Matriarch keeps finances –

and so much more – on track

Although her official title with Super King Markets is CFO, Mary Fermanian has done a bit of everything since the company’s start. She and her husband, Peter, along with his brother, Vache, built the business from its original Anaheim location to eight stores in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

She and Peter met through their families in Beirut, Lebanon. They became engaged and were married within six months. She was 22, he was 27.

They left Lebanon due to war and moved to Abu Dhabi, where Peter had found work as an air conditioning technician. Their son Jake was born there. The young family decided to move to the United States to join their families, and soon welcomed another son, Shant.

They settled in Southern California, where Peter continued his work as an A/C technician. The couple shopped each week in Middle Eastern stores and “saw that having a food business is very fascinating.”

Mary Fermanian said her husband noted that “food has no recession” and that even people at war need food. So they decided to get into the food business.

While she had not worked outside the home before, Mary Fermanian became a grocery buyer and drove the trucks while her husband bought produce. She also continued taking care of their two young children, taking them to school, picking them up and attending ball games.

“I never missed a basketball game. I never missed a bank deposit. I never missed an order for my store,” she said. “I put [everything] on the shelves, all the grocery. I do the schematics…I take care of my customers on my registers. At night, I go prepare my deposit for the next day.”

She made sure everyone – employees and vendors –were paid. For the first 10 years they were in business, Mary Fermanian said she got up at 4 a.m. each day and went to bed at 1 a.m., when her husband would go to the produce market. “Our challenge was a daily challenge,” she said.