Thread by @gauravsabnis

Anyone else in the tri-state area notice that 90% liquor stores seem to be Desi owned nowadays even in the tiniest rural towns? Wonder what the structural back story here is. The Gujju domination of motels was very much because of informal community financing & networking.

And the Gujju motel domination isn't as widespread in the US as it was even a decade ago. Cos kids of motel owners, like our own @k_rupal, go for better paying white collar jobs. Running a motel is a very demanding job.

Lots of central American & African Americans now.

A motel is a great business to run for fresh off the plane working class immigrants without advanced degrees. You can do it as a family, get free housing, save money, and just manage the logistics and front office. Frugality is key because it's a low margin business.

Only after traveling to other western countries do you realize just how cheap American motels are given that they are reliably clean and spacious. And it's because of these extremely low margins enabled by frugal Gujarati families. Working together for a better future.

BUT!

But it is not something they want for their kids. Running a motel is essentially working for yourself at one third of minimum wage, when you run the numbers.

So there are very few second generation Gujarati motel owners or managers. It's just too much work if you have a choice.

Gujjus captured the motel industry not just with frugality, but community financing. They completely side stepped banks etc, taking and giving loans within the community. Especially the Patidar community.

And also Gujarati newspapers advertising such opportunities.

If you're an immigrant, you have zero credit history. Banks won't lend you money cheaply or even at all without credit history.

So for a capital intensive purchase like buying a motel, the best competitive advantage is cheap financing. Which Gujaratis have loads of.

A common model is "layaway" type. An owner who is retiring or even buying a bigger motel (Kakkads upgraded twice) will put the word out in their community or in Gujarati newspapers in grocery stores or even @prempanicker's old India Abroad that hey, I have this hotel to sell...

I have this hotel to sell but I know you can't get a loan. So I will only be your bank. I'll live here, you run the place, pay me X amount every year for Y years, culminating in a "balloon payment". Then I go away.

It's all done on "my word is my bond" basis.

It's all purely social capital within the community.

As a Marathi, I was so astounded to learn this financing model! Cos yeah, no way can this model work among us Marathi. I can't explain exactly why. But it just can't! 🙈🙈

Why you'll rarely see Marathi owned motels or 7/11s.

So I'm wondering if liquor stores being suddenly so Desi dominated (and they are about 50-50 Gujarati and Punjabi) in NY, NJ, CT is because of similar structural reasons. At least they don't have to go night shifts like motel owners, even if margins are slim.

The @k_rupal says she will do a thread of her own soon about growing up in a motel and the business and the family and the community side of things. /Fin

Oh, we don't mean to suggest desis have exited the motel game altogether. It's just that 15 years ago, is was like 95%. Now it's maybe 70%. And there's been a lot of consolidation and empire building. So the owners might be Desi but the managers aren't.

https://twitter.com/HarshadChandre/status/1500594597344395264?t=a8MUNXPD13hPwasfGhUbaw&s=19

For example NYC congressional candidate @surajpatelnyc is from a family that I believe owns lots of motels in the Midwest. That is a different model from what it was in the 90s. Mostly just one family one motel like @k_rupal's unless kids took over. Many kids just didn't.

I should add that it's not just liquor stores or motels or 7/11s or Dunkin's like early 00s. It's almost every single small retail business and franchise these days, across all gas station brands. Plus Subways.

Some academic research needed from sociologists and org theorists.