TAMPA, Fla. -- Meeting against the backdrop of national economic uncertainty that has brought down their sales, convenience store and gas station owners at the seventh annual convention of the Asian American Convenience Store Association vowed to join hands to enhance their collective bargaining capacity and purchasing power with large manufacturers and suppliers, according to a report fromIndia West.
“We feel that all these store owners, mostly independents, are not getting the best price for buying their products from the manufacturers. Unity will enhance their bargaining capacity and purchasing power,” said AACSA president Satya Shaw at the conclusion of the convention, according to the report.
The day-long event Nov. 17 was kicked off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony by Bollywood actress Kashmera Shah and newly elected Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii at the India Culture Center in Tampa, Fla.
Based in Tampa, the AASCA was formed seven years ago after the arrest of about 50 Indian American store owners and their employees in Georgia as they were selling some products, which they should not have, because of their ignorance.
Over the last seven years, AASCA through its awareness campaign and activism has ensured that there is no repeat of such an incident, Shaw said.
The AASCA today has a nationwide membership of about 10,000 convenience store and gas station owners. According to unofficial estimates, of the 146,000 convenience stores and gas stations in the United States, about 50% of them are now being run by Indian Americans, a majority of whom are from Gujarat, the report states.
“This is an effort to bring them under one platform. Uniting of all the independent store owners and their combined purchasing power would reduce the cost of their products and thus enhance our profits in these tough economic times,” Shaw said.
How to tackle the economic crisis was one of the major topics of deliberations during the education seminar.
The convention attracted a record number of participation from convenience store and gas station owners, as well as a record number of 65 vendors. “We had to turn down a number of requests this year as we did not had space to accommodate them,” Shaw said.
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