The Successful Donut: Practicality
Applying the kind of frugality found in a tong tine to the daily business of run- ning a donut shop also helped Cambodians succeed. Lonh asserted that shop owners constantly find ways to economize in their daily routines. For example, he told of his aunts’ uncanny talent for stretching dough to its limit, saying, “For one little batch, they can get a week’s worth of doughnuts.”53 In the doc- umentary Cambodian Doughnut Dreams, shop owner Leng Hing’s advertising budget allows for only a single rubber stamp, which she uses to manually apply her store’s name and address to every box of donuts. She expresses hope that this strategy will net new and repeat customers.54 Similar tactics, such as rely- ing on popular California donut varieties in order to ensure consistent reve- nue, helped bolster the success of other donut shop proprietors.
Another form of frugality manifested as a kind of resistance to change: Cambodian donut shop owners rarely changed their menus or remodeled their shops. Although this tactic had initial advantages, after more than thirty years in the business the ongoing refusal of donut shop owners to innovate may have hurt more than it has helped. As Sokhom complained:
They run the business in the sense that they don’t upgrade, they don’t really . . . the younger Cambodian may say, “OK, I’m going to rebuild, repaint, remodel,” but some doughnut shop I say the last fifteen years I’ve been in, it’s the same. Never get a drop of paint. Maybe a neon sign, but that’s about it.55
Cambodian Donut Shops
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In addition to occasionally putting up a neon sign, some donut shop owners were willing to diversify their coffee menus in order to compete with Starbucks and other specialty coffee purveyors.56 Though he appreciated this nod toward change, Sokhom noted that this might not always be the most practical choice:
They may add some coffee, some coffee machine, espresso. Those are expenses, some six, seven thousand dollar. You know, how many cup do you have to sell to recoup, right? You are selling not like Starbucks, but you buy a Starbucks machine, so not so smart. I mean, a regular . . . because people go there expect- ing a dollar a cup, not three dollars, so now you buy a machine that Starbucks sell for three, four dollar and you buy the same machine but you cannot sell three dollars, so how long does it take to recoup? And the people going there maybe not really conscious about . . . people that go to donut shop is the people who have about two dollar for breakfast . . . and not so picky.57
Here Sokhom is touching on the most important reason that donut entrepre- neurs favored practicality over innovation: it not only saves money; it helps build and maintain a large base of regular customers. According to shop own- ers, rather than through novelty, they retain these regulars by offering good customer service and consistently fresh, high-quality donuts.58