Today we’d like to introduce you to Elaine Yukari Marumoto-Perez and James Tatsuya Marumoto.
Elaine and James, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
James: For me, it started back in 2012. My sister had read a book by Francis Chan about what Christianity is all about, It totally open my eyes and we both decided to use a big portion of our paychecks to feed, clothe and educate kids in Third world countries. And as we would give we would always get blessed in return. A year later, being exhausted from working 60-70 hour work weeks in three different kitchens. I’d come home and eat a late dinner with my sister because she also was working multiple jobs. And we’d just talk/ complain about work amongst other things.
I enjoyed cooking my brains out but I was never happy with the quality of the ingredients or the care in making the food. We thought it would be great if we could open a business where a part of our profit can directly be donated to charities. Making the business-customer relationship a team instead of a ‘us vs them’ type of relationship. We had remembered those times we would go to the Santa Monica mountains to hike and we would get lost and dirty and famished and when we finally found our way out we would treat ourselves to local homemade ice cream. And it would be like a safe haven for us after hours in the wild. It clicked for us and at the time there was no special ice cream store in the Torrance area. So we planned for a couple of months. And just dove into it. We were lucky to have such a supportive family and team around us to set us up for success.
Elaine: My brother and I wanted to give more and more and more to these causes and the funny thing is, the more we gave the more we received. Whether it be a raise or another job opportunity (we both worked multiple jobs) God kept opening doors for us to make more money so we can give it to people in need. We realized that once we started the business we wouldn’t have to worry about having enough. So we ran with it. While my brother started experimenting with the menu I went to work on the business stuff. Neither of us have any experience in business so it was Google to the rescue! We didn’t want our business to be just business so it worked out that we had that fresh and naive perspective on things instead of being taught by the book. Once the ball started rolling things happened so fast and super slow at the same time. All I can say is, it’s truly a miracle that we are still here in business today. We’re extremely thankful.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Elaine: I had to deal with my ego in many ways. It’s definitely a challenge sometimes to work with your younger brother no matter how close you are with them! There was also a lot of not-so-helpful people at the small business help centers. An attorney literally told me that my business plan wouldn’t work so I should go back and finish college. I’d always take it personally and think “it’s because I’m a woman! and a minority! and I’m not old enough to be taken seriously!” I’d always cry in my car after meetings like that because I’m a nonconfrontational wuss. All the naysayers and people who gave us their take on how to run our business even after we opened actually made me more confident in the vision that my brother and I had at the beginning. We were confident that we wanted to do it our way- the way God intended for us to run it. Thankful for those years of personal growth, but honestly I’m just glad we’re still open and I never have to go back to those stages of baby Kansha ever again.
James: Its never been easy but it’s been a smooth transition. I remember the first week before we opened, I’m 20 at the time and have only had professional experience in making pasta and ramen. I’m standing in a kitchen I’ve never cooked in, with equipment I’ve never used, making something I’ve never had professional experience making. A wave of anxiety came over me, I had no idea what to do. But I knew this was what we were called to do. So I just went for it. After that it was smooth sailing.
When we started out, no one knew we were an ice cream shop or that we were open. And we liked it that way. Again, we are not business centered so we didn’t want to advertise and bother everyone. We knew word of mouth would work in our favor. We always had enough to pay rent, pay down our debt and get a tiny paycheck. Money was never something we stressed too much about. We were happy just to finally be open and do things the way we felt were the right way. And that’s the way it’s been, our following has grown and the amount of freezers we own has grown. But we still wing it, trying to do honest work, make people happy and help those in need.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
James: I like to think of our business as the antibusiness. Neither one of us had any training or experience in business. Our main focus was never about making money. My main motivation to start Kansha was to serve food I feel confident into people I care about and to give back to those that aren’t as fortunate as us in the States.
Simplicity, integrity and transparency are what matter most to us.
Our ingredient cost is very high, meaning we don’t use cheap ingredients and overprice our ice cream. We try to use the best ingredients we can find and price it fairly. We can offset that cost because my sister and I (and occasionally our cousin) are the only ones that work at Kansha. I’m always disappointed when I go to a chef-driven restaurant or even an ice cream shop and you can tell the person that created whatever you’re eating isn’t back there making it. So even though it’s a lot of work, I take pride in making every single batch of ice cream. So if it sucks, you know who to blame.
I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not, but we’re best known for running out of ice cream. We make our ice cream the night before, everyday. So once we run out, that’s it for the day. It’s kind of an old school Japanese small business thing to make a certain amount and just close when you run out. We do make the most we can, but with only the two of us working we couldn’t have an unlimited amount of ice cream and keep it at a standard we are happy with. Sometimes when you get whatever you want whenever you want, it doesn’t bring as much joy as getting something that you can’t get all the time. (We are glad to have understanding customers)
Elaine: I love that our shop became a part of the community. We feel very close to a lot of our customers and the neighbors that live behind our shop. There’s a lady that grows veggies in her garden and she drops them off to us every so often. Sometimes we would make ice cream out of the fruit that our customers grew in their garden and donate to us. Our furniture when we first opened were gifted to us from some people that lived in the neighborhood. It looked like an antique shop for a while because people kept giving us their old chairs and tables. We also started hosting local artists to put up their artwork in our store every month because people saw our empty walls and asked us if we needed some decor. We feel extremely grateful for everyone that helped make Kansha grow. We feel so loved.
What were you like growing up?
James: As a child, I was a mixed bag. Shy but confident, happy but had an anger problem. Just finding myself like everyone else. I enjoyed watching and helping my mother cook but my favorite past time was taking a nap as she would be cooking.
Elaine: I was bullied a bit when I was in grade school so I grew up to be sort of independent. I think my brother and I both knew what we liked and stuck with it since we were really young. My brother always loved food and cooking with my mom. I was more into music. I started playing in my elementary school orchestra and kept playing in different ensembles till college. I even met my husband in high school marching band lol. I played piano all my life but always hated to play in front of people. I like playing for myself.
Contact Info:
- Address: 18515 S Western Ave
Gardena, CA 90248 - Website: kanshacreamery.com
- Phone: 3109537110
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: instagram.com/kanshacreamery
- Facebook: facebook.com/kanshacreamery
- Yelp: yelp.com/biz/kansha-creamery-torrance
Image Credit:
Perpixel Photography
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