and families who need the kind of companionship and love that only a dog or cat can provide.

“I love the SPCA,” Kiran says. “It feels good to help them because they help so many people…and animals.”

When Covid-19 hit back in March 2020 and I started going through issues with my printer, Kiran was probably the first (but thankfully, not the only) advertiser to call me and say, “What do you need? How can I help?

She thought I said that I was going out of business. “I started crying,” she said. “I told (her husband) Sudeer, ‘We have to help our brother.’”

Even though I thankfully never got to that point and have no Indian heritage whatsoever, Kiran has been calling me her brother for years now. And, even though she seems to treat everyone who stops into the store like a member of her family, I refer to her as my sister, too. You just can’t fake her kind of genuine goodness and compassion for others.

“Gary, my brother, I’m so sorry that I’m out of your favorite chocolate bars right now,” she said to me on my most recent visit. “I also had to order (my wife) Jannah’s favorite tea. I’ll let you know when all of that comes in.”

But, it’s a big compliment to me because Kiran does also have an amazing family of which she is equally proud. Sudeer is a software engineer and their older son Satvik graduated from medical school at USF and is now a clinical psychiatrist, while younger son Sahit currently is in med school and plans to become a psychiatrist as well.

Another case in point about how Kiran treats everyone is that, when people check out at her store, she or her cashier will put coupons from other local businesses in the customers’ shopping bags. She has helped most of the Indian restaurants (as well as the new Gorkhali Kitchen Nepalese restaurant now located next to her store) and other businesses owned by people from India and Pakistan in our area this way and she says that she would be happy to do it for other businesses, too. 

“We’re all in this together,” she says.

And of course, whether you like or want to cook Indian food or not, if you’re a fan of delicious chocolate cookies or other sweet and/or salty treats, or you want the best prices in town on a most unique selection of fresh produce items, you owe it to yourself to visit my sister Kiran.    

Kiran Indian Grocery is located at 10042 Cross Creek Blvd. and is open Monday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. For more information, call (813) 994-6202, search “Kiran Indian Grocery” on Facebook or see the ad on pg. 34.

Kiran Indian Grocery — Where You’ll Be Treated Like Family!

Kiran Indian Grocery, located on Cross Creek Blvd. in the Cross Creek Center plaza, has been a mainstay at this constantly-changing plaza since 2014. Before that, owner Kiran Vanthenapalli owned a store (from 2003-06; and an Indian restaurant, too) on E. Fowler Ave. and, from 2006-2010, her store was in the Pebble Creek Collection on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.

That means that some of her beloved customers have known and trusted Kiran and her family and staff to provide their (predominantly) Indian and Pakistani spices, frozen foods, meats, snacks, sweets and even hair care and other cosmetic products (and so much more) for almost 18 years. 

And of course, Kiran is perhaps best known for her amazing selection of fresh produce, with some Indian specialty items I’ve never tasted (or even seen) before at prices that she says she knows, “no one can beat. I do my research — and no one beats my prices on produce.” 

But actually, saying that Kiran is best known for her produce isn’t 100-percent accurate. Kiran Indian Grocery is actually best-known for Kiran herself, something that no other store of any kind can boast.

(Top middle) Owner Kiran Vanthenapalli of Kiran Indian Grocery in the Cross Creek Center plaza describes a number of the different produce items that many Americans have never heard of, including imported-from-India garlic, Indian min-eggplants and super-spicy Thai chili peppers. “No one beats my produce prices,” she says. (Photos: Charmaine George)

Not only can Kiran tell you where each and every one of her thousands of available items are located, she also can tell you the prices for each — all off the top of her head. That’s kind of amazing because she has so many different items and many different brands of the same types of products — e.g., she has as many different “masala” seasonings and brands as most grocery stores have beers — crammed into a store that somehow seems both much bigger and much smaller than it actually is because it offers such an amazing variety of products. 

That’s not to say that Kiran’s staffers aren’t also knowledgeable. It just has to be impossible for anyone else to have memorized the price, size and exact location within the store of so many different items — many of which aren’t even marked with prices.

But, if Kiran tells you what the price is on any item, rest assured that when that item is rung up at the check-out counter, the exact price she quoted will pop up.

So Many Ways To Serve!

Serving her customers and their needs was of paramount importance to Kiran long before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. She always knows her army of regular customers not only by name (that’s too easy), but also by what they usually are looking for to stock their grocery carts. 

In fact, if she’s ever running low on an item she knows you always get, she’ll hold enough of that item for you, so you can stay stocked until she gets her next shipment of it. “If I only have three left, and I don’t know how soon I’ll get more, I’ll tell you to buy two of them,” she laughs.

And, if Kiran does somehow run out of one of your favorites, she’ll suggest an alternative that you can try that you might end up liking better. “I never want my customers going home unhappy,” she says.

In fact, even though a new, much larger Indian grocery store recently opened in New Tampa during the pandemic, Kiran says that while her customers may have checked out the new store to see what it has that she might not, “My customers are all still coming back because they say the new store (which also stocks a lot of Mediterranean items that she doesn’t carry) can’t match my prices or the service they receive here.” 

Kiran and I first met when we were both members of the Rotary Club of New Tampa Noon (which now meets Wednesdays at noon at Bayscape Bistro in Heritage Isles), and although neither of us currently belongs to that club (see page 34 for more info), we both are firm believers in Rotary International’s “Service Above Self” motto.

But, while service to the community is something I believe in and try to promote in these pages, Kiran and her husband Sudeer have always also served not only their community, but people — and even animals — in need around the world. 

Many of the service projects Kiran was  involved in — some of which she spearheaded — when she was in Rotary helped people in need in not only her native India, but also in other countries in Asia and Africa.

She also has been involved — at least since opening her store in Cross Creek — with the Tampa Bay chapter of the SPCA — the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — and she has donated fresh produce, rice and really anything the local chapter has needed because she is such a strong believer that people need pets and that so many of the pets in shelters can and do help individuals and families who need the kind of companionship and love that only a dog or cat can provide.

“I love the SPCA,” Kiran says. “It feels good to help them because they help so many people…and animals.”

And, even though she says doing grocery packing for her customers who physically can’t or aren’t comfortable walking into any store right now, “Is very time-consuming and difficult, because of all the different items we have, I just feel like I have to do it for some of these customers. We all wear masks and keep everyone socially distant, especially at the checkout line, but some people still need that help and I am proud to do that for them.”  

Service To Other Businesses, Too?

When Covid-19 hit back in March and I started going through the issues I did with my printer, Kiran was probably the first (but thankfully, not the only) advertiser to call me and say, “What do you need? How can I help?” 

When I interviewed Kiran for this story, she told me that, “I thought you said in the paper that you were going out of business, Gary. I started crying. I told Sudeer, ‘We have to help our brother.’”

Even though I thankfully never got to that point and have no Indian heritage whatsoever, Kiran has called me her brother for years now. And, even though she seems to treat everyone who stops into the store like a member of her family, I refer to her as my sister, too. You just can’t fake her kind of genuine goodness and compassion for others.

But, it’s a big compliment to me because she does also have an amazing family of which she is equally proud. Husband Sudeer is a software engineer and their older son Satvik just graduated from medical school at USF and is focusing on Psychiatry, while younger son Sahit recently graduated from USF undergrad and is applying to med schools, too.

Another case in point about how Kiran treats everyone is that, in part also because of Covid-19, when people check out at her store, she or her cashier will put coupons from other local businesses in the customers’ shopping bags. She has helped most of the Indian restaurants and other businesses owned by people from India and Pakistan in our area this way and she says that she would be happy to do it for other businesses, too. “We’re all in this thing together,” she says.

And of course, whether you like or want to cook Indian food or not, if you’re a fan of delicious chocolate cookies or other sweet and/or salty treats, or you want the best prices in town on fresh produce, you owe it to yourself to visit my sister Kiran.    

Kiran Indian Grocery is located at 10042 Cross Creek Blvd. and its recently updated open hours are Monday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. For more info, call (813) 994-6202 or search “Kiran Indian Grocery” on Facebook!

Feel At Home At Kiran Indian Grocery Store On Cross Creek Blvd.

With more than 8,000 items in a store of only 1,200 sq. ft., you might be surprised at the variety of products available at Kiran Indian Grocery. You’ll find everything from beauty products to Masala spice mixes and delicious chocolate, juices and cookies.

EVEN IF you’re not originally from the sub-continent of India, even if you’ve never really loved Indian food, I know you’ll find something you like or want or need if you visit the Kiran Indian Grocery, located on Cross Creek Blvd. in the Cross Creek Center plaza, next to Saffron Indian Cuisine.

The one thing I know for sure is that you won’t find better people than the owners, Kiran and Sudeer (photo on this page; I won’t even try to spell their last name correctly).

Although Kiran is the one who is almost always at the store, she gives credit to Sudeer, a software engineer who handles the books for the popular, albeit tiny (1,200-sq.-ft.) grocery for being “my support system, my partner.”

Theirs is a story of true love so unique that Sudeer wrote a novel (his first) about their life together called No Big Deal. If you think the Indian people are boring because they’re usually so polite and proper, read this book. Sudeer approaches their often difficult life together with the same genuine sweetness and sense of humor he and his wife always show in person. 

What About The Store?

Kiran opened her first store in the Pebble Creek Collection in 2003. She moved it to E. Fowler Ave. in 2010, but found a new location where more of her original New Tampa customers could more easily visit on Cross Creek Blvd. in 2014.

“Really, all of my customers who still live here have followed me wherever I have opened,” says Kiran. “I love my customers and always remember the products they purchase, even if it’s been years since I’ve seen them.”

In other words, if you previously were a customer at either of Kiran’s previous two locations, don’t be surprised if she remembers you by what you bought at her store. She is an absolute expert at knowing what products to stock for her customers, which is no small feat, as the people in every state in India don’t just have different cuisines, they actually speak entirely different languages from each other. That means that Kiran has to learn enough of these other languages to stock as many of the products as possible that people from every part of the world’s second most populous country (as well as from Pakistan and Middle eastern countries, too; she even has an assortment of Halal meats) will purchase.

“I feel a little like a doctor,” Kiran says. “I have had to learn enough of these other languages to know how to stock many of the same items made by different companies because my customers won’t buy the same products from different parts of India than the ones they grew up with.”

In other words, if you’re looking for Masala spice mixes, teas and even rice, Kiran crams about 8,000 items into her little store, including multiple brand names and options from virtually every part of India to satisfy her customers.

I’m not knowledgeable enough about India or the different cuisines favored by each area to know anything about what to buy at Kiran Indian Grocery. The good news is that Kiran does. Every time I visited the store to research this story, she gave me different items to sample, from fresh cilantro, Indian radishes and cucumbers to some of the most delicious chocolate and cookies you’ll find anywhere (more on all of that sweet stuff below).

I consider myself to be relatively adventurous when it comes to trying different foods, but I’ve never been partial to any kind of curry or chutney, which of course, are among the staples of many Indian cuisines. To date, I have enjoyed the frozen veggie and chicken-and-veggie samosas Kiran has given me to sample, and her fresh fruits and vegetables (some of which are organic) are always outstanding.

I have brought back coconut milk, mango juices and items like the peanut chikki bars (sort of like peanut brittle), spicy cashews, pickles and surprisingly salty dried banana chips for everyone in the office to sample and I have enjoyed the unique lower-glycemic-index basmati rice Kiran suggested for those who have or are trying to avoid getting diabetes.

But, there’s no doubt that my favorite items at Kiran Indian Grocery are the Indian and British versions of such standards as Kit-Kat and Cadbury bars, which definitely taste better than their American counterparts, as well as chocolate wafer cookies and sandwich cookies known as “bourbon cremes,” which look like rectangular Oreos but taste a hundred times better. Yes, if you have a sophisticated sweet tooth, Kiran Indian Grocery is the place for you.

Kiran also stocks a variety of beauty products that Indian people use at the front of the store.

Speaking Of Sweet Things…

Before I ever stepped into her current store, I already had started getting to know Kiran because she is a member of the same Rotary Club of New Tampa Noon that I belong to as well.

But, while I try to help our Rotary Club by promoting its events, Kiran actually lives the Rotary International motto of “Service Above Self” every day.

Kiran’s high school teacher is a member of a Rotary Club in India that has been trying to help children from her area of India who have a particular skin condition they get from often unsanitary conditions at their school. Kiran has gotten our Rotary Club to buy plates, tablecloths, napkins and glasses for the school as an international service project and is using her own money build benches for the children, so they don’t have to sit on the floor at school.

“I tell my customers that they helped pay for those benches,” Kiran says with her always-sweet-smile. “I couldn’t do it without them spending money here.”

She also provides ongoing financial support for the Humane Society of Tampa, to make sure the animals kept at the shelter are properly bathed and have their shots. “I tell them to just charge my credit card when they need something,” she says. “I just love animals.”

Kiran Indian Grocery (10042 Cross Creek Blvd.) is open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. every day (until 9 p.m. on Fri.-Sat.). For info, call (813) 994-6202 or see the ad on pg. 42.