(MANTECA, CA.) - Meet Gloria, the woman who went from selling food and beverages out the back of an SUV to becoming the founder of Ambition In A Cup, the bright pink Hello Kitty-themed pop-up shop bringing a colorful and tasty twist to Manteca’s local food scene.
Photo Credit: OpGov.News
OpGov.News recently had the opportunity to speak with Gloria, who shared her personal journey about how her small business is brewing up big changes. Originally from San Jose, Gloria moved to Manteca at a time when she owned her own cleaning business.
However, after COVID-19 took over, the cleaning business was never the same, so she decided to pivot and began selling food and beverages in a Home Depot parking lot. “I decided to start this about a year ago, and I started in the back of my SUV,” she said. “ I had my breakfast burritos, chorizo egg potato burritos, iced coffees, energy drinks, and I had a couple of dirty sodas.”
With a growing number of customers who loved her burritos and drinks, the empty parking lot began to fill up. Within just a couple of hours, Gloria would make somewhere between $250 to $300, she explained.
Before long, Home Depot management told Gloria that she’d have to move the cooking and brewing elsewhere, and she did just that with no more than just a small table in the beginning.
“I started off with something smaller than this; just a little table. I didn’t have a canopy yet [and it] was scorching hot, so I was out there in the heat, and it started from there, and it just went crazy,” she expressed.
Photo Credit: OpGov.News
As business began to boom, Gloria cheerfully explained to OpGov.News as to how Hello Kitty joined the journey along the way. “I got the idea of ‘I love pink, I love Hello Kitty, I love anything pink’ and everybody was just drawn to it, and it just blew up from there,” she said.
During the hour we spent with Gloria, multiple customers began to arrive. While customers interacted, OpGov.News got a behind-the-scenes view of what goes on behind the counter when Gloria is in action. As Gloria quickly crafted various beverages, she passed the time with friendly conversation, mostly with recurring customers.
One customer thanked Gloria for catering for her daughter’s birthday party. Other customers, who were initially just curious onlookers passing by, eventually came to the stand and were welcomed with various choices of drinks.
Each customer who purchased a drink was presented with a binder of colorful stickers with silly phrases that they could stick on their cup to customize it. As Gloria continued speaking to OpGov.News, she emphasized the hurdles and struggles she’s had to overcome within the past year.
Photo Credit: OpGov.News
She specifically mentioned how she was striving to get her health license at a time when the Mayor of Manteca, Gary Singh, was enforcing street vending regulations for local street vendors.
“Gary Singh did say he wanted to start cracking down on street vendors. He wanted to do that around January, and sure enough, by like April, May, they started kind of like coming around; kind of harassing,” she said.
The reason she didn’t have her health permit yet points to an issue many small local vendors face. “The reason why I didn’t have my health permit was because it’s super expensive,” She continued, “They want you to pay a commissary kitchen monthly, and that can be anywhere from $350 to $650 and $700 per month. That’s a lot of money.”
Gloria told OpGov.News that she was out of work for an entire month due to not having a health permit, leaving her behind on rent and bills. Fortunately, she eventually received one and expressed during the conversation that she plans to express her concerns to the mayor in a city council meeting.
With this sentiment, Gloria left a final word of encouragement and uplifting advice for others like her who strive to one day open their own business: “My advice is to keep going. Do not let obstacles get in your way. It doesn’t matter what it is. Because God will be by your side the entire way. It took me a whole year to be 100% complete, so just little by little, keep going.”
Photo Credit: Instagram / ambition.in.a.cup
The entrepreneur emphasized key elements of promoting oneself and advertising. With this, she also highlighted the importance of being unique and maintaining originality. “Do not be the average coffee shop. Whatever you want to do for your little business, do it,” she said.
Towards the end of the conversation, Gloria spoke about her primary motivation for why she does what she does, which is for her daughter. “She’s a basketball girl; she’s amazing. Me having my own business rather than working for a company, where I have to ask ‘Can I go to my daughter's game? Can I leave early?’ I work around her schedule.”
Her daughter plans on taking her career all the way to the W.N.B.A. (Women's National Basketball Association) someday. It is for this reason she told OpGov.News, "That's the reason why I do what I do.”
Gloria hopes Ambition In a Cup will one day be its own brick-and-mortar shop location. Until then, she is committed to growing her small business one customer at a time.
She's established a GoFundMe where many have already helped support her and her business financially. You can also follow Gloria on Instagram under her handle ambition.in.a.cup where many are already taking part in her journey to make Manteca’s community just that much sweeter.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to email me at yikaileau.w@lead4earth.org
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