Reyes Coca-Cola & Monster Energy

would like to congratulate Super King on celebrating their 30th year of excellence and for being a staple in the community!

For the first three years, they just had one cashier, one butcher and one produce helper to help run the store alongside the family. She said her husband worked almost 24/7. She was able to drop the kids after school with her mother and then return to the store. “When I think about it, I was so blessed with health that God gave that I was able to do it all.”

Mary Fermanian has always handled the company’s finances but now has general managers and a VP of finance to help out. “Thank God, we never had any problems all these years, even with recessions. I have controlled the cash flow, the financials,” she said.

She shared her pride in her children. Shant, the youngest, also worked at the company as a buyer but decided to pursue law school. He is an attorney with his own firm.

“But then he chose to pursue his goal, which is being an attorney,” she said. “He went to law school, and he was continuously at the school at that time. He graduated, and he is a successful lawyer now.”

Jake, the older son, is “a huge contributor to Super King’s growth and success.”

“If we go back to 30 years, we were just a mom and pop store,” she said. “But then his thinking, his innovation of technology and inserting that in our company business, with all the competition, challenges and identifying the business opportunities and putting Super King in a different spotlight – he was the reason for it.”

Mary Fermanian said they have overcome many challenges in establishing and growing Super King Markets.

“When you start thinking and have big goals…all the challenges in 30 years brought us here. We catered internationally; it was our goal. We kept with the innovations, with the technology system, with the vendor relations and employee labor challenges and growing together as a team.”

Partnership with Fermanian family appreciated

“We appreciate the strong partnership Barilla has had with the Fermanian family and the Super King team and look forward to many more years of working together to serve the community. On behalf of the Barilla team, we congratulate Super King and all of its employees on 30 years of delighting consumers across the communities that you serve.”

– Michael Ajemian, director of sales, Barilla America

Produce is driver, ‘the heart’ when it comes to stores

At Super King Markets, produce is king. Eddie Avila, director of produce, joined the company in 2017, with more than 30 years of industry experience.

Avila, who had worked for Albertsons in Southern California for 32 years, said he didn’t realize what a produce buyer was until he got into the independent grocer arena.

“When I was working for Albertsons, our job was to fulfill the orders…now, working for Super King Market, it really opens your eyes and teaches you how to buy,” he explained. “You’re going out there and you’re looking for quality, value and cost. You want to get the right cost so that you can pass it on to your customers.”

That has been the main difference. Avila said at his previous job he didn’t consider himself a buyer because he was just fulfilling orders, no matter the cost.

“Here, it’s very important to me – and it’s important to my numbers and it’s important to my customers – that I find the right product at the right price and the right quality…that’s the biggest difference that I noticed in the 30-some years that I’ve been doing this. When I came to Super King, I learned how to buy.”

The volume of produce also has been different. Avila said three of Super King’s eight stores get two-and-a-half to three trucks of produce a day. The other locations get two. “And these are full trucks of produce…it’s a big difference in volume. We just move tonnage.”

Avila has three buyers on his team. He said Super King is one of the only retailers to go in and walk the Los Angeles produce market every day. “That’s to keep the pulse, to find out exactly what’s going on. And it’s a big benefit to us.”

He credits the Fermanian family, owners of Super King, with finding a great warehouse location across the street from the L.A. market. “We know what’s happening every day, on every commodity.”

The produce departments in the Super King stores are popular with customers, especially when their favorite items are on sale. Avila cited jackfruit as an example.

“Jackfruit is something that’s been around for many, many years but is not known by many people,” he said. “When I came to Super King, it was something that wasn’t really ever pushed. Jackfruit is an Asian fruit that Asians love. They go in and they’ll buy as much as they can get their hands on when they find a great price.”

One Super King location has a large Asian clientele. “We put the jackfruit at three pounds for 99 [cents], and we had customers fighting – literally, yelling at each other – because it was their jackfruit…they couldn’t get their arms around enough.”

From page 26

Avila said the store ended up selling 10-15 pallets of jackfruit a day in that store, “which was unheard of.” Persian cucumbers are another popular item at Super King.

“They’ve been pushing Persian cucumbers here in this company forever,” he said. “In a typical retailer, the No. 1 item is banana, and then you go to a Roma tomato or some type of tomato for No. 2. Here in our company, it’s Persian [cucumbers].

“When we put them [in our] ad, customers will push each other, and you hear five or six different languages at the table…sometimes we have to separate them.”

According to Avila, those anecdotes show that customers are paying attention to the Super King ads and to the quality and price of the produce. “They like what we’re doing for the consumer.”

Please see page 30

From page 28

Avila praised the Fermanian family for knowing that produce is the driver. “We see it in the sales,” he said. “Produce is the driver when it comes to Super King. It’s the heart, it’s what keeps the company going.”

He went on to describe Super King’s produce departments as “massive,” adding that its competitors have “nothing in comparison to what we have.” Walking into the newer stores, the first thing customers encounter is the produce department.

“We have big departments, and we still try to do what we can outside with a farmers market look to entice [customers],” he said. “It is a unique concept and very, very different than what everybody else is doing.”

To deal with such a large volume, Avila said produce is ordered in advance to be “ahead of the game.”

“You order Monday for a Wednesday ad. You don’t order Tuesday for a Wednesday ad,” he explained. “All of our suppliers are getting used to knowing that we’re going to break an ad on a Wednesday, but I’m going to expect the produce in the warehouse on Monday.

“It’s just to be prepared, because a lot of our suppliers are hesitant now to give us ad pricing because we move so much volume.”

As opposed to some grocers that order one truckload, Super King is asking for three to five. “We’re running Roma tomatoes on ad this week, and I’m bringing in five truckloads. That’s almost a truckload a store, if you start looking at it. You have to be prepared.”

Avila said the other buyers on his team came into the department with little to no experience in produce.

Please see page 32

Visitor turned valet helped park customers’ cars

“After nearly 30 years in business, Super King has distinguished itself as a significant and diverse ethnic retailer in Southern California. It is a true family business success story and they continue to draw from their cultural diversity and attention to quality products at fair prices.

“The team is a pleasure to call on from corporate and store-level interaction, and I feel a true partnership with them. Super King stores feature an impressive array of multicultural products that reflect this cultural diversity, from Middle Eastern and Armenian foods to Hispanic, Asian and many other international groceries.

“My working relationship began with Super King in early 2021 during COVID-19. Supply issues were difficult, and trying to develop new business relationships while working remote proved challenging. However, I found that Super King’s level of engagement with their local communities also extended to its business vendors and wholesalers, and I was excited for the opportunity to work with them.

“Growing up in my family’s grocery business, I would often hear about different retailers and members of Certified Grocers (at the time) and ‘Super King’ or ‘King’s Market’ (as it was known back then) always came up in discussion. My family is of Chaldean descent (immigrating here in 1978), more commonly known as Iraqi-Christian.

“In San Diego, there is a large community of Chaldeans. Up until 2010, our traditional foods – spices, sweets, pita breads, Persian cucumbers, etc. – were hard to find. We didn’t have large-size Middle Eastern markets in San Diego, so it was very common for groups of Chaldean families to charter a bus to Super King’s Anaheim location to shop for these hard-to-find foods. My earliest memories of Super King were of the stories told at family gatherings about the most recent bus trip to Super King with their variety of Middle Eastern goods and low prices.

“I continue to be amazed at how busy Super King locations have become and the volume of groceries and produce they move. One of my most recent memorable experiences of working with Super King came during a visit to the Anaheim location for a store walk with Damian Valdez, VP of operations. It was Wednesday and the first day of the weekly ad. The parking lot had almost as much traffic as the I-5 freeway during rush hour. Cars were backed up to the shopping center’s entrance on Magnolia.

“Damian stood outside the store directing traffic for a few minutes to help ease the congestion, and he called me over. I thought he would ask me to help direct traffic with him. Instead, he asked me to help the customers by parking their cars for them. Yes, that day I worked valet for Super King.

“Damian and I laughed as he took a picture of me parking cars for customers. The most humorous part was customers’ willingness to leave me their cars so they could rush inside to make sure they were able to buy their portion of the Jackfruit that was on sale. Super King was truly in action for their community that day, and I was happy to be a part of it.

“Congratulations to Vache, Peter, the Fermanian Family, and the entire Super King team on celebrating 30 years of business. I wish you many more years of continued growth and success. Thank you for all of your contributions to the independent retail grocery industry.”

– Ivan Arabo, account manager for UNFI in Southern California

From page 30

“It was nice for me because I got to train these guys from not knowing anything, to learning what I’ve done for the last 30-some years,” he said. “And we’ve been able to maintain the volume and the commodities so that we don’t run short, and we have supply for our customers.”

The produce buying team meets every Monday morning with Peter, Vache and Jake Fermanian to discuss the upcoming ad and the previous week’s sales, Avila said. They talk about what’s coming up and what they need to do better. He said he also talks to the stores’ produce managers via conference call every other week to keep them involved and share information.

“Vache, Peter and Jake are very, very well involved. I talk to ownership every single day, three to four times a day,” he said.

As Avila noted, that communication is important. “Like we say, ‘As produce goes, so goes the company.’ We have to be right.”

Avila is married with two grown children, who are not in the business. It is a tough field, he said, adding that he gets up at 3 a.m. each day. “You either love it or you don’t. If you love it, you do it for 37 years that I’ve been doing it. If you don’t, you’re gone in a couple of years.”

Avila has found a successful career in produce. “I’ve been married 34 years this March,” he said. “I think my wife loves it that I love it.”