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Category Archives: Small Business
Kingdom Vending: The Art of Doritos and Family Life
James Johnson sat on the couch wearing a rubber-band accessory around his neck that his son made him. His son was taking a nap before they left to watch a UFC fight at Dave and Busters; the boy’s rubber-band creations were around his hands and feet the entire night. This became a family trend. Just as mothers long to pass down engagement rings to their sons who may put them on the finger of a future daughter-in-law, Johnson is excited to pass down something from his brother-in-law: vending machines.
Johnson, 38, is the owner of Kingdom Vending, a small side-business he has grown since his brother-in-law sold him a vending machine eight years ago. He works full-time as a private banker but for the past eight years, Johnson has worked the vending business around his family’s schedule, determined to remain a family man.
He was enticed by the idea of flipping money. He explained it as buying something at a low cost and selling it for a higher amount. He was motivated to make money because he said he grew up poor.
Johnson said that his business is as big as he wants it to be and he does not advertise his services. He installs the vending machines but his focus is servicing them, which requires him to stock them every week or two. He is the only technician in the Long Island downstate area. He operates the business from his home in the Town of North Hempstead. “The vending machines have taken over my garage,” he said, peeking through the blinds from his couch.
Johnson said that the demand for automated vending has increased because people want the highest calorie absorption for the least amount of money. His top three selling items are Doritos, Snickers, and Peanut M&M’s. Water sells the most out of everything. He said he had to raise prices six months ago for potato chips and chocolate because prices have gone up. He will stock the machines with primary colored snacks and treats but when his customers request items that do not sell, Johnson makes an executive decision. “I just don’t put it in. I don’t care, it doesn’t sell!” he said, regarding the energy drink Red Bull.
The vending business makes up 15 to 20 percent of his income. A trip charge to service the vending machines is $120 and that covers Long Island, Queens, and Brooklyn. If he has to travel farther than that, the charge is $189 and that covers the first hour of service, driving to and from the location, and tolls. The return charge to go back and fix something is between $65 and $80.
He primarily services the break rooms of apparel stores and cell phone locations. He has travelled as far as East Hampton to set up a machine, which is over 80 miles from his home. He said that there is a lack of demand for vending machines in Hempstead because “there aren’t any places where people sit around and do nothing.” Servicing vending machines takes up 20 hours a week. “I’ll go anywhere, in the Tri-State primarily,” he said. “If they’re willing to pay, I’ll go.”
He said this is only true if his wife, Lupe, approves. “When I feel that I’m not going to see my family or if I have to do a certain job and the job is not going to be convenient for me, I will call my wife and ask her, ‘How do you feel about this? How would you feel if I do this?’” he said. She lets him know when he can do the job so that he can refer the job to someone else so that they can spend time together. It is all about balance for Johnson. “I’d rather someone else do the business than my family life suffer,” he said. “If all your bills are paid and your wife is mad at you, it’s out of balance. It makes no sense.”
Lupe said that Johnson spends a lot of time with his daughter and their son. He goes to his son’s football practices and they go on family vacations, visiting beaches and parks regularly. There was a time where she felt Johnson’s schedule was not balanced. “In the beginning, he used to work so long I used to feel like a single mother,” she said.
Isaac Brown, 26, is a close friend of the family. He has helped Johnson with servicing the machines a few times and joked about eating the inventory on those trips. Brown and Johnson call each other “shmick” and enjoy fellowshipping together as Brown does not have a close relationship with his own family. “As I grow into a man and understand responsibilities, I realize how much I wasn’t taught,” he said. “James has helped me a lot in being an example of how you should treat your spouse and your family.”
Johnson hopes to give the business to a family member down the line. He joked that his wife would not let his son come with him on vending trips. He cannot reach the third row of the machine yet.
Moti’s Think Sweet Cafe

Think Sweet Cafe
In the heart of the Kings Highway section of Brooklyn, a small two-table cafe is squeezed between apartment buildings, humming bakeries and lively upscale restaurants. Think Sweet Café, almost hidden from plain sight, is an intimate jumble of Israeli culture. Middle Eastern music is played, laughter is heard, and walls are lined with Hebrew axioms, flags and pictures. It is a magical place where nobody seems to be in a rush, and customers linger, as they socialize, and wait for the shop’s charismatic and vibrant owner to whip up his newest concoction.
“The number one secret to this man’s success,” customer Morris Harary said, “Is his smile. We’re greeted with a smile, the food is prepared with a smile, and served with a smile.”
Moti Rabinowitz, the animated owner of Think Sweet Café, has been in business for over 25 years, outlasting statistics that show that on this particular street of Kings Highway, more than ninety five percent of independently run restaurants have closed within the first year, while remaining restaurants have an average five year life span. It is remarkable to see that in such a tremendously competitive and transient environment, one with high rents and strict landlords, Moti and his wife Debbie have turned this small cafe into a community landmark.
“The secret to staying alive in this industry,” Rabinowitz declared, “Is making good, simple food, and serving the people exactly how they want it.”

Moti, constructing his famous ‘Mefuneket’ sandwich in the morning for a customer to eat on their way to work.
Every resident shouts, “Hey Moti!” as they jam into the small store, eager to taste Moti’s signature ‘Mefuneket’ sandwich. Indeed, the community icon has taken customer relations to a completely new level, greeting each customer as an honored guest in his own home.
“Were not like other restaurants or businesses, where the customer comes in, pays money, and leaves.” Moti said, “We get to know each customer on a personal level. We know him, his wife, and his kids. We make the sandwich the way he likes it.”
Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Moti moved to Brooklyn as a young child and has lived there for nearly 40 years. In 1988, he decided to open up Think Sweet. However at the time, instead of hearty sandwiches, Moti served up mountains of candy and chocolates to local kids. It was 13 years later when he decided to make a change to dairy food, and it all started with one sandwich.
After tinkering with recipes, Moti finally invented the ‘Mefuneket’, a sub with tomatoes, peppers, olives, cucumbers, avocado, and eggs, all piled high on a sesame bun, toasted and slathered with homemade cream cheeses and sauce. Mefuneket, which literally means, “spoiled little girl” in Hebrew, was a turning point for Think Sweet. Almost immediately, through word of mouth, local residents flocked to the café to try the unique taste of his creation. The sandwich has a relatively expensive price tag of $8.00 yet Moti estimates it has brought in about 98 percent of all sales.
For many years, Moti’s customers consisted of 85 percent Israelis. Today, he has well known adages written in Arabic hung up to cater to the 90 percent of customers that are from the local Sephardic Jewish community.
Rabinowitz admits that he “very rarely” gets new customers, but the incredibly loyal ones that he services continues to come on a daily basis. Moti starts each day with phone calls from his ‘regulars’, asking him about his health and assuring that their daily order will be made. The moment he picks up the phone, Moti recognizes the customer by voice and begins making his usual order, to be ready when they arrive.
A trip to the store can be an unusual experience for a first time customer. People cram and stack up onto one another, as each patiently waits for Moti to carefully and deliberately construct each Mefuneket, with each vegetable in its rightful place. There is never seating space, no menus, and wait times for food would have any other store’s customers storming away in frustration. Yet not here. Somehow no one seems to mind, as they enjoy every moment, and as Moti calmly smiles and adeptly orchestrates the chaotic scene from behind the counter.
“People don’t want to just pay for food and leave.” Moti conveyed. “They want to pay for the atmosphere. You come, sit here for an hour, and enjoy yourself. That’s worth more than money.”
As for the décor, Moti perks up, looking around fondly at his store: an unkempt hodgepodge of multicultural creativity. As nearly all of his customers are affiliated with Israel, he tried as hard as possible to remind them of the quaint shops and cafes that line Israel’s main streets. The store’s vibe and appearance represents the heart and soul of it’s owner, and thats just the way he likes it.

The counter at Think Sweet, with whimsical sayings and Hebrew signs ordering customers to be patient with their food.
“A person who puts 150,000 dollars into a store,” Moti says, “I call them an idiot. People don’t come to a store to be impressed by walls or floors or ceilings. People want good food and good service.”
Indeed, people around this part of Brooklyn will continue to congregate in this unique establishment. It is a place where time seems to freeze, and all outside stress can melt away with a cold drink, a friendly face to talk to, and a delicious Mefuneket made by the one and only Moti.
“You know what keeps bringing people back?” Asked Moti, “When they come to me, they are family. When they come to me they feel at home. This is home.”
Mama Meena’s Family Restaurant
By Roxanne Torres
Like artworks in a museum, photographs of Filipino dishes are displayed proudly outside the glass window of the small family restaurant, Mama Meena’s. Seduced by the giant “A” inspection grade posted in the middle of the photographs and perhaps, by the foreign and the unfamiliar names of the dishes—“Pancit Bihon, Adobo, Lumpia Prito”—a young man walked inside the restaurant with a cell phone at hand. A glance at his cell phone screen revealed the Yelp page that most likely drew his attention to the restaurant in the first place. He grabbed the menu and pored over the names one more time.
Wilhelmina Prego or as she likes to be called, Mama Meena walked out of the kitchen, wearing her black apron and a forced smile. She greeted the obviously new customer. “Hello, do you know what you want to order?” she asked. The man looked up and said, “I’ll just come back.” Prego watched the man close the door and smiled. “By the time he comes back, Mama Meena will no longer be here!”
Mama Meena’s Family Restaurant was always a dream of Prego ever since she started her catering business. For the fifty-four-year-old mother of five, the restaurant is a passionate hobby and an extension of her culture, roots and her home. This restaurant dream is not large enough to accommodate the rent expenses and the stress she endures from customers six days a week. After five years of nearly twelve hours in the kitchen, Prego is closing the small Filipino family restaurant on October 25th.
Located at the corner of 95th Street in Jamaica Ave., under the noisy and busy train station, Mama Meena’s maintained its popularity for five years within the diverse community of Hispanic, Latin American, European, and Asian residents.
A small percentage of the community are Filipinos, Mama Meena’s targeted demographic. Roughly 12.7% of the neighborhood’s population are Filipinos, which are about 896 possible consumers to fill the restaurant’s twenty-eight wooden seats. This is not an issue for Prego, who longs to promote the Filipino culture to mainly Hispanic, Latin American and Caucasian community.
“You wouldn’t believe the amount of Caucasian people eating bagoong!” she exclaimed. With its salty, fishy smell and dark brown hue, bagoong is not always a familiar condiment to those who are used to consuming ketchup and mustard.
While Caucasians and other customers of various ethnicities enjoy the newfound discovery of Mama Meena’s cooking, they are still one of Prego’s reasons for closing the business. “The thing is people would come here one day, and they won’t come back the next.” Prego blames the modest number of loyal customers to the recession that started the very year she opened the restaurant.
During the recession of 2008, the U.S. market experienced a drop in sales and profits that had an impact on chain restaurants and independent restaurants, like Mama Meena’s. As a result, Prego and many restaurant owners began raising menu prices, which then led to a drop of roughly 10% in customers.
Eventually, Prego recovered some of her loss from her first year of starting a restaurant business. “Before I worked here, there really weren’t many customers coming in,” said Marilou Clemente, Prego’s trusted assistant and waitress.
Clemente was a regular customer at Mama Meena’s until she found herself unemployed after her accounting firm laid her off. In 2010, she began working at the restaurant and immediately noticed a change a few years later. “The restaurant was mentioned by Eyewitness News, so all of a sudden more people started coming in!” Clemente said.
2011 was the year Prego finally found a reason to continue cultivating her dream. More people started coming from all parts of the country to the small, cozy single-floor restaurant. “People from Los Angeles or Connecticut would come here because of Yelp,” Prego said, as she arranged the empty chairs.
Yelp, the website that collected ratings for all types of businesses in an area, helped garner new faces to the lone Filipino restaurant in Woodhaven. This sudden popularity by word of mouth helped Prego lower the cost for advertising. Merely days before the restaurant’s closing date, the website is still under construction.
Three years after her glory year, Prego found herself exhausted and unsatisfied. “I’d go home every day and I’d be like, ‘I spent so many hours there and this is all I got?’” she said. Prego learned from watching the Food Network that to maintain a restaurant business, one must earn three times the cost of starting it.
She started with a total cost of $150,000; this included buying the lease from a previous Mexican restaurant owner, renovating, buying new appliances, and like many new restaurant owners, paying the Health Department inspection fines. Prego paid $8,000 to earn the large “A” grade printed and displayed on the restaurant window.

Wilhelmina Prego’s pride and joy over the years: her dishes and the large grade “A” inspection grade.
Prego refused to disclose her actual earnings, the money required to keep her restaurant, her dream alive. She relied on her sixty-year-old husband, John to fix and worry about the business’s financial crisis. John is an engineer who, like his wife, always dreamed of owning a restaurant business. Coming from the Philippines, the expectations were low.
“He owned a restaurant back in the Philippines and it was much easier because we didn’t have to deal with the government,” Prego said, “and oh God, the rent!”
Despite buying the lease from the previous restaurant owner, Prego still faced the challenge of the increasing rent prices for the building. In 2008, the three-floor apartment building that she currently owned a single floor of, had a total market value of $966,000 and a total assessed value of merely $37,013.
Four years later, the market value decreased to $512,000. The cost of renovating the restaurant floor led to an increase in the assessed value, which is at $46,621. These calculations further led Prego to decide that the stress she was enduring was not paying off.
“She came in one day with her arm in massive pain, and she couldn’t move it at all,” Clemento said. She watched her boss experience the physical and emotional pain of being the only chef in the restaurant.
Prego once hired a chef, but due to the rising cost of the rent and her mistrust of the chef’s ability to cook and prepare authentic Filipino cuisine, the chef was fired. In addition to Clemento as the assistant and waitress, there are two workers in charge of frying, grilling and cleaning, a small number when one considers that the average number of employees working in family-operated restaurants in the country is fifteen. It is obvious from Prego’s exhausted smile and burn marks that working as the single chef with three employees nearly twelve hours a day is probably not worth the dream.
After noticing her dream decay in the last five years, Prego is still surprisingly hopeful. Mama Meena is still planning on cooking. This time, in the comforts of her actual home, a few blocks away from the second one she is leaving.
“I watched my employees cry after I told them we’re closing,” Prego said. “Those five years, they were my family and Mama Meena’s was their home, their bread and butter,” she said, as she turned the lights off in the kitchen.
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A ‘Sweet’ New Approach to Social Media
Flappers, Hoovervilles, the New Deal, British Invasion, Nixon, “yuppies,” boy bands, and the Internet. Few people or places have been around to witness the changes, trends, and events of the past ninety years. But on the corner of 72nd Road and Metropolitan Avenue, in Forest Hills, an ice cream shop’s workers have scooped cones and topped sundaes for nearly a century.
Eddie’s Sweet Shop, established in the early 1920s, truly enjoys longevity. Few small businesses exhibit such permanency without advertising, something Eddie’s avoided—at least until recently.
“We’ve been lucky,” Vito Citrano, owner of Eddie’s Sweet Shop, said. “I really have great customers.” Citrano, the proprietor of Eddie’s for the past nine years, only recalls business being poor when his father purchased the sweet shop in 1968. Vito’s father, Joe Citrano, hammered his days away in a shoe factory and worked at Eddie’s six nights a week. The son said about his father, “He eventually made the decision to leave the factory where he made money… to work in the store where he wasn’t making any money.”
Over the course of forty-five years of Citrano-family ownership, summer nights of lonely wooden bar stools turned into nights without room to stand. Thousands, possibly millions, of customers have enjoyed lip-smacking sundaes, shakes, and old-fashioned ice cream sodas, brimming with foam. Whether it’s the taste of the homemade products or admiration for the marble counter and decorative woodwork, even on cold winter nights, patrons pack the store.
Most businesses achieving this level of success advertise their products and services, but not Eddie’s Sweet Shop. Up until 2009, the Citranos, like their store, did things the old-fashioned way. “My father and I really have relied on word-of-mouth [for advertising],” Citrano said. Contrary to his traditional business tactics, four years ago, Citrano created a Facebook page for Eddie’s Sweet Shop. The page soared to nearly nine thousand “likes.”
Other frozen yogurt and ice cream shops have ventured into social media advertising, but none of them have experienced the same level of success as Eddie’s Sweet Shop. Twist It Top It, a Queens based frozen yogurt chain, has only four hundred likes on Facebook. The infamous ice cream franchise, Carvel, has thirty-five thousand likes on Facebook but has five hundred locations and sells products in over eight thousand stores. Eddie’s has just one location, and their products are exclusive. The sweet shop’s owner commented, “I don’t care about being compared to those guys. I hope they stay in business forever and make a ton of money. I mean that sincerely.”
The primary purpose of the Eddie’s Facebook page isn’t to promote the business, rather; it exists for loyal customers. “They know about specials before we even advertise them in the store,” Citrano said. When special summer flavors, peach and blueberry, first came in this past June, the Facebook fans were the first to know. They’ll also be the first to know about pumpkin ice cream pies this fall.
Delighted by the response to his business’ Facebook page, Citrano admits having nothing to do with it. “The Eddie’s fan page is run totally by my workers.” Citrano employs a small crew of no more than ten people, most of them teenagers.
Citrano allows his young workers to run with their social media ideas. About a year ago, the workers attempted to start an Instagram account for the sweet shop, but it didn’t generate as much interest as the Facebook page. “We tried to get it off-the-ground, especially since there is a running hash tag on Instagram for the store, but it never took off,” one worker said.
One of the most successful Eddie’s Facebook-related ideas came from the store manager, Sean Donovan. As a result of a conversation with Donovan, a customer, known as “Customer Dave,” agreed to collaborate a weekly ice cream suggestion for Facebook. “Customer Dave’s Pick of the Week” posts include a picture and caption of the loyal patron’s concoction.
“An average post, like ‘Pick of the Week,’ gets seen by at least 3,000 people within a day, sometimes hours,” Donovan exclaimed. Besides acting as store manager, the twenty-five year old serves as an Eddie’s Facebook page administrator. His duties include posting messages from the owner and staying on top of customer comments. Unlike most Facebook business pages, the Eddie’s page tries to “like” all customer comments, so people know their ideas are read and appreciated.
“The page is really a way I try to give back,” Citrano said. The owner doesn’t forget what makes it all possible even after years in the business. “I have great workers… People I served as kids are now coming in with their children. That’s loyalty.” He added, “The Facebook page is a small way I can try to give back to them… I love my customers.”
Security camrea brings loyality–
Security used to be a problem–
Have any other issues sparked for Queens Deli Owner
By: Crystal Simbudyal
Dark hair, brown eyes, tan skin and determination describe the appearance and the personality of a man moving into the United States from Yemin, a Middle Eastern country. He found the adjustment to be difficult– trying to assimilate to another culture, and learning the language, the customs, and the values of the people. So, Yahxa Alkebsi, the owner of Gamil Mini Market, a deli located in Queens Village on 217th Street between Hillside and Jamaica Avenues, decided to become his own boss.
Several years ago, in an interview, Alkebsi spoke of problems that concerned him: Having to shoo away mobs of kids looking for trouble on the weekdays after long hours in school, and dealing with a landlord who continually wants to raise the rent.
Three years later, he no longer has to deal with security issues. Alkebsi feels more confident running his store with the cameras always running. Customers have noticed and commented on them ever so often.
Alkebsi has a lot on his plate from the start of his day toright before closing time. “You get what you give; for good customers you become friendly, and when you see a tough guy, be the tough guy. It shows them whose boss,” said Alkebsi.
Gamil Mini Market’s products range from baby pampers, snacks, white tees, drinks, and vegetables –a wide variety for an everyday shopper on the go.
He owns five other stores in the New York region. They are located in Queens Village, Jamaica, Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn. All stores are family run.
“I still share this store, with my brother and my son. They are a very big help to business and I enjoy their company when it’s down time,” said Alkebsi.
Since he has to compete with many other stores in just a mile radius, Alkebsi maintains great prices for his customers to encourage them to keep coming back. “The old people come in for milk and eggs. The young people come in for cigarettes, cold or hot sandwiches, snacks, and drinks. They are the ones who help drive the business. I give back to them with merchandising. It’s the prices that keeps our customers happy,” said Alkebsi.
“I am the competition. You just can’t beat my prices,” says Alkebsi. Providing good service and always being friendly results in positive reactions from his customers.
“I sometimes face conflicts with teenagers; they hang out outside my store and make trouble. Sometimes, they want to buy cigarettes but I refuse to sell them anything,” said Alkebsi. The morning always brings business, from 7am to 7:30am. Then, right after school lets out, usually around 2:00pm, customers start rolling in. Alkebsi is grateful when school is in session from September into June. “In the summer business is slow. After August, its picks up in the morning and gets slow in the afternoon,” said Alkebsi.
The small crowds of teenagers and adults, in their mid-twenties and thirties are Gamil mini market’s best customers. Older adults prefer to go to Key Food around the corner to shop in bigger quantities.
“My family and friends have shopped there plenty of times. Gamil is a cool guy, always friendly and about his business,” remarked customer, Kageel Mendonca.
Alkebsi’s store is known to be the bogie spot, another word for cigarette. Many customers go in and out to purchase cigarettes. Sometimes, Alkebsi, allows his customers to buy items on credit. “Customers don’t always come back and pay but they come back and buy stuff.” One might think, this is a disadvantage for business but Alkebsi says this this is a way of “gaining loyal customers”.
“Soda, daily sandwiches and cigarettes is what brings a lot of my customers around and that’s fine with me,” said Alkebsi.
Alkebsi continues to run his business as a friendly environment. The same customers come in on an everyday basis and word travels by word-of-mouth, allowing Alkebsi to build more relationships with new customers.
Loyalty is everything in this man’s store. “It has made me famous and reasonable, said Alkebsi, laughing.
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Thursday, October, 17 Small Business Story Workshop
SMALL BUSINESS STORIES
We will be working on your small business stories (final drafts are due next Tuesday, October 22nd). Please bring in all notes, background research, and your current draft (which should include the following: a lede, nut graf, and an outline of the story at the very least).
Before class, make the decisions regarding the design of your story: where do the different parts belong? Remember that all drafts are to be password protected when uploaded to our class blog.
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