AKRON, Ohio — Opening a box of new inventory, Nar Rai restocked shelves at North Hill Bazar, a grocery store that he's been operating in Akron.

What You Need To Know

  • Nar Rai owns North Hill Bazar, an Asian grocery store, in Akron

  • He is a recipient of the Apex Fund for Economic Opportunities

  • It's offered by Asian Services in Action (ASIA) to help first-time business owners
  • Money that ASIA earns on Giving Tuesday could help expand the fund

“It has been, how many years?" he said. "About six years."

The grocery store specializes in selling supplies from Asian countries. However, Rai said his shop is more than just a place to pick up products, it also serves the community.

“Some customers, they don't drive," he said. "We help them to drop their orders (off). Sometimes, we help them to give discounts on the items that they don't have enough money for the food."

Just as he tended to the needs of his neighbors, Rai was also a recipient of the community’s help at one point. He said he got money from Asian Services In Action’s (ASIA) Apex Fund for Economic Opportunities to buy equipment for his business.

“(We used) the money that we get from them (to purchase this cooler), and in the meat department, there are two display coolers," he said. "So they helped us to buy that."

According to Hsa Win, a bilingual community outreach worker for ASIA, the Apex Fund provides opportunities for first-time business owners across northeast Ohio. Money his organization earns on Giving Tuesday could go toward the fund and help other immigrant and refugee business owners develop their establishments. 

“Each participant can get a loan up to $25,000 from our Apex Fund program,” Win said.

Without this money, Rai said he wouldn't have been able to expand his business.

“We did not have enough money to buy all those things at that time, because we have been not so long in the USA from our country which we migrated,” Rai said.

Rai came from Bhutan originally. He said he spent 20 years in Nepal at a refugee camp. Now a business owner in Akron, he's a member of one of the largest Bhutanese-Nepali communities in the United States.

“Most of the people here are Asian, and they are like our communities,” Rai said.

He encouraged others in the community, who have similar dreams to improve their own small business, to look into how they can also benefit from ASIA’s Apex Fund.

“They can (offer) help to everyone, yeah, as they helped us, too,” Rai said.

To more about the fund, click here.