Mimi Song

But that’s how she describes her entry into the grocery world, which has led to her 42 years leading Hispanic grocery banner Superior Grocers.

After immigrating from Korea to Southern California in the late 1970s, Song had to find a job to help support her family. Her family had arrived in the U.S. with very little money, and Song knew she had to help.

“I was the eldest daughter in my family and knew I had to work even though I didn’t really speak any English or know how to get around in this big strange city,” Song says.

She began as a cashier at an Asian supermarket, her first exposure to the grocery business. Song realized she wanted to do more than cashier for minimum wage—which was about three dollars an hour at the time. After about a year, she left to start an office job in accounting. Not long thereafter, Song got a second job at a conventional supermarket in Los Angeles. Working both jobs, Monday through Sunday, Song’s schedule didn’t allow for days off.

“Since I was learning about the grocery business, I thought, I can try to do this on my own,” Song says. “People need to eat! I can get products, I can sell, I can make money. It was a simple, naive thought.”

As fate would have it, Song learned that Smith’s Food King was closing down one of its locations in Covina, California. She just happened to find out about it around the time she was looking for her next move.

“The Smith’s Food King store came along and they just let me take over,” she says. “They gave me their lease and some inventory. Since I had no money to pay, they came up with a 12-month payment plan. That’s the way I started.”

With that first location in Covina, Superior Grocers began in 1981. It was in a mostly Caucasian area, and Song quickly hired a manager to help run the store, especially since she was still learning English. She also recruited employees from other grocery stores and a nearby community college.

Song recalls that everything was new. The industry, products, cultures and customers. So she set out to learn everything she could from the bottom up, hiring meat and produce managers and others who could teach her along the way.

She also was an avid reader of the Los Angeles Times, which featured a food section every Thursday and extensive advertising from grocers. That’s how she learned more about how Americans consumed food and what occasions they celebrated.

“At that time it was one of the biggest resources for grocery store advertising,” Song says. “Every Thursday I’d open up the food section and I learned the grocery business from the Los Angeles Times food section.”

For example, reading the section in March and seeing the corresponding ads helped her learn about what grocers in the U.S. sold around Easter. In July, she recognized the products and specials for the Fourth of July—ribs, beer and watermelon. It was different from her experience growing up in Korea, where they only ate special food on the Full Moon Festival and New Year’s Day.

DEVELOPING THE CONCEPT & CULTURE

Song’s first location was a standard grocery format that catered to everyone, but when she opened her second store in 1982 in South Central Los Angeles, she recognized the need for a Hispanic grocer as the population grew.

Song recalls the various shops including Hispanic bakeries, tortillerias and more—but they were all small and separate. She thought that if she brought all those features together under one roof, it could make a great Hispanic warehouse concept.

As a Korean-American, Song knew the life of an immigrant intimately, and that’s what inspired her when she decided to focus her business on Hispanic culture.

“Because I am a first-generation immigrant, even if I am not a Latino, I have been able to learn and understand the people,” she says. “I understand their focus on budget each week, and their worry.”

She said the inner city community was in need of an affordable grocery store, so Superior Grocers tried to provide the lowest price with the best quality products to everybody, even as it focused on the Hispanic community. Song tried to minimize labor at the store so better prices could be passed along to the customer.

The slogan for Superior Grocers at the time became, “U-Bag, U-Save.” Since then, each Superior Grocers location has followed a similar model and catered to the Latino community.

Song spent time traveling to Mexico. She visited Tijuana, Ensenada and other cities to learn about Hispanic eating habits, lifestyle and culture. Sharing the background as an immigrant helped her understand the community, and it was one she admired.

One of her favorite parts of the culture was that Latinos loved to gather with family to celebrate —something that Song said is a shared value among immigrant communities. With limited income, the best way for families to stretch a budget is to get together with family, have a party or a barbecue and celebrate birthdays and other special occasions, she explained.

“Family gatherings are really important. I love how the Hispanic culture values family and getting together almost every weekend,” she says, “I can relate to this as it is very similar to my own culture.”

Because of that, Superior Grocers saw a huge draw to its bakery department, with its cakes becoming especially popular. People also loved the store’s fresh meats, fresh tortilla chips and produce. The banner continued to find success in its communities.

Finding A Passion For The Business

Truth be told, Song wasn’t a huge fan of the grocery business for at least 10 to 15 years, even as her business was growing.

“I worked long hours seven days a week, and that was in my twenties and thirties,” Song says. “It was not easy for a young girl to work so much. I never got to do the fun things you want to do when you’re young.”

But while those early years were a challenge, Song said she just stayed focused on her new job.

“When you don’t have a choice, you just do it,” she says. “So you just stay there and you open one store, two stores. Ten years passed, and then I got another three stores.”

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Song’s constant dedication to hard work has remained through the present day. Rich Wardwell, president and CEO of Superior Grocers, has worked with Song for the past eight years. And while he’s worked with his share of hard-working business owners, he said Song works harder than anyone he’s ever known in an ownership role.

“She is always pushing me, she’s always challenging me and she’s always ahead of me—which is something that I find both annoying and rewarding,” Wardwell says with a chuckle.

Beyond the friendly competition, Wardwell notes that Song also cares deeply about her business and her employees—something people don’t always see from the outside. In addition to investing time in Wardwell and giving him room to make mistakes and learn, Song is thoughtful about how employees are treated in each and every store.

“My sister gave me encouragement every day and we’ve worked together for many years. She’s one of my best friends, my best business partner, and without her, I couldn’t have been able to stay in the business this long.”

Now she enjoys the business more than ever, and says she is still trying to open more stores.

CGA President & CEO Ron Fong speaks fondly of Song, whom he’s known for many years.

“Her story just puts a smile on my face because it’s similar to my family’s story,” he says, sharing that his family also started a small grocery business where the entire family worked seven days a week. “Mimi started from those humble beginnings as well.”

Fong says it’s especially unique and special to have a female executive of Asian descent be the top leader in one of the top grocery chains.

“That’s unusual in the grocery business,” he says. “That all goes to Mimi’s drive, her perseverance, her way of doing business, the fierceness in her demeanor,” he says.

Standout Memories

In running a grocery business for four decades, Song has seen a lot happen in the communities she serves. One experience that is burned in her memory is witnessing the civil unrest that occurred in Los Angeles, California in 1992.

Wardwell recalls walking locations with Song and seeing her check out the restrooms and break rooms in every store to make sure they’re suitable for employees. In one instance following an acquisition, Wardwell said Song called him to voice her concerns over the lack of proper space for employees to sit or rest in the building.

“She cares about the people, and they know it,” he says. “She’s just special.”

Song notes that she has thousands of people to thank who influenced her journey to owning 70 grocery stores. The most important, perhaps, is her sister, Marie Song. Marie worked with Song for several years in the business.

“It was difficult to see how the Los Angeles community was impacted by violence and looting, but I was also impressed to see how the same community came together and supported each other”, she says, “We were able to stay open and serve our community during this difficult time.”

And of course, the Covid-19 pandemic stands out as a defining experience in her career. Song said she’s grateful her stores had the opportunity to serve the community with food, especially in the last two to three years.

“Superior did a great job, and I’ve never been prouder to be a grocer.”

Through these experiences and more, Song recognized that the grocery business remained a staple in people’s lives and continued to serve communities, despite what was happening outside the doors.

A Second Career In Giving Back

As Song reaches the latter part of her career, she’s recognized her passion to give back, specifically to local schools and children with special needs. Her heart for this cause began with a single visit about 20 years ago.

“I had an opportunity to visit one of the elementary schools in the city of Lynwood,” Song said. “When I went there, I saw many opportunities where I could help. Budget cuts had impacted local schools and one of the first programs affected was the arts.”

Song recalls that when she attended public school in Korea in the 1970s, despite the fact that the country was developing, its education system and the buildings within it were strong. In Korea she had mandatory arts classes every week.

The experience inspired her to launch The Superior Foundation, which began with a golf tournament to raise money for visual and performing arts, computers and more for inner city schools. Song works hard through the foundation to supply schools with musical instruments, art supplies and other items needed to teach students about art and culture.

“I really believe art is an international language, and gives more emotional intelligence,” she says.

In addition to supporting the arts, Song is particularly passionate about helping children who have special needs or are coming from low-income households. If she can help them from feeling isolated from other children, she hopes their lives can be a little bit better.

“I hope I can do more when I retire,” Song says. “That will be my second career.” ■