Little India already struggling before the pandemic is at a crossroads

Seema Choudhary needed eight traditional Indian outfits for her daughter’s dance troupe. A few years ago, she might have driven the roughly 25 miles to Little India from her home in Irvine. This time, she ordered from a supplier more than 8, 500 miles away in Gujarat, which offered lower prices and shipped the skirts, scarves and embroidered tops to her door. Like many Indian Americans in Southern California, Choudhary has cut back on visiting Little India in Artesia, in favor of online shopping and Indian grocery stores closer to home. She still goes once a month for items like sandalwood incense and mango wood candle holders that she can’t get in Orange County. But she and many in her 1, 500-member OC Indian Women’s group view Little India as a slightly fusty commercial strip that has failed to evolve with their changing needs.“They have to make it more festive and more welcoming, ” said Choudhary, a Montessori preschool chief executive who emigrated from New Delhi in 1997. Merchants on Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia, which has been a place to buy a sari, snack on crispy, puffy puris and sit down to a vegetarian thali feast since the 1980s, were struggling even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have adapted, modernizing their offerings and tapping the internet to build a following. Others have watched their wares gather dust or their tables stay empty as customers like Choudhary shop elsewhere. The Little India Center, a two-story complex that housed henna artists, threaders, photographers and bridal studios, is an empty hulk. The question facing Little India goes beyond how to reinvent itself. The undercurrent in many conversations is: Does it have a reason for existing? Mala Malani opened Sona Chaandi in 1980, when the Indian presence on Pioneer Boulevard was little more than an appliance store and a grocer. Her 11, 000-square-foot emporium offers everything from richly colored silk saris to leggings, jewelry and eyebrow threading. Once, customers came from Bakersfield and the far reaches of Orange and Ventura counties. Even if there was an Indian restaurant or supermarket near their homes, the quality and breadth could not match what they found crammed into a few blocks in Artesia. Hollywood picked up on Little India too. Madonna has browsed the racks at Sona Chaandi. The store’s clothing and accessories have been featured in Disney’s “Jessie, ” Fox’s “9-1-1” and most recently Netflix’s “Never Have I Ever. ”On a recent Saturday morning, Malani folded dresses and shook out men’s coats called sherwanis, then moved on to polish gold bracelets and bejeweled turbans. With only a trickle of customers, she netted less than $50 in sales that morning. Before the pandemic, revenue was dipping slightly. In 2020, as COVID-19 raged, it plunged by 75%. Malani was sitting on $1 million of inventory and considered selling the store. As people got vaccinated and ventured out again, receipts rebounded to about 60% of pre-pandemic levels.

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