Carman is the place to be for entrepreneurial cousins

Town selected over 20 other choices

Posted By Glen Hallick

Posted 2 months ago

(Photo by Glen Hallick) (from left) Amolak Dhulkoti and wife Rawinder with Kamaljit Sandu and husband Kamaljeet considered 20 businesses before buying Lite-Stop in Carman.

Carman was the place to go for Kamaljeet Sandhu and Amolak Dhulkoti and their families.

The cousins from the Punjab province in India chose Lite-Stop Foods after considering other 20 businesses.

They immigrated to Canada last February, settling first in Winnipeg. But on a trip to Morden they came across a pamphlet about Lite-Stop Foods being for sale.

Liked The Potential

Sandhu said they stopped at the convenience store to look at it and liked what they saw.

"After that we searched about 20 businesses in Winnipeg as well and what we found out is [Lite-Stop] is the best one. There is more potential in it. We can do more in it," Sandhu explained.

They bought the store in March and have made a number of changes.

The cousins added a kitchen to make fresh pizza.

"We can make a pizza from scratch and in 15 minutes it's ready to go," said Sandhu.

And the pizzas are available until 11 p.m., seven days a week.

They added more groceries, as well as health and beauty products to the inventory and over-the-counter medicines.

"We try to keep every grocery item people need on the weekends," Sandhu said.

The store now has a larger movie and game selection. In particular, movies for kids as well as games for Playstation and X-Box.

The cousins also added a point of sale system, a cash register that allows the customer to see prices as each item is scanned.

Renovations to the store aren't finished because they want to add more seating for customers.

The cousins said the landlord of the building and lot is planning to paint the exterior this coming summer. And renovations to the floor of the store are being considered.