Immigrant Entrepreneurship
This group of refugees took over donut shops throughout California in the 1970s and 1980s.
What are Cambodians? - The Cambodian Community gave Los Angeles the reputation of having the most donut shops than any other city in the world. By 1997, Cambodians owned up to 80% of the donut shops in the state.
In the early 21st century, The global ______ crisis threatened Cambodian donut shops' ability to rely on business for survival.
What is financial? - Due to the cost of supplies and rent rising it decreased the amount of profits from the donut shops. Delaying many first-generation refugees' retirement.
Donut shops had two major advantages over other occupations: their preexisting _________ and their economic viability.
What is popularity? - Before Ted Ngoy even tasted his first donut, the donut industry had already been very successful in LA, which made the business more appealing.
Cambodian donut shops are often grouped with this racial group.
What are Asians?
This specific food is what connected Cambodian immigrants to American culture.
What is a donut?
What are Los Angeles and San Diego? - In the 1950’s, the CA donut market was considered separate from the rest of the US due to its massive size. This market only continued to expand as Cambodian refugees arrived.
This emphasized Cambodian work ethic was very physically and mentally taxing but used as Cambodians became familiar with the American business model to survive.
What is hard labor/long hours? - This provided opportunities for Cambodians to develop their English and interact with people of all different types of ethnic backgrounds but at the cost of having the shops open for long periods of time.
This business practice involves a group of people raising capital by pooling their money together and taking turns bidding on that pool.
What is a Tong tine? - This business arrangement allowed Cambodian refugees to develop a sense of kinship, allowing them to receive and pay back money they may need to start a business quickly.
What is the model minority? - The concept of a model minority often undermines the struggles that were involved in reaching that point, completely ignoring the fact that the shops are their means of survival.
The least expensive alternative donut box was this color, which has become synonymous with Southern California donut shops.
What is the color pink? - Amanda Lim Tang’s uncle chose the pink boxes due to their convenience and being inexpensive, becoming a staple across donut shops.
This person is often credited with creating a major ethnic business niche in Los Angeles using donut shops.
Who is Ted Ngoy? - He was enrolled in a management training program and eventually saved enough money to purchase Christy’s Donuts in La Habra, CA, eventually owning 50+ shops by the mid-1980s.
Cambodians would do this thing in their donut shops to compete with other shops, which reinforces ideas about assimilation or belonging in the U.S.
What is changing/diversifying their menu? - Like adding coffee to compete with Starbucks, this also allows for building and maintaining regular customers.
This method involved Cambodian donut shop owner Allen Dul hiring a friend with experience in the donut business in order to learn how to operate the shop he recently purchased.
What is Reverse Apprenticeship? - Another example of how friends and family would contribute not only their funds to help but their own experience on the business.
Cambodian Donut Shops can be viewed as an “immigrant success story”. The idea that immigrants are able to achieve success is through this term.
What is hard work? - This is not completely true as it downplays the struggles of other immigrant communities.
Because of the large empire of Cambodian donut shops that exist, they provide an opportunity for recent immigrants to work alongside these people.
What are friends and family? - Donut shops provided a way for those of similar experiences escaping Cambodia to cope and get through life together.
To open a small store you needed an initial investment of $80,000. Cambodian friends and family provide these funds through this method.
What is a Direct Loan? - It was common to have family and friends using their own money to help initially open stores, not only through funding but through training on how to bake and run a business.
Cambodian donut shops contribute to American culture by selling popular American food while also maintaining their identity by operating businesses within the Cambodian community, which is an example of this term.
What is Identity Negotiation? - A.K.A. cultural blending, Cambodian donut shop owners will play a part in cultural assimilation while trying to stay connected with their ethnic background.
Location plays a huge role in the success of the Cambodian donut shops. This specific community aspect of the location (Los Angeles) helped make Cambodian donut shops successful.
What is racial diversity? - This allowed donut shops to interact with different customers and create a sense of community and identity. An example is Chhu, who has a working knowledge of 6 different languages that can be used to communicate with customers.
An the example of Chin's donut shop, she tells the story of residents of a wealthy neighborhood near her shop providing generous tips. However, the residents were also doing this negative thing to her.
What is open racism?
What is survival? - Donut shops have become, in a literal sense, the means of survival and financial support that allows Cambodian refugee families to stay afloat in the United States.
Cambodian donut shop owners relied on these three business strategies for their success.
What is hard work, frugality/practicality, and neighborhood integration? - By combining these three strategies, Cambodian donut shops were able to keep their costs low while also providing sufficient financial success.
Cambodian donut shops would challenge ideas of assimilation by not doing this for extended periods of time.
What is changing the menu/What is remodeling their shop? - For 30 years, they would not change their menus or remodel their shops. Unlike their big competitors, Winchell’s began renovating and increasing the budget for advertisements.
In 1936, Doughnut Magazine, California was ranked _____ for donut consumption in the nation.
What is 6th place? - This status was given to California only 5 years after the first retail shop was opened in the East Coast. It continued to thrive in California even more so due to its commercial environment.
This concept was widely applied to the Cambodian donut shop industry, which had their businesses run for long hours and provided minimal wages.
What is exploitation?
What are supermarkets/strip malls/drive-ins? - These buildings helped provide places of business for donut shops to attach themselves to or near.