A sprawling, round-the-clock Indian supermarket opened its doors in Dublin, giving East Bay shoppers another place to grab curry, chaat and fresh produce at any hour of the day or night. The new store, run by the Apni Mandi Farmers Market chain, sits at 2840 Dublin Blvd. in the Fallon Gateway Center and is staying open 24 hours every day, as is its Sunnyvale sister location.
The Dublin store is the fourth Apni Mandi location in the Bay Area, joining existing stores in Fremont, Milpitas and Sunnyvale, according to The Mercury News. The chain's website also lists a fifth store, Trinethra Supermarket, operating in Sunnyvale. Apni Mandi is marking the Dublin debut with a grand-opening run from Thursday through Sunday, featuring special deals, promotions, a prize wheel and unspecified surprises, per the same report. As of publication, the store's online ordering system had not yet been populated with items, the Mercury News reported.
A One-Stop Shop for Groceries and Street Food
Apni Mandi describes itself as a one-stop destination for authentic Indian groceries, cuisine and panwaari. On its website, the chain says it offers Indian groceries, snacks, street food prepared daily, paan and freshly squeezed juice, according to apnimandi.net. Other Apni Mandi locations serve snacks including pani puri, samosa chaat and paneer pakora, alongside curry, vegetarian thali and all-day breakfasts, per the Mercury News.
At the chain's existing Sunnyvale store, located at 1111 W. El Camino Real, Suite 107, the hot-food counter stays open all 24 hours, dishing out chaat, flatbreads and vegetarian curries around the clock, according to a report from KQED. That outlet found the Sunnyvale thali platter priced at $8.99, coming with rice, onions, roti and a choice of two of the day's curries. KQED also noted the Sunnyvale store was formerly known as Apna Bazar before becoming part of the Apni Mandi brand. The chain's Fremont location, meanwhile, promotes itself as a spot for hearty breakfast, lunch, dinner and quick snacks alongside groceries, spices and fresh produce, per the company's Fremont page. KQED food editor Luke Tsai previously called the Fremont store the place to be for delicious midnight chaat, thalis and chai, in 2024 remarks cited by the Mercury News.
Plenty of Company Already in Dublin
The new Apni Mandi isn't opening into empty territory. Several other South Asian grocers already operate near the Dublin location, including Turmeric Indian Supermarket, Spice Corner Indian Grocery, New India Bazar, Kamal Spices and India Cash & Carry, according to the Mercury News report. The chain is also looking further south: another Apni Mandi is scheduled to open as early as spring 2027 in Campbell, and that store is likewise planned to run 24 hours, per the same account.
Why Dublin, and Why Now
The timing tracks with Dublin's rapidly shifting demographics. The city's population is now 55% Asian, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures cited in the Mercury News report. That shift has been building for years: Dublin's Asian population grew from about 12,000 residents in 2010 to nearly 39,000 in 2020, a 219% increase, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. By 2021, Census estimates showed Dublin had become an Asian-majority city, with 56% of residents identifying as Asian, and more than a quarter of the population — about 19,600 people — identifying as Indian, the Chronicle reported. Across the broader Tri-Valley, there were 20,000 more Indian residents in 2021 than there had been just five years earlier.
The pattern isn't confined to Dublin. The Chronicle has also reported that the Asian populations of nearby Pleasanton and San Ramon grew by 94% and 68%, respectively, between 2010 and 2020, and that the Bay Area's overall Asian population expanded by 30% over that same decade. That growth has fueled what the paper has described as a boom of super-sized Asian grocery stores across the region, with new markets bringing produce and specialty products from Japan, Korea and beyond alongside food halls, restaurants and bars — some of them moving into spaces left behind by struggling big-box retailers. Recent openings that drew large crowds, per the Chronicle, included Tokyo Central Market in Emeryville and H Mart's newest Dublin store, and Dublin itself has been described as California's fastest-growing city, with growth driven almost entirely by residents who identify as Asian.
Photographs from the Dublin opening, taken by Bay Area News Group photographer Aric Crabb, showed customers shopping as the new store got underway on Thursday. For now, shoppers curious about what's stocked on Apni Mandi's Dublin shelves will have to see for themselves in person, since the store's online ordering portal remained empty at the time of the Mercury News report.
