TURLOCK, Calif. — A little mom-and-pop store that's been serving its community for nearly 70 years is shutting its doors.
National Market in Turlock opened as an immigrant's dream for a better life. In accomplishing that mission, it brought about its own end. Don Ow has been running National Market since his dad died a decade ago. The little grocery store is locally famous for its meat counter.
“It's really kept us in business the last, probably, 10,15 years,” Ow told ABC10 on Wednesday. "We have something that we can offer that the big stores can't. We have the personalized service.”
Plus, he added, “everything that we make goes back into our community. The big guys can’t say they do that.”
Ow’s grandparents emigrated from China and eventually settled in Turlock, where they opened the grocery store in 1951. Ow’s dad, Jing, was a teenager, so Ow literally grew up in the National Market building.
“Yeah, since day one, working,” Ow recalled.
Ow is now 59 years old. He and his wife Debbie are at the store all day, every day.
“Seven days a week,” Ow said. “We open up at 9 a.m. We close at 7 p.m. now. Used to close at 8 p.m.”
His 85-year-old mom, Virginia, also still works at the store. Ow calls her “one of the draws here” for generations of National Market customers.
“If we let her do what she wanted, she’d work here at least eight hours a day,” Ow said, “but we kind of make her come a little later and make her take a little rest in the afternoon.”
After spending so much of his life working in – and then running – the store, Ow said it’s time for him and Debbie to be done.
"I remember my dad telling me when we first started, after we got married and started working here, he goes, 'You know, you only have to work half-days,'” Ow recalled with a smile on his face. “I go, 'You know, that's great!’”
His dad, however, meant, “'8 to 8, seven days a week,'” Ow said. “So yeah, the ‘half-days’ were 12 hours!"
That hard work put him and his three siblings through college, then Ow's and Debbie's four kids through school.
"My grandfather came here with nothing and, you know, what we've got out of this has been great,” Ow said. “It really is the American dream."
It’s a dream that worked. It led to successful careers for his four daughters. It’s also a dream that led to the store’s end.
"My kids have no interest in working here and putting the hours in,” he explained.
Business is a numbers game, but Ow says the most important number now is five: the fifth generation of the Ow family in the US, to be more exact.
"My wife and I, we want to enjoy our new grandchild," he said.
Two months ago, Ow and his wife became first-time grandparents, meaning closing the store will give them more time with their grandson.
As news of National Market’s impending closure has started to spread, generations of customers are coming to say goodbye.
"How you doing? What are you going to do?" one customer asked Ow at the store Wednesday evening. "You're not going to sell meat no more?"
"No, I'm going to give it up,” Ow replied. “We're kind of retiring. Slowing down a little bit."
Turlock has other grocery stores nearby but nothing quite like this.
"We're kind of like the last mom-'n'-pop store. Everything else is either an ethnic store or big chain," Ow explained. “To support a store like this for all these years, that says something for the community."
To that community, Don and his family say— thank you.
"Thank you for all the years of support. It's really made a big impact on our family,” he said. “It’s supported us, it’s educated us, it’s given us everything we’ve ever wanted.”
Ow and his wife plan on taking some vacation after closing the store around August 10. They say they’ll stay in Turlock, where Ow plans to continue to work – elsewhere – for several more years. He already has some offers, he said.
“Looking forward to it,” Ow said. “Next chapter.”
The family hopes someone will buy National Market and continue operating it as a locally-owned grocery store for the community.
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